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Anyone had a House Sitter ?
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Member Posts: 69,539 ✭✭✭✭
Good , Bad, Ugly? and for how long ?
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Yes, we have had one while we were on a trip to Texas visiting my parents for a couple of weeks.
I would say she was "good" in that the house was pretty much the way we left it, when we returned. Plus she is my wife's niece so I suppose I might be a little bit biased.
She is not ugly. In fact she has been in the movies and on "The Sopranos".
Yes, for a week. Trust is a must. This lady had references and kind of known her from some casual meetings. Worked out well and my Silver Box Jennings was still there where I left it. Costs depends on what you want done.
Whenever we leave during the winter I hang a large thermometer visible through a window from the driveway. My neighbor can check the temp and know if the furnace is still working without coming in the house.
We also shut off the well, drain the pressure tank pressure, and shut the water heater off.
They make an electrical plug adapter that turns on a lamp when the temperature drops. That way a neighbor would also know if the inside temp drops a night.
I never leave home. Just sitting here in the dark with "whompen boomer" beside me.
We have an alarm and I can read the thermostat over the Internet from my phone.
We had a house sitter for a week while we went to the beach. We had 2 dogs that needed to be attended to. We knew the gal that we hired.
When we got back she was smiling and friendly, and the house and the dogs seemed to be in fine shape. We had been back for several days and I noticed that the toaster had been moved. I moved it back, and behind the toaster an entire ceramic tile was missing! Our kitchen has a ceramic tile countertop and back splash. One of the 4x4 inch tiles of the back splash was gone.
This tile work had just been installed 3 years earlier and we had gotten a real pro to do the job. That tile didn't just fall out.
The tile was beneath the cabinets and I was really scratching my head to figure out how it got destroyed. Our nice house sitter must have been having a wild party and somebody threw a wine bottle at somebody and missed the person and hit the tile and shattered it. Then, our nice house sitter had carefully picked out all the pieces and threw them away, and threw them away good there were no tile pieces in the garbage. Then she hid the damage behind the toaster and she didn't say a word to us about it.
Your mileage may vary.
Not a house sitter story but about having ceramic tile counter tops. I really liked the looks of them when we bought our place several years ago. One day I found myself at a loss for that big "what's for dinner" question. I checked out the fridges freezer and took a stack of those frozen burger patties out with intensions of just giving the stack a couple whacks to separate a couple to cook up.
The counter top tile cracked all the way across with just the first tap of those rock solid patties!! After a couple more years and a few other happenings there are now at least a half dozen similar cracked tiles on our counter. For now, I just see these things as a bit of added character to the kitchen. Maybe someday I will spring for new tops but they will not be ceramic tiles.
Sorry to take this post off topic.
So not what you asked-
but I do use the “home exchange” app.
Being in Orlando ppl want to come see the mouse.
I will just say this is a legit service and we have had ppl stay several times while my family was away.
In exchange- I earn points, that can be used to stay at someone else’s home down the road.
Brookwood my girlfriend is a fanatic for ceramic tile kitchen counter tops. She usually has pretty good advice on house work.
So I have installed ceramic tile on two houses that I have built, and in two rental houses that she owns. And if I had to do it over again I would never use ceramic tile. Like you said, they can and will crack.