A warm welcome from Angela, your Community Manager

Thanks Julie… it’s been a big job and we were same… needed to do ourselves as completed vans are so expensive in UK, and you never know what the condition of the van is beneath the conversion. We sold up completely 5 years ago, so no UK base now either, but we were just lucky that our first sit after lockdown was a month long in the countryside, and our homeowner was happy for us to do the work on it on the big driveway. Then another sit gifted their garage twice for the duration. I think everyone is being so understanding right now because they know the problems some full timers are facing. BUT… that said we were lucky, and it wouldn’t be how we’d do it again. We would find somewhere to rent and work on the van for a 2 month period under cover where you don’t need to worry about weather issues. A second one would be a lot quicker, now we know what we are doing and what we want!!

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@HousesittingMag … A new Ian business venture “House Sitting Van Hire” or “Van conversion course” I think you’ve made an incredibly smart move - like you always do.

Safe and happy travels to you both.

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Just wondering if Ian converged the van himself or if you used a company. If so who? It’s something that I’m mooting…although haven’t got much money to spend on it

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@HousesittingMag - I am making so many notes from you :grinning:. May not be needing the notes just yet but who knows, one day we hope to follow your journey. How great is that, the kind offers you have received from previous HO. It really is amazing us on so many occasions the kindness we are coming across. One HO paid our car mot/service bill !!! How kind is that! We only contacted him to ask if he knew of a garage we should contact in the area (we didnt know the area that well but cared for his pet and home before and he was in the classic car business). He told us of a garage and when we went to collect the car when ready, the bill had been paid. He had no reason to do that, when we phoned him to thank him and tell him how naughty he was (with a tear in my eye I can tell you), he said he knew he didnt have to do that but he wanted to. So kind !
and then just last week another previous house owner is going to visit her friend so that we can stay in her house for last 2 weeks of november (she knows we have been let down a lot with cancellations and I’m pretty sure she didnt plan to visit her friend). How kind is that!
Btw - think your User name should be Van-essssssa :joy: :joy:
Enjoy your French road trips!

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Ian did it himself. We looked at quite a few, but none were set up how we needed. We still need to work on House Sitting Magazine and we do some teaching online, so we wanted space for this, and a full-size bed and a “proper” kitchen. In the end we thought it would be easier to design to our own requirements. It has cost us around 6K to do the fitting out, but it has a high tech off-grid setup with 2 solar panels, a good quality inverter etc. so that all adds up. We also went for natural insulation … sheep’s wool and eco paints etc. Again all those things add up. You could do it much less expensively.

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The generosity is humbling, it really is. Keeps my faith in human nature strong despite it faltering at times when I see some actions of people thru this pandemic!! I hope you do get to follow us. I think a van life and house sitting mix is going to be a wonderful new adventure x

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Sounds great! You’re lucky Ian could do it himself. I’ve some friends who are on their second Iveco (originally an ambulance) that he spent months doing up as they required. He saved thousands as a result. Hope you have some good times in it and look forward to hearing more about your travels.

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Hi from Leicestershire UK. Just got added to the forum. Looking forward to getting to know other sitters.

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HI @Loud65 welcome to our forum community it’s so great to have you join us and what an adorable picture :heart: :dog2:
We know you’ll enjoy meeting everyone and the wonderful conversations, we can’t wait to get to know more about you and your Trustedhousesitters journey.

Hello & welcome! Are you the blonde one :wink:?

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blond, brown, grey…

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A big welcome to you!

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Such a nice puppy you have

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Hello everyone,

Delighted to be part of the testing team! I’m Camilla and my husband and I have loved using Trusted Housesitters over the past few years. My cousin originally recommended TH and we’ve been lucky enough to have some wonderful sitters over the years. We live in Kingston, south-west London, with our daughter and, most importantly, our beautiful tabby cat, Archie :grinning:

Obviously no holidays this year, but we do have two planned for 2021 and fingers crossed they will be able to go ahead. We’ll be on the lookout for some lovely sitters … :crossed_fingers:

Looking forward to getting to know you all

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Hello Camilla and Archie of course we are delighted to have you join our community forum and thank you for being part of TrustedHousesitters, we can’t wait to learn more about your journey and the wonderful sitters you’ve connected with over the years.

Kingston is lovely and a fab place for sitters to enjoy and we hope 2021 will give you and all of our community, the opportunity to travel once more.

Thank you again Camilla, enjoy the conversation, getting to know our members and making new friends … we look forward to meeting Archie too. :slightly_smiling_face: :heart_eyes_cat:

Angela & #TeamTrusted

Thanks for the warm welcome, Angela!

Here’s a photo of Archie. He’s a really lovely cat, very friendly and good-natured, and he’s always got on very well with all our sitters.

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Good Morning Archie … Welcome to our forum, hope we see you more often and please bring your family members with you.

Angela and the team

Hi Angela
This is my first time in the community forum. I am a huge fan for Trusted House Sitters and have had wonderful experiences here. Our first experience was with a wonderful couple from Rochester NY, who sat for our fur babies for 1 week. It was a few years ago, but we remain in contact with them to this day. We could not have been happier with the way they cared for our “babies” and our home. So…Im back again. I have 2 scheduled vacations and glad to know that this community of house sitters are available to care for our 3 fur babies and our home. If these experiences are as good as the first time…I will be over the moon with happiness!!

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Hi @DAV1 welcome to our community forum and to TrustedHousesitters, it’s always wonderful to hear how joining our community has allowed human family members to travel with absolute peace of mind knowing beloved fur babies are kept safe and happy at home … and making lifelong friends is something that happens to so many of us, it’s happened to me too.

I’m sure you will be jumping over the moon again and you little ones will have their very own staycation with pet loving sitters … vacation pet sitting with love, it’s what we do.

Thank you again for joining in the conversation and we look forward to sharing in your THS journey and you next vacations.

Angela & The Team