Sarah & Jon
Sarah & Jon
Practical, organised, quiet couple in their 40s seek assignments in between travelling in small motorhome
About Sarah & Jon
We are a responsible, non-smoking, engineer and a cook who have let their own UK home to tenants to go off round the Americas in a bright yellow camper. We are low impact, practical people who are used to a simple life of travel, the outdoors and books. We will look after your home and your pets as if they were our own. We can possibly even keep...
We are a responsible, non-smoking, engineer and a cook who have let their own UK home to tenants to go off round the Americas in a bright yellow camper. We are low impact, practical people who are used to a simple life of travel, the outdoors and books. We will look after your home and your pets as if they were our own. We can possibly even keep an eye on your business, if you show us the ropes.
We travelled around Canada/USA September 2016 to July 2017, visited Mexico until late September 2017 and we are now in New Mexico, USA. Over the last year we have competed [and obtained strong references from] many different house sits.
Why we want to house sit
Every so often we like to have a base for a period as a break from the open road, to stop constantly moving around, to catch up on the administration of our lives and to consolidate some work we are doing along the way. We are also open to stays where we can live in an area for a longer period of time while we are conducting research and planning for future travels.
We prefer to live in places rather than just visit the usual tourist sites for a day. We are very happy in quieter, more unusual places but also like to visit a city for a change and to enjoy some restaurants. We are open to assignments anywhere on our route that we can get to sensibly in time using our vehicle.
We need to be able to park our small, 19ft camper at your property while we house sit. Our truck is around the length of a large pickup, fits into a regular supermarket car park space, and is clean, not too heavy and it does not leak oil. It is useful if we are occasionally able to spend a bit of time tidying it out and repacking it ready for our next period of travel.
We are used to being self employed, have run our own businesses [working together as well as separately] and are always looking to gain new skills.
We grew up with various dogs, cats and Guinea pigs. We like being in the outdoors in snow or sunshine and are happy to spend our time hiking in the country with dogs who wish to join us.
We are healthy and like a change and a challenge.
Our experience
Over 2016-2017 we completed 4 house sits in Canada [Prince Edward County, Ontario and Penticton and 2 in Sorrento, BC] as well as 3 in the USA [Oregon City, Berkeley, San Francisco and Hollywood Hills]. We have a set of excellent references from these house sits. Some of these are displayed on 2 different house sitting web sites and there are at least 3 referees who are happy to communicate by email/phone with home owners to confirm their recommendations.
Our assignments have all been very different - in city and rural areas and in all weathers looking after cats, walking dogs and even supervising a duck! We spent a month in a large house on a snowy mountainside in British Columbia, keeping a huge furnace constantly going to heat the house. We also kept a driveway with 4 steep switchbacks ploughed - so we are capable of taking responsibility for the practical aspects of house sitting.
In May 2017 we house sat in Berkeley, San Francisco, looking after 2 dogs and a cat for just over 3 weeks. The home owner has provided a written reference and is also happy to be contacted for a personal reference.
In March we spent 10 days in Portland, Oregon, USA where we looked after a house, a dog and a cat. The owner is happy to be contacted to confirm our reference.
Before this we were in Sorrento, British Columbia where we looked after 2 different houses for a total of around 5 weeks. Both owners are happy to be contacted.
In January 2017 we completed a house sit [for just over a month] in Penticton, British Columbia. There we looked after a very unusual house and a dog and a cat. We had to keep a furnace constantly going by filling it with logs. We also kept the snow at bay by plowing the 4 switchbacks on the driveway that led to the property, down the mountainside. The owner is happy to be contacted to confirm our reference.
We looked after a house with a cat and a duck for 11 days in November 2016 at Prince Edward County/Quinte Isle, Ontario, Canada. We have a reference from this that confirms our reliability, cleanliness and that the owners came home to happy, relaxed animals. The owner is happy to be contacted to confirm our reference.
Some years ago we also looked after a small holding in Wales, UK for a week with ducks, geese, chickens, goats, cats, dogs. This involved feeding the animals, organising them into their houses for each night and being on sentry duty. Everyone survived, including us!
The property management company who have taken on our UK house rental can also vouch for how clean and well maintained we leave a property and how reliable and organised we are.
