Adventures of an Urban Nomad - House Do's, Don'ts & Maybes

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, April 29, 2012

As an Urban Nomad we're privileged to stay in many different places and so we find out what works about a house and what doesn't. Here's our list so far:

Must have

Solar electricity generating panels (or photovoltaic cells to be technically correct) - just because you ought to. There are actually many good reasons like reducing your household electricity bill or ideally being off the grid completely.

Gas heating and cooking - immediate heat when you turn it on and stops when you turn it off. It's also easier to adjust.

Deck or verandah all around the house - you can sit in the sun (or avoid it depending on the season) at all times of the day.

Household help - at least a lawnmower person (usually a man) and cleaner (not gender specific - often they come as a pair). Saves you having to do those things you really dislike and helps share the wealth around.

Wood heating - it's wonderful getting up on a winter morning and lighting the fire - makes you feel warm straight away. Chopping and carrying the wood is great exercise. Also, very romantic.

Skylights. I'm amazed at how much light they bring in

A dog - preferably saved from the pound. If you're thinking "What about a cat?" remember "Dogs have masters, cats have staff".

A dog door. You don't want to be a doorman for your four legged family member.

Ceiling fans and adjustable awnings - makes a significant difference to the temperature in summer with no operating costs.

Air conditioner (emergency use only) - because some days are just too hot.

Significant distance to your neighbours - you really don't want to know them that intimately.

Kitchen garden - vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, chickens (and/or ducks). It's wonderful going out into your garden and deciding what's for dinner based on what you have. When something's in season you get really creative about what to do with all the food. And when you go visiting it's nice to take something you produced rather than something you bought.

Located close to bush especially a national park.

What not to have

Carpets - they're incredible dust collectors and NO vacuum really gets them clean.

Round tap handles - seriously challenging with wet, soapy hands.

Light switches NOT at the doorway. It's astounding where some people put switches - they seem to bear no relationship to the room they're for.

Nice to have

A bath big enough for two. Very important after you've been out wood chopping.

Swimming pool - if someone else does the maintenance. There are some days you need that quick cool off.

That's our list. What do you think?

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Back in the Burbs

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, April 15, 2012

Last week we moved to Chatswood. We'll be here for just over 7 weeks so this is almost a permanent residence for us.

We're enjoying the new house and while it's in an amazingly quiet location (given it's proximity to a road with heavy traffic) we have been subtly reminded about why we prefer the country (or at least the outer suburbs). So far there's been a crying baby, a screeching woman, next door's pool pump running constantly, lawn mowers, chain saws and leaf blowers. Apart from that it's been very quiet. Even the dog here is quiet - in fact we're not sure she can bark as we've never heard her - such a delight especially as we've come from a house with 6 dogs, 2 cats, 2 birds and more; all of whom were very vocal!

Allowing for the background noise we're very comfortable here. It's an older style house and both Danita & I feel like we're back in our childhood homes - the photos on the walls look like our relatives, the furnishings are similar to what we had growing up and so on. 

I remember visiting a museum a few years ago in San Fransisco. One of the displays was a 1960's bedroom. I was amazed and horrified. It looked just like my childhood room; the same furniture, record collection, posters etc. That was amazing! The horrifying part was when I realised I now qualify as a museum piece - and I don't think I've made it to the status of a living treasure just yet (still working on that one).

As I was saying, we are very comfortable here. It's wonderful having our clothes in a wardrobe and not living out of a suitcase, having separate rooms properly set up as offices (not having to use the dining room table as one) and space in the kitchen to put our supplies. I'm finding we're really appreciating the so-called "little" things in life.

There are still some disappointments we are confronted by though. When we met the house owners there was a Thermomix (an amazing piece of kitchen equipment). This was very exciting, as we'd had one in a previous house-sit and been very impressed by it. So the prospect of having one for a couple of months was thrilling. Shortly before they left they sent us an email saying their daughter had requested to use it while they were away and, of course, she had priority. While being very disappointed by this sudden change of plans we felt we could overcome the pain and grow through the experience. And so we soldier on :-)

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Time for a Breakdown

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, April 08, 2012

This week Danita & I separated. No we haven't split up - we had an overlap in house minding commitments and so we needed to be in separate places. 

