Taking care of Goldy Courtesy of Photobucket.com
Life is full of twists and turns. This time last year we were just embarking on an exploration trip to Portugal’s Silver Coast to fully acquaint ourselves with life in that region. It was exactly as we had expected except for the weather that was an integral part of why we had picked this region as an area to become full-fledged expats. However, continuous days of rain were not what we had envisioned although we were told that last winter was not the norm. We didn’t want to take the chance and decided to explore elsewhere.
Madeira and the Algarve became our new focal points and still rank at the top with every intention on test-driving one or both of those areas this winter. Last year we rented on the Silver Coast and living on a budget, especially in retirement, is always a consideration. We had heard about the economics of house sitting before but decided to become more earnest in our efforts.
House sitting is essentially taking care of someone’s home while they are away, by walking the dog, stroking the cat, trimming the bushes and basically taking care of their home as they would want it to be treated. In return the house sitter gets free or very reasonably priced lodging, so it seemed ideal. There are a number of sites to explore this option and we used one that has a bountiful inventory. It’s necessary to complete a full profile and as newbies to this form of travelling we really didn’t know if our attempt would be futile.
The Algarve and Madeira, let alone Portugal, did not have many entries, but there was a plethora from the UK and France. We decided on both and our spirits were raised when not long after our registration we started to get some answers from properties that looked interesting. Many replies were rejections due to date incompatibilities but eventually we got a bite from a UK owner. After a multitude of e-mails it became apparent that this individual wanted someone to take over their house with all its bills while she was away, and she wanted a face-to-face interview prior to any assignment with the onus on the potential house sitter to get there for that meeting at his or her cost. Caveat emptor. It appeared that perhaps no-strings attached house sitting was too good to be true and we gave up for awhile.
After returning back to Canada for the summer, we thought we would try once more so we sent out a blizzard of applications, and received a proportionally large number of rejections if any answer at all. I recall one morning sitting down at the computer and going through e-mails and seeing a higher than normal number of replies. One by one it wasn’t good news and there was one remaining to be opened. Bingo! Someone was interested in us and the property was drop dead gorgeous.
What followed were again numerous e-mails culminating in Skype calls. It was a match and in a couple of months we’re off to France this time. Our love of Portugal is still very present, but life has a habit of taking one in a different direction sometimes, temporarily or otherwise. Embrace the adventure as the excitement begins all over.
—-
If you like this, please be sure to check out my other blog!
