Seventh heaven in Italy's green heart urgently in need for guardien angels

About this assignment

We are looking for some reliable persons to keep an eye on our property from appr. 21 november 2025 till appr. 21 february 2026. We prefer to have two persons (not necessarily a couple).
We expect you to take care for our cats, Miep and Louis, to keep our home and garden well maintained and tidy and to warn us, in case you would meet unexpected events. As to Miep and Louis: they will turn to 3 years in April ‘26 and they are real ‘people cats’: they love to be caressed, they will join you when you are doing chores and even on relatively long walks! Nevertheless they are not allowed to come into the houses, since our grandson is very allergic for cats and when they would leave their traces, he cannot visit seventh heaven anymore.

Apart from wintertime we welcome especially keen gardeners. Experience with gardening is an advantage, enjoying gardening is an extra!
Some technical skills are in favour, as also having your own car.

Apart from the period mentioned, we regularly need house sitters. Every winter for a longer period of appr. 3 months, from late November up to mid February. Also during the year we feel the need to hug our (grand)children abroad every now and then. We don't want to leave our property uninhabited. Therefore we invite you, preferably real Italy lovers, to take over our role.

What responsibilities are required of the house sitter

We don't want to leave the cats without a caretaker and our property uninhabited.
Your main task is being a stand-in/substitute for us. This means that you take care for the property and its inhabitants and solve minor problems.
As to the chores we would like you to do: taking car for the cats, keeping an eye on the property and its technical infrastructure and eventually doing some chores in case you bother to get bored.
Of course we would appreciate to be kept informed about how things are going, specially about eventual problems and your interventions.
For major problems please contact us, so that we can decide together how to solve them, who we need for a solution etc.
For the rest we don’t mind if you would like to do some works, which may be needed, but the time of slavery is over. In our experience the best works are done by people who love to benefit us with their skills.

If you would like to be kept busy, we always can talk about some chores that could be done. You don't have to fear that you will get bored:-)
Most people here like to be busy. Work in the garden is a perfect reason to stay outside and to enjoy the beautiful and peaceful site.
The required technical skills are the 'normal' skills which one needs, living in the Italian country side. It is necessary to be able to understand and control the technical infrastructure, like heating and water supply. After a thunderstorm – or other reasons for an interruption in the delivery of electricity - systems have to be controlled and eventually reset.

It is very important to be keen on warning us in case something goes wrong in order to discuss and analize the problem and its eventual solution. If needed we’ll involve an expert, e.g.the electrician or plumber. So, we ask you to know and respect your own limits and not to do things by yourself, which could cause any damage to the systems, which are all relatively new.

What are the good features of the property and location

Our property really is a paradise in Italy's green heart. It will offer you rest, peacefulness and inspiration to write, compose or practise other forms of art. It is in the midst of Etruscan civilisation, near to Orvieto with its famous Gothic Cathedral. Besides you will find many interesting signs of later history and art as well, e.g. from the Roman period and Renaissance.
This part of the south of Umbria borders with Tuscany and Lazio. You will find loads of interesting tiny cities and villages in the nearness. Rome as well as Florence are at reach by train (1 resp. 1,5 hrs).

What does the house sitter need to consider before applying for this assignment

Non-smoking:
To increase the possibility to agree with one another it is important to us to know whether you are (non) smokers. We absolutely want to be sure to find a non smoked home, when we will return.

Utilities: this section is less applicable in summer, since you don’t have to use gas for heating. A moderate family of 4 persons uses in summer at max. 1m3 gas per day for cooking and warm water, assuming that you take short showers. You can follow your consume on the meter. Most people respect the scarse water situation and take only short showers. I will not charge you for electricity in summer.

In winter I have to follow a different policy. Since I cannot influence your attitude and behaviour towards energy consume, it seems reasonable to ask you to pay your utility bills.
Because of the remoteness of the property we have an LPG-tank; that gas is pretty expensive (more expensive than when you tank it for your car). At the moment we pay appr. 7€ per m3. To keep your costs as low as possible, we accommodate you in our guest house and we will provide you with wood for the wood stove (17€ 100kg).
A well-considered use of the central heating, on the other hand, will give you a good control of your costs. The guest house heats up very quickly. We lived there 1,5 year and we used the central heating, mainly shortly in the morning spent on gas appr. 1,5m3 per day, so appr. €10 per day, for 2 persons cooking and showering included. If any heating is desired in autumn or spring the wood stoves will be sufficient.
It would not be reasonable to charge you for the entire electricity bill, because the property itself consumes electricity, mainly for water pumps. Most properties don't have a separate meter for infrastructural electricity consume, neither our seventh heaven. By experience we know that the electricity consume of our guests is €5,50 per day.
Water and wifi are free.

Can I bring my own pets?

No, sorry.

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