Summer House Sitting

Summer took a slightly different turn for us this year. Rather than getting on a plane, we got in the car!

We took on a couple of house sitting projects during the August school holidays. I was meant to write this as soon as we got back but I never got round to it and now it’s going to take me twice as long whilst I try and piece it all back together as it’s already feels as if it could of been last year! Faye has prompted me to get this written – as part of her homework this term is to write a recount of her summer holidays, so she’s writing her version and I’m writing mine! It’ll be interesting to see who remembers more – I’d put money on that being Faye!

I joined Trusted Housesitters earlier on in the year after hearing about it through work. Someone across the office had mentioned they knew someone who disappeared off for a year travelling and my ears pricked up immediately! The way they had managed to keep costs down was to do lots of different house sits wherever they could get them across the globe. Instantly I joined the website, created a profile and spent the afternoon scrolling the site for prospective houses that would suit Faye and I, and even our dog Sydney!

It didn’t take long and we’d managed to get our first house sit, during May Half Term in a humongous house on the outskirts of London and all we needed to do was feed Flo the cat – from that we were hooked! We came back from that house sit and applied for another handful of one’s during the August school holidays and were lucky enough to get a two week stay in the Cotswolds. This was a beautiful 5 bedroom farm house in the absolute middle of nowhere with sheep, chickens, two dogs and a cat named Bob. We also took our dog Sydney! After speaking with Jo and Michael who owned the house I decided to ask if my parents could come along too – Jo was the kindest host and said ‘the more the merrier’ so we had a houseful but it made for a brilliant trip.

We were based about 10 minutes from Stroud, our nearest town, which had everything we needed. The house itself backed onto the Cotswolds Way which made for plenty of brilliant dog walking. Man, was it hilly though! We definitely burnt some calories on this trip, which is probably a first for me! We did lots of day trips out and about but also spent time enjoying the lovely garden.

The location of the house was brilliant, a lot of great places were only a short drive away and a lot of them dog friendly!

• Slimbridge Wildlife Centre | Great wildlife centre for a day out based in Gloucestershire, plenty of activities for kids.
• Westonbirt Arboretum | Jo our host had recommended the arboretum to us as a good place to go with the dogs. It was a picturesque forest, full of loads of different walks and lots of activities for the kids. It has a fab wooden cafe at the centre where the dogs got treated to some ice cream!
• Painswick | This was our nearest village, only a mile walk. But very hilly so took us a while! Plenty of stops to catch our breath. The village itself was beautiful, full of Cotswold stone and quaint houses. Although you need to head there in the morning as everything closes at 2pm – something we wish we’d of known, as once we arrived, after a hot and sweaty walk, we were gasping for a drink and a spot of late lunch but the only thing open was the local off-licence, so tins in the church garden it was!
• Cheltenham Lido | We were about 40 minutes away from Cheltenham but we had some fab weather so took to Google to try and find a Lido and that’s how we came across the Sandford Parks one. I wasn’t sure what to expect as the only one I’ve been to in Cambridge is ice cold, but this one was fantastic two HEATED pools with slides for the kids, a playground, cafe, ice cream parlour and plenty of space to pitch up even on a warm English summers day. It cost around £15 for the four of us to get in and we stayed until it closed and even ended up going back for a second day! Couldn’t recommend the place more – if I was local I’d be down there all the time. They do loads of events at the lido all throughout the year, different clubs can hire it for lessons – there was a kayaking lesson as we left one day and at the end of the season before the pool is cleaned they even open it for a dog swim!!
• Rococo Gardens | The garden, just out of Painswick, is the only surviving garden of the Rococo period that is open to the public. Dog friendly and about £9 per head entry. Its a slow few hours stroll through the lovely gardens with lots of sculptures to admire. We also had a lovely lunch and got lost in the maze!
• Giffords Circus | It was my Dad’s birthday whilst we were away so we thought we’d treat him to a trip to the Circus! We had heard of Giffords through my brother who had said how great they were, and he is not a natural circus lover so it must of been good! Giffords Circus are a self-made, family run business based in the Cotswolds, they tour round the Cotswolds and outskirts of London for 6 months of the year. The show this year was Xanadu based on the music of the 70’s. It was fantastic and there wasn’t a spare seat in the house – I think there was more adults than there was children!
• Gloucester Cathedral | Faye was very keen to head to Gloucester Cathedral as they filmed a number of scenes from Harry Potter in it 🤓 – she’d be able to tell you which ones! The day we visited it was lashing with rain so we took a few hours respite in the Cathedral, they were having a rehearsal ahead of a concert that evening which was free to sit in and watch.
• Gloucester Quays Shopping Centre | Always a hit with me, outlet shopping mall!

The house worked so well for us, especially being able to take our dog Syd with us as we had no accommodation costs and no kennel fees! I’m now on the hunt for some house sits for the school holidays next year! We’ve only done UK based ones so far but keen to try one abroad! Since speaking to some friends since the Cotswold’s sit I was then offered a house for the last two weeks of the school holiday in the next village to where we live looking after a couple of labs so we ended up being out of our own house for over 4 out of the 6 weeks and it didn’t cost me a penny!!