We have a further reference from an organic farm where we taught outdoor cooking classes in a field and where Sarah covered the baker's holiday, making the bread for the farm shop. The farmer can testify to our reliability, clean and organised approach.
Jon is an engineer. He is very practical, he fixes and makes things. He built our camper himself (and many others before this one) and takes pride in his work. He was a tour guide for several years, mainly in Africa. He can usually find, or create, a solution to most problems.
Sarah has run a small cookery school for 10 years, organised outdoor cooking classes for corporate groups in a field, with no facilities, in the British weather. She is highly organised. She has also worked as a small business advisor and a project and training manager. She has taught indoor cooking classes at a farm as well as covered the farm's bakery duties when their regular baker went on holiday.
Together we have the skills to cope in many situations.
Reviews (2)
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Pamela - Oregon City, Oregon, United States
08 March - 19 March 2017
This was our first time using a housesitter and the bar has now been set very, very high. We can't say enough about how positive our experience was with Sarah and Jon. From the moment we selected them, communication was top notch. Sarah emailed regularly in the month leading up to our departure, ...
This was our first time using a housesitter and the bar has now been set very, very high. We can't say enough about how positive our experience was with Sarah and Jon. From the moment we selected them, communication was top notch. Sarah emailed regularly in the month leading up to our departure, and we were able to follow their blog showing their progress through Canada and into Oregon. Since we were leaving on a very early flight, we had them arrive the day before, shared a wonderful dinner together, went over all of the specifics, and left on our trip knowing that our home, golden retriever, and very shy kitty were in great hands. They also kept in touch with us via email during our trip. When we returned home 10 days later, the house was in better shape than when we left! It was spotless, everything was in its place, and our pets were very happy. We enjoyed a nice breakfast together and saw them off in their adorable yellow truck. Honestly, I feel like we made some amazing new friends, and had so much in common. We would love to welcome Sarah and Jon back as guests if their travels bring them back up through Oregon. We're following them on their blog as they make their way across Canada, the US, and places beyond. They are a wonderful, professional, down-to-earth couple from the UK that I would highly recommend to anyone needing a housesitter. Thank you Sarah and Jon! Pam and Brian - (Sandy and Cinnamon, too!)
- Organised
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- Reliable
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- Self-sufficient
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- Tidy
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- Pet care
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Peter - Sorrento, British Columbia, Canada
19 January - 06 February 2017
Sarah & Jon provided wonderful care to our shy rescue dog (who takes a while to warm up to strangers), they were very caring, patient and kind, taking him twice daily walks, outings in the car and generally spoiling him in our absence. Our home was well looked after - clean, tidy, snow shovelle...
Sarah & Jon provided wonderful care to our shy rescue dog (who takes a while to warm up to strangers), they were very caring, patient and kind, taking him twice daily walks, outings in the car and generally spoiling him in our absence. Our home was well looked after - clean, tidy, snow shovelled off driveway. We couldn't have asked for nicer, kinder, friendlier people, it was such a pleasure to come home and see our shy dog loving them and being relaxed around them. We would highly recommend them as house/pet sitters.
- Organised
-
- Reliable
-
- Self-sufficient
-
- Tidy
-
- Pet care
-
About Sarah & Jon
We are a responsible, non-smoking, engineer and a cook who have let their own UK home to tenants to go off round the Americas in a bright yellow camper. We are low impact, practical people who are used to a simple life of travel, the outdoors and books. We will look after your home and your pets as if they were our own. We can possibly even keep an eye on your business, if you show us the ropes.
We travelled around Canada/USA September 2016 to July 2017, visited Mexico until late September 2017 and we are now in New Mexico, USA. Over the last year we have competed [and obtained strong references from] many different house sits.
We are a responsible, non-smoking, engineer and a cook who have let their own UK home to tenants to go off round the Americas in a bright yellow camper. We are low impact, practical people who are used to a simple life of travel, the outdoors and books. We will look after your home and your pets as if they were our own. We can possibly even keep an eye on your business, if you show us the ropes.
We travelled around Canada/USA September 2016 to July 2017, visited Mexico until late September 2017 and we are now in New Mexico, USA. Over the last year we have competed [and obtained strong references from] many different house sits.
Why we want to house sit
Every so often we like to have a base for a period as a break from the open road, to stop constantly moving around, to catch up on the administration of our lives and to consolidate some work we are doing along the way. We are also open to stays where we can live in an area for a longer period of time while we are conducting research and planning for future travels.
