Back to normal?

Certainly back to house sitting for some of us

Collaborative article

As lockdown's have eased, it's been encouraging to see house sits reappear on the house sitting platforms, albeit with less regularity than before, and also with less certainty of actually taking place.

But that aside, sits in July have been available and many of us have been relieved to get back to our regular "job" of house sitting and taking care of pets.

There is no "back to normal", not yet, as continued local lockdowns and increased infection rates scupper travel plans around the world. House sitters are discovering a whole new meaning to the words "flexible" and "adaptable", as one house sit falls away, but is often quickly replaced by another.

We've been aware that there's more safety in booking local sits where people aren't leaving the country, but instead are staycationing in their home country this summer. We've also notice that sits aren't being listed as far ahead as in pre-Covid days. People are advertising sits often not more than a month ahead as they wait to see what new travel restrictions come into play.

But we have to remain positive, and that together with our new level of flexibility, a Plan B to deal with cancellations and a backup fund for emergencies, has led us quickly back into our house sitting lifestyle… at least for the moment!

Here are the stories of four other house sitters who have also either returned to house sitting this month, or are still contemplating doing so in the near future!

KATE LANCASTER

Hope, masks and handwash

See Kate and Mike's profile at HouseSittersUK.co.uk

Well, it's been an interesting few months…from a happy house sit on the Cornish borders to panic as all of our sits for a year fell in less than a week. The possibility of several months in a tent morphed into an Airbnb, an empty holiday apartment and now, in July, our first post lockdown house sit, up in beautiful Wales.

In common with most full time sitters we have spent the last few months desperately trying to cling to any certainties in an uncertain world. Although we knew we wanted to continue sitting, we also wanted to do so responsibly, both to protect ourselves and everyone else we might come into contact with.

For us, that meant risk assessing the point at which we felt we could sit fairly safely (with social distancing, face masks and hand sanitiser at the ready), without risking potentially being an unknowing vector for Covid, given many people are symptomless.

We currently sit exclusively within the UK and since we gave up our rented home at the beginning of 2019 to go full time, we have always travelled between sits using public transport – quite an experience with anything up to eight bags and suitcases between us! However, once lockdown eased and we went on a bus and train for the first time in almost three months, we realised very quickly this would no longer be an option.

Social distancing on public transport has dramatically reduced the amount of space available, and we didn't feel it would be helpful to take up all the space with our luggage, not to mention the fact we would be more at risk if we were travelling regularly.

This led us on to the biggest Covid-related decision we have made – to buy a car. Cue massive amounts of excitement, quite a lot of trepidation and a whole load of research. We have a very small budget to get by on, so this was a real leap in the dark for us, but our elderly Volkswagen Passat is already making a massive difference to our house sitting experience. It's a revelation to be able to travel with a few kitchen implements and crafting materials (not to mention Kate's knitting Afghan loom).

Given Covid has by no means gone away, and there is a very real possibility of local lockdowns, flexibility is going to be all important and having a car has also given us the opportunity to try for sits that were previously out of reach due to their remote location.

We're working on the assumption that lockdowns are going to be more likely in densely populated Cities, so we are now trying to take opportunities in small towns and villages, as they may have a greater chance of going ahead.

We thought our return to house sitting would feel odd after everything that has happened in the last few months, but actually it was simply lovely to get back to a familiar routine and particularly back to looking after pets, which we have both missed desperately during lockdown.

We know that sits will be less certain, and Covid related measures will be in place for the foreseeable future. However, with good communication and a bit of extra planning, it feels as though things are starting to settle down and we can move forward once more.

Here's to new adventures!

FAITH COATES

Back on the road soon - Donegal to France

Follow Faith at XYUandBeyond.com

We had just returned from a week break in Krakow when Covid hit Ireland and we were instantly in lockdown. Fortunately, for us we had rented a place temporarily in Donegal so I could have surgery for my cataracts. Our temporary move has now stretched beyond a year and we are getting a little stir crazy.

Unable to housesit since the summer of last year when we managed back-to-back sits in Oxford and Warwickshire, we planned a few weekends away for 2020 but we've been locked down since mid March and for most of that time we were unable to travel more than 5 kms from our house. Fortunately, here in Donegal nobody paid attention to that because most of us live well over 5 kms from the nearest shops.

It was a strange lonely feeling travelling streets and lanes where once tourists tromped mercilessly onward to their next bucket list site. It's usually pretty quiet here in rural Donegal, except for traffic and tractor noise. Traffic had disappeared and it wasn't yet tractor season, so the silence allowed us to hear woodpeckers, crakes and pheasants, and the mewling of lambs and calves in the fields. We could even hear the donkeys bellowing a few miles down the road.

Feeling as if we have been in one spot too long became overwhelming though. It's not as if we don't love Ireland, it's just the staying in one specific place for over a year that has become somehow irritating. If we can keep moving, even for the short term, at least we are moving and not stagnant. So we started planning for house sits later in the year.

We had decided on house sitting in the UK, France, Italy, or Spain and kept a close eye on the news as to what was taking place in these countries. France won out with its lifting of borders and slowly moving back into some semblance of normalcy.

There were many sits coming available in Brittany and other heavy expat areas of France. So, I put some feelers out on a few Facebook groups for expats in France and was quickly asked to take on three sits.

Starting in September we are on our way to France for a minimum of 5 months and we'll leave the rest to the wind and chance.

We are travelling by car and ferry so for the most part we will be self-contained and careful to wear our masks when in public. We have booked a cabin on the ferry so we can maintain social distancing and the ferries seem to be organized with respect to on-boarding and departing all colour coded to maintain social distances.

