Caring, active (non-smoking) couple to watch over your house, pets and garden!

About this sitter

Hi there! We are Todd and Mairin. We both grew up on the East Coast of the US, but relocated to Oregon as adults and called it home until late 2016, when we left to explore the rest of the world. We really enjoy hiking, camping and exploring the outdoors.

Besides being outside, our passions are music, food, and travel. Mairin especially loves to garden and cook with fresh local ingredients. We both like to try street food on our travels and will eat pretty much anything once (although we said no to balut in the Philippines...). We also enjoy beer and wine, discovering local craft brews and varietals when we travel.

Travel is a huge part of our lives right now, as we completed a 15 month trip around Asia and Europe in early 2018, then transitioned to living and teaching English abroad. Along the way, we discovered many new cultures, met new friends and learned more about ourselves and the world around us.

As far as work and careers we both have over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry, working in every capacity including years of upper level management. We would like to have some sort of business of our own in the future, although exactly what is still to be determined. Currently, we are enjoying teaching English online and
traveling from housesit to housesit.

As far as what we are looking for in a housesit - we love both country and city and are comfortable in rustic environments.

Because of our current jobs teaching English online, we do need access to fast reliable internet and power (or a backup power supply in case of cuts). Since we are Americans, we cannot stay in the Schengen area of Europe for longer than 90 days at a time so super long sits there are out for us, unfortunately (however if you are flexible and have a long sit which you could break up into 3 month time periods we would love it!).

Other than that we are open to lots of new experiences all over the world and meeting more like-minded folks.

Why they want to house sit

Housesitting for us is ideal for several reasons. As a couple in our 40's, we really enjoy slow travel.

Having owned a home for so long, we appreciate settling into a place for a bit longer and really feeling the local vibe where we are. We like to hit up the markets and cook and discover the local area on foot as much as possible.

Finally, we miss having pets at home. We like to give other homeowners the opportunity to travel knowing their pets are in good hands and to perhaps make some new friends in other countries. Since we work from home, it makes tending to a house and pets even easier.

Their experience

Todd and I owned a home in Portland, OR for seven years before selling it and deciding to travel. We kept up with regular maintenance while transforming the yard over time into a gardener's paradise. We had a huge garden and also several free-range chickens, so we are comfortable taking care of your garden and outdoor flocks.

I should also note that we are avid recyclers and even had our own compost while we owned our home. We really care for the environment and try to use as little waste as possible in our daily lives. We are mature enough to treat your house as we treated our own home over the years and our rentals before and after that.

We have both owned dogs and many cats over the years as well as our pet chickens and rabbits!

We have house and pet sat on a number of occasions, keeping several dogs, cats, and even rats company. Some of these were directly through friends and others were through another housesitting site. We have gotten stellar reviews from everyone so far, including the one sit on this site.

We have also used AirBnB quite a bit and have great reviews from hosts all over the world. Feel free to ask about Mairin's profile on there if you would like some more references.

What can they bring to the assignment

We bring a positive attitude to your abode and pets. We keep a clean house and have no problem maintaining gardens or lawns or even doing some other light chores.

We have a regular schedule as well since our teaching jobs are stable. While we like to explore, we wouldn't ever leave the property for days at a time.

With our history of management in the service industry, we are willing to help out at properties that may require customer service (lodges or airbnb type places), including light cooking or cleaning, admin tasks or even social media (Mairin ran social media accounts for several restaurants previous to traveling).

We are both very level headed and use common sense when dealing with problems or any situations that may arise.

Get in touch with us! We love to Skype with people to see if the situation is a win-win.