Dates: Wednesday 23 May to Wednesday 1 August (10 weeks) House sitter is invited to overlap with us for one or two days
Who we are
We are Anna and Tim, recently retired teachers in our early sixties. As we love travel, and our children have all left home, we are looking for a trustworthy and reliable house and cat sitter while we visit family, and see some sights, in Europe and the UK. We have done two extended house swaps in the past.
The house
The house is a late 1940’s brick house, on a suburban block minutes by bus from the centre of Hobart. Buses run frequently (at least every half hour in the day). Taroona is a lovely, leafy suburb, overlooking the Derwent River. Our house has some water views between rooftops and trees. There is nearby access to the Derwent foreshore and many lovely foreshore, beach, cliff and bush walks within easy walking distance. Taroona has a bakery/café, restaurant/bar, bowls club, tennis club, doctor’s surgery and schools.
The house is very comfortable, well furnished and carpeted, but old-fashioned by today’s trends (we like it this way!). It has three spacious living rooms - a lounge, dining room and large sunroom. The 1950s kitchen is light and sunny, with the original built-in eating area and cupboards, but all the equipment and appliances (Fisher and Paykel fridge/freezer, split level electric stove, Panasonic microwave etc.) are relatively new. There is no dishwasher. There are three bedrooms with comfortable beds, a laundry with front loading Bosch washing machine, a large, ‘retro’ bathroom with bath, basin and shower and a separate toilet. Heating is primarily from a slow combustion wood heater (there is plenty of chopped and stacked wood), but there are also electric wall panel heaters. The lounge has an open fireplace, as well as a wall panel heater. There are lots of bookshelves containing hundreds of books. The TV in the lounge is attached to a HD/DVD recorder, and there is a stereo with records, tapes and CDs. The sunroom also contains a TV. The house has Wi-Fi broadband Internet.
The garden
A large sunny deck leads to a garden with a vegetable patch, grass and shrubs. The garden will not need much maintenance at this time of year, though there will be vegetables growing: the house sitter may wish to eat them, and keep the supply going if they want homegrown veggies.
The pets
There are two affectionate cats (12 years old) who sleep a good deal of the time. They will need feeding twice a day and appreciate a friendly lap to sit on and some attention in the evening. Cat food will be provided. They have a cat flap to the garden, to come and go as they please.
Further information
As we have done for past house swaps, we will leave an A-Z of the house, which contains a good deal more information including who to contact in an emergency - family members and friends who live nearby.
Arrangements
We will negotiate an Agreement with the house sitter(s) and require a police check and/or satisfactory references, as well as a photocopy of some form of photo identification, such as a passport.