We prefer to live in places rather than just visit the usual tourist sites for a day. We are very happy in quieter, more unusual places but also like to visit a city for a change and to enjoy some restaurants. We are open to assignments anywhere on our route that we can get to sensibly in time using our vehicle.
We need to be able to park our small, 19ft camper at your property while we house sit. Our truck is around the length of a large pickup, fits into a regular supermarket car park space, and is clean, not too heavy and it does not leak oil. It is useful if we are occasionally able to spend a bit of time tidying it out and repacking it ready for our next period of travel.
We are used to being self employed, have run our own businesses [working together as well as separately] and are always looking to gain new skills.
We grew up with various dogs, cats and Guinea pigs. We like being in the outdoors in snow or sunshine and are happy to spend our time hiking in the country with dogs who wish to join us.
We are healthy and like a change and a challenge.
Our experience
Over 2016-2017 we completed 4 house sits in Canada [Prince Edward County, Ontario and Penticton and 2 in Sorrento, BC] as well as 3 in the USA [Oregon City, Berkeley, San Francisco and Hollywood Hills]. We have a set of excellent references from these house sits. Some of these are displayed on 2 different house sitting web sites and there are at least 3 referees who are happy to communicate by email/phone with home owners to confirm their recommendations.
Our assignments have all been very different - in city and rural areas and in all weathers looking after cats, walking dogs and even supervising a duck! We spent a month in a large house on a snowy mountainside in British Columbia, keeping a huge furnace constantly going to heat the house. We also kept a driveway with 4 steep switchbacks ploughed - so we are capable of taking responsibility for the practical aspects of house sitting.
In May 2017 we house sat in Berkeley, San Francisco, looking after 2 dogs and a cat for just over 3 weeks. The home owner has provided a written reference and is also happy to be contacted for a personal reference.
In March we spent 10 days in Portland, Oregon, USA where we looked after a house, a dog and a cat. The owner is happy to be contacted to confirm our reference.
Before this we were in Sorrento, British Columbia where we looked after 2 different houses for a total of around 5 weeks. Both owners are happy to be contacted.
In January 2017 we completed a house sit [for just over a month] in Penticton, British Columbia. There we looked after a very unusual house and a dog and a cat. We had to keep a furnace constantly going by filling it with logs. We also kept the snow at bay by plowing the 4 switchbacks on the driveway that led to the property, down the mountainside. The owner is happy to be contacted to confirm our reference.
We looked after a house with a cat and a duck for 11 days in November 2016 at Prince Edward County/Quinte Isle, Ontario, Canada. We have a reference from this that confirms our reliability, cleanliness and that the owners came home to happy, relaxed animals. The owner is happy to be contacted to confirm our reference.
Some years ago we also looked after a small holding in Wales, UK for a week with ducks, geese, chickens, goats, cats, dogs. This involved feeding the animals, organising them into their houses for each night and being on sentry duty. Everyone survived, including us!
The property management company who have taken on our UK house rental can also vouch for how clean and well maintained we leave a property and how reliable and organised we are.
We have a further reference from an organic farm where we taught outdoor cooking classes in a field and where Sarah covered the baker's holiday, making the bread for the farm shop. The farmer can testify to our reliability, clean and organised approach.
Jon is an engineer. He is very practical, he fixes and makes things. He built our camper himself (and many others before this one) and takes pride in his work. He was a tour guide for several years, mainly in Africa. He can usually find, or create, a solution to most problems.
Sarah has run a small cookery school for 10 years, organised outdoor cooking classes for corporate groups in a field, with no facilities, in the British weather. She is highly organised. She has also worked as a small business advisor and a project and training manager. She has taught indoor cooking classes at a farm as well as covered the farm's bakery duties when their regular baker went on holiday.
Together we have the skills to cope in many situations.
Verifications
Animal Care Experience
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Dogs
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Cats
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Poultry
Availability
Preferred Countries
Profile Details
Age
Occupation
Travelling as a
Previous house sitting experience
Member benefits
Member since
House & pet sitting timeline
Sarah and Jon have done 3 house sits since 2016
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Los AngelesUnited StatesJun - Jul 2017 -
Oregon CityUnited StatesMar 2017 -
SorrentoCanadaJan - Feb 2017
