Your house is our castle

About this sitter

We are Nicole (Dutch, 1966) and Cor (Dutch, 1965). In 2016 we got married on our beautiful Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean. Since February 2018 we are travelling around the world. We have sold almost all our belongings and we are committed to full time professional house sitting. Between sits we are travelling with our car.
Nicole can look back on a long career as a psychiatric nurse in the addiction care and as a social worker. She has experience as a volunteer working with mentally disabled people and as a scout leader. Cor has as an engineer worked in several different international industries and is still working as a consultant in the petrochemical industry. This is a part time job which can be done online and which allows us to earn our living whilst travelling.
During holidays we love to travel around in our Landcruiser. During these trips but also during other holidays and work we have left our marks on six of the seven continents. This has made us very practical, self sufficient persons with a good sense for different cultures and adapted to simple rural off grid life.

Cor is father of three children who have all come to an age where they can take care of themselves. Cor loves canoeing, likes to invent things and sometimes does some (furniture) design work. Nicole likes to cook on a campfire, loves gardening (vegetables and flowers) and she somehow attracts animals. We both are non-smokers and we love reading, nature and spending time outdoors.

Why they want to house sit

We have decided that there is more in life then just work. There is so much more to discover and it is time to go and search for it. So we have decided to become full time professional house sitters. We want to get surprised by other cultures and habits and actually experience other countries by living in them.

Apart from discovering the world there is work to be done. Cor needs a quiet place to be able to concentrate on his work and needs a connection to the internet. House sitting is in this respect a perfect solution.

Their experience

We have been full time house sitters now since February 2018.
First we took care of two sits in France on very big sites – one of them 9 ha with an old farm house and a big orchard – the other a mobile home campsite with many animals (cats, dogs, ponies and donkeys).

After a year we were contacted by a house owner for pet / house / garden sitting in southern Turkey. So we picked up everything and travelled there with our Landcruiser. On our way we visited the Peloponnesos and the Greek island of Chios. The sit in Turkey was at the bay of Gokova. The owner created her own botanic garden and every day we spent time with her and her two dogs (and some snakes) to make the garden even more beautiful.

After the house sit in Turkey (2019) we spent six months house sitting and work awaying on the Cycladic islands. On Andros we took care of 2 dogs, 6 cats and many chickens. On Tinos we joined a team working on a vineyard start up. We helped building the irrigation system and many other jobs like rebuilding an old stone bridge. Whilst doing this we took care of a big house and garden. Our main job there was to keep the goats out and the olive trees watered. Between jobs we had plenty of time to visit every little corner of these two beautiful islands.

Then came 2020. In the winter we travelled from sunny Greece to ice cold Scotland. Here we took care of two dogs, Molly and Sid and a cat, Sister Mary. The house was located not far from the beach near Elgin so that’s where we spent a lot of time. Walking on the beach. The Covid crisis forced the owners to come back earlier than planned and then we moved into their little garden house. Luckily it had a stove to keep it warm. So with a few months to spare we helped preparing the garden for the Scottish summer. It was a perfect place to spend a lockdown.

In july 2020 finally the travel restrictions were lifted. After covering almost all pieces of tarmac in northern Scotland we made our way to Belgium. Here we took care of a house in Gent. It is a good place to wait until the world opens up again for travellers. Luckily Cor found a part time job as a researcher at the university. Nicole found a volunteer job at a foundation which takes care of old or neglected horses and donkeys.

We have long experience in owning and renovating our own homes in the countryside in the Netherlands and in Germany. We both have experience with taking care of our own dogs and cats and all kinds of other small live stock, such as chickens, other birds, rabbits, chinchillas, turtles etc. Nicole used to have two donkeys in her backyard. She also has experience with donkeys through her work (asino therapy with handicapped or autistic children and adults with psychiatric problems). We will not be bringing our own pets to the house sit.

We feel that our way of living as house sitters allows us to immerse ourselves into the local community and culture. House sitting is offering us the companionship of pets and we can make ourselves useful through DIY work and gardening. Furthermore it gives us a stable basis for working online and sometimes even for a part time job.

What can they bring to the assignment

Your home is our castle. This is the title of our housesit membership and it is exactly in this sense that we will be taking care of our housesit assignment. The safety of your home and the well being of your pets is our first priority.
We would consider it a bonus if the house (or garden) would need some DIY work. We also would not mind to do long term house sits or to look after a small B&B or campsite.

We are both fluent in Dutch, German and English. We have followed a French course when we were in France. We are not really at the conversational level but the people understand us. Cor can read Italian, Spanish and Scandinavian languages. So it will be easy for us to get acquainted with your neighbours and to get to know the nearest villages. This means that if your house or your pets need any external help (veterinarian) we will be able to arrange it.