My job was to be in the new house, set up the IT infrastructure so we could keep working and prepare the materials for Danita's She Business meeting. Danita stayed back at the old house to wrap up and feed the animals in the morning. All straight forward enough except that's not how it turned out. She had limited time to get everything done and get to the new house to get ready for her lunchtime meeting.

The house we were leaving is a doggy farm stay - rather than put their animals into a kennel which keeps them in cages, this one has a paddock where they roam free and are housed with other dogs. 

Danita's first job was to check the chickens and ducks. Here's where things started to go wrong. Every day until then the birds were happily inside their pen waiting to be fed. This day Danita arrived to find them wandering around the yard outside the pen. First job was to get them all back in. This required talking, chasing, herding and there's always one who refuses to go back in. Combined with the fear that some had gone missing this got the day off to a "good" start.

Next were the arrivals of some new dogs - one was expected as we'd previously spoken with the owner, another was booked in but we hadn't been able to speak with anyone and so we weren't sure if and when they'd arrive. Then to top it all off there was a completely unexpected arrival just as Danita was ready to leave.

Time was rapidly ticking away for Danita's timely exit when yet another twist occurred; the owner of the final dog to arrive had pointed out that theirs was an indoor dog who'd been there before and knew the ropes. Danita took this to mean the dog was house-trained and allowed her to stay inside.  As soon as she got in she weed and poohed all around the house including on the table and the notes we'd prepared for the owners on their return explaining how well everything had gone(???).

It was then necessary to remove the 'indoor' dog to an outside area which, of course, led to considerable protest (i.e. barking).  Meanwhile two of the other new arrivals who had been sharing an area had become too boisterous (lots of running around with one 'humping' the other) with yelping from the recipient of the unwelcome attention.  Again, time to remove one to another area and keep them separated at least for the couple of hours until the owner of the property returned.  Each relocation of course required corralling the appropriate animal (without scaring it) and providing bedding and water.  

On top of all this were the tasks involved in leaving a housesit - preparing new bed linen, washing what we'd used of the linen and towels and setting everything up for the return of the owners. After this crazy morning Danita arrived at our new place quite frazzled. However, she pulled herself together and went off to run her meeting - which went very well, as usual.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Hound of the Baskervilles

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, April 01, 2012

For the last couple of days there has been a the noise of a dog (or dogs) howling in a nearby property. It started late one night and had being going continuously for over 24 hours. 

As you know, dogs are pack animals. Consequently, when one starts barking (or in this case howling), it sets off a chain reaction through the neighbourhood. We're currently living with seven dogs and so this set them all off. The result has been a long time of screaming in the distance combined with a lot of barking at our house. 

If you're a parent chances are there's been a time when your baby just wouldn't settle down and just cried and cried. You tried everything; feeding, bouncing, rocking and anything else you could think of and still the poor child wouldn't settle. Distressed, lacking sleep and at your wits' end you may have gone to a hospital, doctor or in really desperate circumstances even resorted to asking your own parents for advice.

To some degree that's what this was like. The constant howling had us concerned that there was something seriously wrong. Also, the noise meant sleep was challenging or even impossible. Our initial response was to try to shut out the noise, hoping things would settle down. After all, it was some distance from us so (surely) there must have been people closer who were more affected by it than we were.

However, nothing changed.

So, after many hours of constant noise we decided to take action. The big question of course was what could we do? We decided calling the police would be appropriate as there could be a major problem. I had visions of a murder scene where the dogs have been trapped inside the house with the owner's corpse. Who said I don't have an imagination? It's fascinating what scenarios you can come up with having been sleep deprived for a while.

First thing was to see if we could find out exactly where the noise was coming from. By the way, at this point it was now midnight. 

We drove around the neighbourhood in order to determine the address from which the noise was coming. We think we found the property and went back home - this was because our mobiles didn't have any coverage and so we needed to get to a phone. I thought about going in to check, but since it was very dark and the house was a long way back from the road and couldn't be seen (properties out here are quite large) in addition to my overactive imagination I decided it was more prudent to let someone else do it.