I have to admit we are getting a trifle impatient to get moving. As usual when you settle for any length of time stuff tends to start piling up around you and you are not as minimalist as you hope to be. So we are in the process of de-stuffing again before we head out on what we consider our road to freedom.

JENNI & HENRY FLETT

Going back to Europe

Follow Jenni & Henry at HooplaAdventures.com

As we tentatively step onto an empty train to make the journey across central London, we have a pang of guilt. Was this the right time to travel so far?

Last year we booked a summer in Bulgaria as part of a pre-Brexit European tour and like everyone, our plans were cancelled, and we were effectively homeless. Fortunately, family could take us in. Although, after three months of learning to coexist in perfect harmony, we knew we had to move on or risk an extremely tense Christmas dinner at the end of the year.

Then we get a call from the homeowner who asks us if the borders open, could we still do the sit?

It would involve two weeks of quarantine, but it would give us back our summer and some sanity. The minute the announcement comes through that UK nationals can travel to Bulgaria, we book our flights.

Getting to London's Luton Airport is the biggest concern. Once we get to Sofia, we are to be picked up by our homeowner in her car and go into quarantine together for two weeks. We go from Didcot to London, make our connections via tube and train and arrive to Luton. It's early morning and the city is desolate. There are only a few people on each of our transport and the screens at the airport list only 6 flights due to leave that day.

Then we get to the queue for the flight. It's jam-packed.

A saving grace is that we do have our own row, and we're all wearing masks with bottles of antibacterial hand gel at the ready. However, that flies out the window when the plane lands. Everybody immediately stands up and squish together in the aisle waiting to disembark. We decide to stay put and wait for everyone to get off before we tackle the border checks.

There is a bit of confusion at the border as to whether we're just passing through, but they let us in, take our quarantine details and do a temperature check. An hour later we're sitting in our new temporary home on the outskirts of Sofia.

Now we're here we know it was the best decision for us in our circumstances.

Cautiously we still only leave the house one day a week to explore, do normal touristy things and get our food shop. Honestly, it feels no different than usual. We still work online, we look after a menagerie of animals, and it's a busy sit with a huge garden to care for.

Part of the allure of this sit was that it's a little remote and it's a veritable Garden of Eden, and there are all kinds of animals including chickens, cats, dogs, and birds. That seems like a dangerous combination, but they all get on, even if they do try to infiltrate each other's food bowls! We knew we could easily spend all our time here and over the three months do little bits of travel here and there.

We know it's not for everyone to jump back into house sitting, but our situation felt right because it is such a long sit. We spend our days working, doing the household tasks, feeding, cleaning, and trying our best at learning Bulgarian. We chat to the neighbour over the fence and do little DIY projects around the house.

If we've made one decision, it's to invest in a house to rent while we travel. If this happens again, we need to be better prepared and maybe we can offer our family and friends the same safety net they were able to give us.

As for afterwards, we still have at least one booking nearby so we have some semblance of the life we had built pre-pandemic. We know how lucky we are this could still happen, but we also know if the situation turns again, we might have to dip into savings to settle down for a bit. It's uncertain so we try to carry on and hope that we're doing the right thing!

DOUG DYER

From globetrotter to basement dweller

Follow Doug and Johanne at JoyfulTravellers.com

The other day I was trying to find words to convey to a friend what it feels like to go from world globe trotter to basement dweller in just a few short months. Like a ship without a rudder I was feeling adrift and without steerage. My friend nailed it when she said "I had lost my purpose".

Exactly, I am out in the world without purpose, adrift. That brought up a very interesting point that I hadn't really internalized before. Over the past four years, house and pet sitting has indeed been my purpose and a noble one at that.

I have always savoured that sense of fulfilment that comes when a homeowner shows their gratitude for the care that you have given their home and pets. It was like a bonus to me but maybe, subliminally, it is much more than that. It is the expression of my purpose. A job well done!

The last four years have been an absolute blast. Johanne and I, have traveled the globe living in places we could not have dreamed of. We have cared for restored mansions in Mexico, alpaca farms in New Zealand, and organic coco estate in Panama. We have lived remotely on gorgeous Caribbean Islands and on breathtaking beaches in Ecuador. For the most part, our house-sit gigs have been booked back-to-back with a few days of adventure travel thrown in for good measure.

But of all the amazing homes and properties that Johanne and I have experienced, we sit here in the basement feeling at a loss for all of the beautiful animals that we have cared for. So that again affirms that house-sitting truly is a purpose for us. A menagerie of over eighty dogs, sixty cats, donkeys, sheep, cattle, various fowl and turtles have benefited from our love and attention while their owners enjoyed a carefree vacation. Pretty good eh?

Before the news of a global shut-down engulfed us, we were looking forward to twelve more months of fully booked sits. Eight fabulous back-to-back sits began to unravel, we went from Plan B to Plan C, D, and then E. By now we are on Plan K or something like that. Johanne is spending almost as much time working on airfare cancellations and refunds as she did in organizing it all in the first place.

Like many of you, we are truly nomadic in that we have no home to go back to. The uncertainty that arises from being homeless in these times could easily keep a person lying awake at night.

However, another dear friend and house sitter (house sitters have the best wisdom) shared a paradigm shift that has really helped. She told us that "uncertainty" is easier to manage if you exchange it for the word "wonder". I love that bit of wisdom and have tried to incorporate it into our vocabulary. So rather than fretting about the uncertainty that comes with closed borders and cancelled flights we prefer to just be in wonder of where we will end up.

We hope to have at least another four more years with house-sitting as our main purpose but for now, we can only "wonder" what that might look like!!