Remembering the names of everyone’s lamps on their smart home/Alexa system. In one home, it’s “sun room” and “black lamp” (kind of a toungue-twister!) In another, it’s “Living room” or is it “family room?” Oh no, that was the last house…
At my current sit, it’s “lamps 1, 2, & 3” and while 2 & 3 work well on command, asking Alexa to “turn on lamp 1” somehow turns on any one of them! And of course, it’s the lamp I use the most.
In our grand technological future, I did not picture myself shouting at lighting.
(After housesitting full time for 5 years, I have definitely decided to never have a smart speaker in my home once I settle back down!)
What are some random things you never thought you’d deal with in someone else’s home? Not the big fails, just the little “that’s funny” sort of stuff.
Me finding out from the Gardner who came as I was leaving.told me I had been watering a plastic pot plant faithfully every two or three days for a fortnight.there was fourteen others but they were real.ho must have thought I was nuts!
For me it was a sit that didn’t have a table - at all. The photos on the listing were great - comfy bed, plenty of closet space, well-appointed kitchen, modern bathroom. Somehow I did not notice that there was no table. Apparently the HOs ate, worked, crafted etc. on the enormous couch in the living room (which didn’t even have a coffee or end table). It was a six week sit and after trying multiple workarounds I finally hit upon using their ironing board, covered with a towel, as a dining table because I was not comfortable balancing meals or my computer on my lap. They had lived there for years, and it was a really nice house! I never got the nerve to ask them why they were table-less.
On one sit, my hosts lived next to a deep ravine / gorge. They kept a shovel and told me to fling all the dog poop over the fence.
At another host’s request, I fed a squirrel who would visit every day for nuts and water. The squirrel always took food to go, despite a table reserved for it.
I’ve had a sit before (pre THS) that there was literally nowhere to sit down, except on the bed, which was well pulled away from the wall, so no leaning either. It is endlessly fascinating to me how other people live.
Waking up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and seeing the dog and two cats all in my bed. Came back from the restroom and saw two of them shifted positions and now there was no room for me. Half asleep I said forget it and went to the couch to sleep. In the morning I found the dog sleeping on the floor next to me, one cat on the other side of the couch and the other one on a chair across from me staring at me.
My first sit with a conduction cooktop - there were pots and pans of all sizes that worked on the cooktop but none of them had handles. I microwaved or oven cooked all food for a few days until I discovered the 2 detachable handles that fit on all the pots and pans.
@Oztravels too funny! In one of our earliest sits we had a broken window repaired, thinking we had somehow smashed it while setting ourselves up … when the HO’s returned we apologised profusely only to be thanked profusely for repairing a window they “were gunna repair” 5 years prior, they just never got around to it! Lesson learned … we ask for a list of the quirky stuff HO’s have learnt to live with (stuck windows, squeaky hinges, broken mops etc.), saves on the heartache and hip pocket
I’ve been through exactly the same scenario. It was a long sit and it took me some two weeks to figure out this (hmmm) interesting concept. Prior to that, I was only using the one and only pot with handles, and I found changing the handles all the time to be too bothersome, so I continued to do so. (Luckily I hardly do any cooking)
We rescued a sheep that was well and truly stuck in a fence. It was on a tenant-farmer’s land and ‘our’ windows overlooked the field. So 9pm as the sun was setting when we noticed it and as we couldn’t figure out where the tenant farmer’s property actually was, we went to help instead.
We didn’t know whether the sheep was able to stay standing all night long until the farmer did his rounds… still don’t know the answer to that one, so we wrestled with it instead, and told the farmer the next day.
On a separate occasion, we’ve also helped to rear an escaped sheep, to get it back into it’s field before. The farmers said, “you cut her off from that side”… it had decided the pub car park was far more attractive!
Our pet sitting life definitely isn’t dull at all, love it! We didn’t used to get things like this happening in Durham .
Another - sitting on a tidal river in Virginia in January with 2 indoor cats and 2 semi-feral cats who lived and ate outside the whole week I was there although I’m told they sometimes stood at the glass door to be let in for a while.
We had a cold snap - got down to the mid-20s F and had about an inch of snow. Shallow parts of the river froze over.
Left a bowl of wet food out for the ferals and woke up in the morning to find a wake of black buzzards feasting on the frozen cat food (with the river frozen over they couldn’t fish). The pair of indoor cats sat by the glass door watching them. The pair of outdoor cats retreated to the other side of the house away from the buzzards.
I too find myself having to remember how to address Alexa in each house, along with the code for burglar alarms (and which setting is for in/out/night etc) Regulars seem to assume I’ll remember from the last visit, but in the intervening months I’ll have done several others.
I remember arriving at a sit and being provided with a turkey baster. It was for sucking up the ‘poop’ from the bottom of a tank of tadpoles. Another one for the memoir!
“Salmon lamp”! The owners did tell me but I had forgotten what it was called. It was in my bedroom and I like my bedroom dark. I shouted a lot of fish names at Alexa before landing on the correct one (which I now can’t forget)!
Working with the owner to rapidly shut and secure several sets of patio doors as the terrier was so pleased to meet us she had entered the garden proudly carrying a large rat! Then being shown where to hide the bodies!
Rescuing 2 of those huge, helicopter shaped dragonflies from a glass window in a flat roof. Top tip: find a large house plant and bring it up high enough under the dragonfly that it has to land on one of the leaves, then rapidly climb down from whatever you were standing on and head for the garden. Put down the plant and wait for it to fly away.
Carrying a damp labrador in from the garden because he likes lying in the rain and refuses to come in, but it is bedtime! (My son did this one)
It amazes me the things people don’t have, no iron or ironing board for instance but the biggest irritation is when I go somewhere for more than a week and there’s no space for me. Nowhere to put my clothes, toiletries in the bathroom etc. One home used their cooker top as a shelf so couldn’t be used - such an education into the lives of others!
This reminds me of the time I chased 2 x cats and 2 x spaniels round and round the large kitchen island with a broom !
One of the gang ( cat ) had bought in a wild rabbit ( through the cat flap ) and the bunny was now being passed between the spaniels who found it all very entertaining . Having me chasing them was only adding to the fun ( for them ) !
Meanwhile my husband was completely oblivious because he was enjoying SkySports in the tv room which was in a different part of the house .