Back at home I called 000 and the lady I spoke to was very helpful - took the relevant details, asked about whether it was just barking (no it wasn't) or howling/screaming (yes it definitely sounded like the dogs were in pain or somehow traumatised) and said she would arrange for someone to look into it.

As soon as I got off the phone the noise stopped and we haven't heard anything since. So now I've probably been marked as a potential prank caller - doh!!!

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Bad week for boys

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, March 25, 2012

This week has been a bit of a tough one for the boys around here.

In a household consisting of 7 dogs, 2 cats, 2 horses, 2 birds, assorted chickens, ducks, geese and finally 2 people there are a very limited number of males. There's me, Sancho, a couple of roosters and a peacock. As you can see we're a bit outnumbered and this week has seen considerable violence perpetrated against us (well maybe not considerable but ...)

As you'd be aware, males are supposed to have a lower tolerance for pain than females (at least that's the story you'll get from the girls). Well, I think we've managed very well under extremely trying circumstances.

Firstly, I was attacked by the electric fence and a rooster. My understanding is that the electric fence is around the chicken yard to protect them against foxes, which are common in this area. While organising the water for the chickens I inadvertently (well I wouldn't do it intentionally would I?) touched the charged wire. I was immediately assured that it was working very effectively.

Feeling somewhat sore and slightly sorry for myself (actually I was having an internal discussion - using appropriate language - about what a dumb thing that was to do) I entered the enclosure only to be viciously attacked by one of the roosters. OK - so it wasn't so vicious but he did leave me with a bloody knee and a very trendy hole developing in my jeans. Given my earlier comments about the gender imbalance you'd think there'd at least be some solidarity but oh no -  not this little black chicken!! Mind you, I had been warned about him. The owner had told me she had to beat him off with a rubbish bin lid at times. Fortunately for me, he seemed to respond to a good hosing down - perhaps the chicken equivalent of a water cannon at a riot.

Then it was Sancho's turn. As I mentioned in last week's post  one of the dogs is blind. Danita was taking some meat and bones outside to share around and there was a canine stampede for the front door. Unfortunately, the screen door had shut and so five dogs were jammed together trying to get out with Sancho and Stella (the blind one) in the centre. 

Stella, presumably under extreme duress, then had a bit of a barny with Sancho. This turned into something like a schoolyard punchup - two dogs, in the middle fighting, with a few onlookers providing very noisy encouragement. I provided "crowd control" by throwing Stella off Sancho which had the desired effect of calming the situation. We were then able to open the screen door and everyone headed out to their objective - the meat and bones.

While he dealt with it very stoically, Sancho did end up with a cut just below his eye and one of the back of his neck. I contemplated taking him to the nearby vet but after cleaning him up with antiseptic he seemed his usual cheerful self and so we decided to "keep him under observation".

Ultimately, all has worked out and Sancho still gets on well with Stella, and the rooster and I are doing much better - I think he's worked out that whenever I turn up he gets fed so that's incentivised him quite successfully.

I'm now looking forward to a more sedate week.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - The Menagerie

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, March 18, 2012

This week we moved from the rural location of St Albans to semi-rural Dural. We are now in a house with a tennis court, swimming pool, outdoor pizza oven and more. Who says you can't live in amazing locations without lots of money?

One of the intriguing attributes of this place is the menagerie. It consists of:

Indoors

2 cats - Sootie and Tigger - named primarily based on their colouring. Tigger is fairly shy & retiring and tends to stay out of the way, but Sootie loves contact and seems to delight in teasing the other animals.

3 and a half dogs (half because Stella spends as much time inside as outside). The dogs are:

Coco - a black miniature poodle

Bella - a white Maltese who bears a striking resemblance to the house elf Dobby from Harry Potter

BooBoo - a Pomeranian who apparently thinks she's a Rottweiller. She took on a very large dog and ended up with a broken leg, broken ribs and numerous other injuries. She hops around with one front leg sticking out at a very odd angle. I'd say this is a classic case of nominative determinism - where your name determines what you do eg Dr Tooth the dentist.

