Help a multicultural Hobartian family in Tasmania Australia
ReportLocation: Hobart, Australia
We are four: Bernd and Dani, with children Leon (2013), Felix (2017) and Gypsy Anna (2003 - all grown up now and left the nest)
There's a spare bike or two for getting around, a few bus routes nearby and it's not a long walk into town or the North Hobart cafe strip.
I'm a seasoned traveller, ardent hitch-hiker and run a local games society. I speak Esperanto, German and some French. Dani speaks English and Serbian.
Helpers with experience, skills and/or enthusiasm are especially welcome as are winter arrivals and longer stay visitors.
Previous helpers have been involved in projects as diverse as gardening, landscaping, construction, stone-walling, painting, electrical wiring, sewing, cleaning, cooking and child care.
Accommodation for up to 2 people in a small renovated studio behind our house with enough notice (as it's available on airbnb as well and on other services like helpx.net, workaway.info, pasportaservo.org or one of a two capsule style beds we have: a single in the Cosy Cubby and King Single in the Wonky Workshop (which can sleep two) but both of which are separate from the house and require a short walk to facilities (like the bathroom and hence classified as adventurous not 5-star hotel digs).
Children are very welcome. Meals to suit (we eat vegetarian intermittently, even vegan, but far from exclusively) .
No Smoking please.
Please be aware that you will be living within a small family. If you call and plan to come please be considerate of the arrangements we are making for you and let us know as soon as possible if you change your plans.
I work a 25 hour week in town in IT and Dani about the same as a Math/Physics lecturer at the University of Tasmania and so you will need to feel comfortable with being on your own much of the time, but we'll be sharing breakfast (if you're up on time) and dinner times (if you turn up on time) and some of our leisure activities (you're in principle welcome to join us most, as a member of the family, but as with other adult members of the family, transport considerations may exclude some folk some of the time - seats in the car or such) and work time outside of my day job commitments (as in I actually prefer if you work when I'm available, notably weekends often and take time off when I have to be in the office, to explore).
Projects:
o Gardening (weeding and pruning)
o Landscaping/playground maintenance work
o Electric wiring (generally there some maintenance on the todo list waiting for qualified hands)
o Fence work (ongoing maintenance there)
o Painting (often something needs painting ranging from plain single colour to artistic)
o General yard maintenance (all sorts of odd jobs appear)
And of course cleaning, cooking and childcare are ongoing projects (though we are mostly on top of the latter two, and it's cleaning we can use help with).
Convenient PDF files on how to get here and how to get around are on our website that may they be of use to you.
WORKING ARRANGEMENT
Interested? Well, we've had many many helpers over the years, been hosting since 2004, and I can honestly say, some fell in love, some stayed as long as three months I think in the extreme so far, and others, came and went, it wasn't their scene here. In short we're flexible, you can come, stay as long as you like and it's working for all of us, and you can go when you like too, all we ask is that approach this maturely, discuss with us you plans, and don't either just disappear one day (that's happened too often) or expect to stay endlessly. We won't ask you to move on without a friendly (and I mean friendly) talk, and we appreciate your not changing your plans on us without one too. It impacts our social planning, our shopping and more, for us to know who is around in our house.
LIVING ARRANGEMENT
NOTE: I want to reiterate how much we love and prioritize longer term visits. We regularly have guests for many weeks, and will always reserve space for such requests over requests to come for a few days. There is is simply a lot of overhead into getting to know one another, the culture of the house and rhythm of life and so on and the stability of a handful of quality summer guests is far far preferable to a summer of dozens of passing through tourists. So if you want a home base in Hobart a while then you'll get priority, please book, and if you're wanting to stay a few days, drop a line shortly before but don't expect positive results. I may be full already and long in advance will not want to take a booking for less than a week.