I arranged a house sit in the area where I have a home that was being worked on in the French countryside and even though it isn’t through TH we found each other there.
The HO is threatening to write bad things about me on TH, not possible because the arrangement wasn’t through them, but has taken to the local social media community to air her tirade. I’m not sure this bothers me much as the woman is well known for bad mouthing others, but it does make me wonder how to possibly deal with this in the future. I have one sit under my belt from last June and neither I nor HO left reviews, I think just because we both took the situation for what it was and found no reason to complain.
The house was by my standards really not clean so that I couldn’t actually sleep inside as the dust and animal hair meant I couldn’t breathe. The dogs were lovely. The HO was lovely. I slept in my van and looked after the doggies during the day.
Now I’ve just finished this challenging sit in France, having to keep two woodstoves going all day and care for four horses, two dogs, two cats. Upon arrival the HO immediately asked me to pay for a delivery of wood, and I then also had to buy dog and cat food and other household supplies and pay for the farrier when he came during the sit. The owner’s crass comment to her husband on the phone when I agreed to pay this was, “She’s loaded.” They partially reimbursed me. I arrived for circa two weeks with three bottles of wine which the HO initially claimed she “didn’t drink reds” then proceeded to drink a bottle each night after I went to bed. We were two nights in the house before she left. Ok. The house was filthy. Greasy, piles of dirt, dust balls, hair, etc. She was apparently too hungover to explain things properly and left the house as filthy as I found it with one house key I didn’t manage to figure out how to use, but then managed when she had a neighbor stop by. And a clogged sink she blamed on me. After daily care of horses in below zero weather, hauling wood, walking dogs, cleaning up the excrement that they and cats regularly left in the house, I left the house largely as filthy as I found it with the exception of having cleaned the kitchen so I could use it, sweeping as the vacuum didn’t work, and stripping the bed. The dogs were sweet but uncared for, had fleas, and left to sleep on dirty rags on the cold kitchen floor which I probably should have washed but was afraid the woman would be angry as she was so difficult I dared not do much. But I was not willing to deep clean a house that clearly was not regularly and thoroughly cleaned as I was already consumed with taking care of the animals and keeping the fires going. There is no question in my mind that the animals were lovingly and exceptionally cared for as the neighbors commented. The woman asked me to leave before she returned and I left the kitchen wiped down, everything picked up and as it was, floors swept as best as possible. And now the woman is flipping out, even complaining I used too much wood, but mostly that I didn’t clean her house and it was as she left it. She apparently believed I should be her servant and house cleaner, and bank! I’m flabbergasted and wondering how anyone can possibly deal with such a situation.
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