Stella - a bitsa who's blind & balding. It's amazing to watch her get around the house. She's like a ball inside a pinball machine - bouncing from object to object using her head as her 'cane'.

Outside

More dogs - Millie a golden retriever & Bianca the maremma.

2 birds. Birdie a Sun Conur which seems very similar to a Rosella with more yellow colouring and Charlie a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. If you've ever heard Cockatoos screeching you'll have an idea of how loud Charlie can be. He's very chatty and will say "Hello Charlie" when you're around. He does get very persistent & loud and can be quite vicious if you have the misfortune to get too close. It's amazing how quickly he picks up on what you say and starts to repeat it. Since there are children who normally live here we have to be very careful not to tell Charlie what we really think of him. He's making a concerted effort to chew his way through the wire mesh of his enclosure. I can't really fault him on that since it is very restrictive even though it's quite large.

2 miniature horses - Gizmo & Sugar Mint. Don't blame me; I didn't name them. These are quite amazing as they are fully grown but are only about 3 feet or 1 metre tall.

And finally a collection of ducks, hens and chicks which have the benefit of being an excellent source of eggs.  There are also a couple of roosters and a peacock. .

So now you've met the whole family. It's time to go feed them all.....

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Paranoia

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, February 05, 2012

Recently, we've been staying with our special friends - the ones who give us a home when we've got a hole in our housesitting "dancecard". I've spoken about them before. Their house was the first place we looked after when we started our nomadic adventure.

You'll remember the episode of the dead cat (see Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Disaster Strikes). That occurred in these people's house. Since then we've stayed there a couple of times and each time we seem to be a party to some trauma.

Last time we were here a friend of the owners turned up needing somewhere to stay as she and her husband were having a difficult time and she'd moved out. That ended kind of OK as she went back to her husband shortly after (much to the relief of our friends).

This time our friend's sister moved in for a few days, again in the process of leaving her partner. Not only that but the cat (the one left after the above-mentioned episode) has been quite ill, the husband had a minor operation which turned into a big issue with major infections (if you want to stay healthy avoid hospitals) and the wife has just resigned her very high-powered job.

Just a note about the cat. We came home one day and couldn't find him. Being mindful of our previous episode we became quite anxious and went searching for him with no luck. While this was going on the owners arrived home and joined the search - anxiety escalating all around! Eventually, the cat was found asleep (or hiding) in the wardrobe - phew!!

Is this something we're doing??? We're starting to get a bit paranoid; every time we stay here something goes haywire.

In a couple of months they're going away and we're booked in to look after the house. There'll also be a nephew staying who's visiting from overseas, can't drive here, it's his first time away from home, has never looked after himself and our friends are a little concerned for his welfare (and the household's). Stay tuned for "interesting" news.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Fence Wars

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, January 29, 2012

It's always dangerous coming between neighbours when there's a boundary dispute. Thanks to Danita's excellent negotiation skills we managed to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

The house we'd been staying in had a brick fence at the back of the yard. One morning we woke up to a man laying bricks on top of the existing fence. We assumed this was all authorised although the owner of "our" house hadn't mentioned anything about it. 

Danita (being the curious one in our relationship) went out and had a chat with the builder. He was a nice guy and explained that the neighbours were extending their garage. Again we assumed the owners of "our" house were aware of this. So far so good. 

After a few layers of new bricks however, it became apparent there could possibly be a problem. The existing fence was constructed of what were originally white bricks (after 20 or so years the original colour was somewhat open to discussion). What was of concern was that the new layers were rather pink thus creating an "interesting" feature. By the end of the day he'd completed the addition to the wall - an extra 60cm. This was definitely something that needed some enquiry.

We contacted the owners (who were in Europe at the time) asking if they were aware of what was happening and mentioned that the additional layers were more pink than white. This resulted in some rather concerned emails leading to "discussions" with the neighbours (to which we were fortunately not a party). Next day the builder was back, very carefully removing the extra layers.

Some time later it all started again - this time with white bricks. While they didn't quite match the original (they did have 20 years of "growth") it was a distinct improvement on the pink option.

