On the face of it, to go and housesit for a month at a property fifteen minutes from home seems ludicrous.
That may be the case but when the said property is a three level, architecturally designed home 3km from the MCG with the opportunity to babysit the most beautiful rescue dog, it was too good to resist.
The home is stunning, fitted with all the mod cons and backs onto a dog park and the Yarra River. The walks go east to Doncaster and west to the city along a multitude of tracks complete with ancient, giant river gums.
You could swear we were in Yarrawonga but without the crowds. Given most of Melbourne has justifiably cleared out after two years of lockdowns, it’s dead quiet. All that’s left is a smattering of mortgage-laden hipsters queuing up for coffees at their local.
We’re in Alphington, only a short walk from Fairfield where I first lived upon arriving in Melbourne thirty years ago. My first job was at the Grandview Hotel on the corner of Heidelberg Rd and Station Streets where unnecessary violence was common and mostly perpetrated by the publican himself.
I had no idea of this tranquil existence only five minutes from the hustle and bustle of the city. Our day consists of breakfast for us and Bobby the dog, a ninety minute to two hour walk, shower, coffee five minutes-walk away, read on the deck, lunch, read, snooze, thirty minute walk with Bobby, read, dinner, TV and/or movie/series.
This is not far from the perfect break for us. We could travel interstate and we’d be doing pretty much the same thing, except one of us can go home and get the mail once a week!
The thinking behind this sojourn was simple really. We are planning to fully retire in a couple of years and travel indefinitely overseas. AirBnB has always been our first choice on the road where feasible and we have found that the more five star reviews we garner corresponds to the speed of being accepted by prospective home owners.
Housesitting has been around in many basic forms for decades but we have logged into www.trustedhousesitters.com.au mainly because they provide a lot of overseas options.
This housesit is our first attempt and clearly we lucked into a ripper. The owners are a wonderful retired couple and the handover was seamless. Having such a gorgeous dog is a bonus as we haven’t had pets for seven years since they passed.
To be a housesitter naturally requires a few hoops to jump through but isn’t as rigorous as MyGov for instance and the emphasis is very much on your history with pets as it should be.
Not all properties will be as spectacular as this one, nor will the duration be as long. I have a friend who migrated from Tassie five years ago and decided to see the mainland before settling in Melbourne. He housesitted the entire country for a year, rent free.
To register on Trusted Housesitters will cost you $85 a year, but that’s it. The owners give you the property for free and you leave it as you found it. Certainly it’s another fantastic, cost effective way to holiday for both parties.
We hope to travel the world utilising a combination of AirBnB and Housesitting as much as we can. We are also having to leave our current rental property of seven years this time next year. Our housesitting journey looks like coming early.
Here are some photos from the couple of walks we have completed so far.