On the owners' return we received a very grateful email thanking us for letting them know what was happening. Had it not been for housesitters they would have returned to a multi-coloured back wall clearly visible from the rear half of the house. Now he just has a large wall to deal with - but that's another story.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - A Few Days Away

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, January 22, 2012

One of the challenges of being an urban nomad/housesitter is when you need to take time out. As you'll recall Danita & I attended a family wedding in Bali a couple of weeks ago (Welcome to Bali). For that we were lucky to find houseowners who were willing to put their dog into a doggy resort as well as make arrangements for the fish and guinea pigs to be looked after while we needed to be away.

This week we're in a similar situation - we are in Melbourne to attend another family wedding. Firstly, I have to wonder what my sister did to deserve this - two sons getting married within a month of each other. My sister seems such a nice girl - but I digress.

On Friday we left our Rose Bay housesit and moved into a friend's house. Fortunately, these friends have a large house with a reasonably self contained area upstairs which we've been able to use on the occasions when we are sans bookings. (See On The Road Again). Every housesitter needs at least one of these friends (or family) as there will invariably be times when the bookings do not align.

Sunday we drove to Melbourne, leaving Sancho to enjoy a relaxing time with his good friend Zoe.

Once again, the Universe has fitted in nicely around our plans. We needed to go to Melbourne for a few days. This was the day after the previous owners returned from their month away and a few days before we move into our next place - back to the country. So we remain in awe and grateful for how things seem to work out so well. 

Driving to Melbourne turned out to be an excellent alternative to flying. We had a very pleasant drive - it's now divided road almost all the way. Driving time was about 10 hours and once we'd added in a few stops it took us exactly 12 hours from Gordon to St Kilda. (My parents, on the other hand, were flying in from Perth. Firstly, their flight was delayed and then cancelled. We also had a rather poor experience on our return flight from Bali. Unfortunately, driving from places like Perth & Bali is simply not an option, but flying is becoming less and less of a desirable mode of transport. Again I digress.)

Stay tuned for more "Greenacres" experiences.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Living in the East

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, January 15, 2012

Eastern Suburbs people are really interesting - they see the world in a special way. 

Danita and I both grew up in the Eastern Suburbs and for the last few weeks we've been housesitting very close to where we both lived as children. Since we leave here next Friday we decided to do the Eastern Suburbs thing today and be tourists. This involved a visit to Bondi Beach, Watsons Bay, The Gap and driving past houses we lived in.

Now when I say Eastern Suburbs people see things differently I'll share a couple of quick examples. These both involve friends of ours so no names :-)

Firstly, a friend living on the upper North Shore was arranging to get together with a friend of hers from the East. When discussing the venue the Eastern friend said (in all seriousness): "You come to me - it's closer".

Another friend was buying a new car which happened to be a four wheel drive. The salesperson, possibly thinking he knew his clientele well, facetiously remarked: "Going to the top end are you?" To which our customer friend promptly replied: "Oh yes we go to Watson's Bay often."

The Gap is intriguing and probably another good example of Eastern Suburbs thinking. On arrival the first thing you see is a prominent sign telling you to call a friend. No, it's not a ad for "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" but a sign for LifeLife - the crisis support organisation. So The Gap has the unenviable reputation of being Sydney's suicide capital. Now what I found really intriguing is the other sign that's there. There's a fine of $150 if you climb outside the fence and $300 if you have a dog in the area. Given the cost and risk if someone is on the outside of the fence (not only to yourself but others who have to risk their lives if you should "slip") this seems a tab disproportionate but "hey" it's the Eastern Suburbs.

Visiting the place we grew up in has been interesting for us. In many ways we know it well - the streets are familiar and many of the landmarks are the same. And yet, it's somehow disorienting. You meet up with people you haven't seen for a lifetime. There are big gaps in your knowledge of what these people have been doing in the 30-40 years you've been away. So many things have changed and yet so much is the same.

One of the people we remet today is Rebecca. She has a shop at Bondi Beach called So Gorgeous. It has an amazing variety of goods ranging from diamond rings and fancy furniture items to Perfect Pets and a vagina lamp (it's a lamp in the shape of a woman's torso with the globe located as the name suggests). It's a real treasure trove.

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