Help with some light home renovations and stay with our family near Barcelona, Spain

  • Favourited 1511 times
  • Last activity: 10 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    We are happy and respectful people living near BCN and by the beach. We are remodelling our ancient home and a flat, so we have to do carpentry, electricity, plumbing and painting. We would swap 2 hours of honest help a day for a first class accommodation (no meals) in a sunny bedroom in Vilanova i la Geltrú, with your own kitchenette, bathroom and terrace, in a pedestrian street and close to everywhere! Barcelona's city centre is at just 45 minutes by a cheap train and the station is at 4 minutes walking from our home. The beach is a 10 minute walk from home.

    Vicent (teaches German) and Imma (works with troubled teens) are the parents of Marçal (23 years old, at present studying in Milano) and Arnau (22 years old, studying mechanical engineering in Scottland), so they normally join me during the school holidays and some weekends. Although Vicent and I divorced, we keep a good relationship, so workawayers might expect to help at home or at Vicent's home (which is also in our city).

    My sons and I love travelling and enjoy hosting travellers at home and helping them to understand the Spanish and the Catalan culture. We travel swapping homes and we are fond of languages. We are open minded people that like enrolling in open air activities: going to the beach, hiking, skiing and also reading and learning new skills. Both our sons are also interested in computers and robotics.

    The weatherhere is fine most of days. And you can benefit from the sunny terrace in your bedroom.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    DIY and building projects
    General Maintenance
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Vilanova is a safe and lively place, with a great beach, half way and quite close to Barcelona and Tarragona, two UNESCO world's heritage cities. We are also just next to Sitges, a picturesque Mediterranean town. The theme park of Port Aventura is also nearby.

    From our home you can visit, in daily trips, most of what our region has to offer: from the Pyrenees mountains to the Ebro river's delta, old ancient monasteries, such as Montserrat, Poblet or Santes Creus, medieval cities like Montblanc, the beautiful Costa Brava, the wine caves in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, the roman city of Tarragona..., just to talk about a few places we are sure you will love. If interested, we can provide you with information about what to see and to do and can help you plan your stay according to your interests.

    Depending on when you join us, you will be able to take part in popular feasts, see human towers (castells) or practice water sports.

    For the beach lovers: our home is just at 10 minutes walk from a large beach and the weather here is sunny all year long and never really cold (even in the coldest days of winter, never under 10ºC during the day or 5ºC on the coldest nights, and the sea water in winter is around 15ºC).

    If you like hiking, there is a lovely walking path by the sea and along the cliffs that links Vilanova and Sitges and Vilanova to Cubelles.

    On the other hand, if languages are important for you, take into account that we won't teach you Spanish, We will speak English/French with our sons when we host you at home (we always speak Catalan at home, so it's just too weird for us to speak in Spanish to each other. As we have hosted many English people, we find it easy to speak with our sons and hosts in English or in French, rather than doing it in Spanish).

  • Help

    Help

    Please be honest about your skills, Tell us what could you do for us and let's see if we can be a good match!

    We have a variety of tasks to do in order to renew our home and maintain my aunties flat in BCN, i.e. adding lockers to some doors, add a switch and a ceiling light in a room, a couple of sockets in another, drain radiators to make sure our central heating is prepared for next winter, sand and paint some ancient windows, doors and wall. This is why we would welcome volunteers with carpentry skills, electricity, plumbing, plastering and/or painting. So if you have experience in any of these fields, do not hesitate to contact us.

    As a second option, you can help us sewing or helping around the house, i.e. cleaning or creating adds on wallapop to sell stuff we don't use anymore.

    We need you to be a person with a good work's ethic, easy-going and NON SMOKER. We get on well with smiling, open-minded and honest people.

    IMPORTANT: when applying TELL US what YOUR SKILLS are, the approximate DATES of your stay and HOW LONG would you like staying with us. If you are not used to do any of the tasks we need help with, please do not contact us. We know that hotels are expensive in our area and that Barcelona and Vilanova's beach are wonderful, but this is not couchsurfing.

  • Languages spoken

    Catalan: Fluent
    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Fluent
    French: Fluent
    Italian: Fluent

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    In Vilanova i la Geltrú we offer you a bedroom that it's kind of a studio inside our home, as it's a sunny double bedroom with your own inside bathroom, terrace and kitchenette with 2 vitroceramic hobs and a fridge. There is also free high speed wifi. Ours is a 1900's ancient house in a pedestrian area. In fact we are in a leafy street, right in the centre of our city, Vilanova i la Geltrú, in an area full of shops and cafes, but still very quiet at night. From our home, you have everything (shops, market, library, cinema, beach, train station....) at less than 10 minutes on foot.

    We have a decent broadband Internet connection in case you need working remotely.

    You will have plenty of time for you to go around and, if you wish, you can help 4 hours one day and have next day free. But you will have to buy and cook your own food. Anyway, there's a kitchenette in your bedroom, a supermarket and a bakery next door and a market really close by! We are very respectful with the amount of time that you spend helping us and we mostly let you arrange your timetable, so that you can get the most of your stay in our area.

    On the other hand, do not forget that, at present, we can only offer you accommodation, but no meals, in exchange for 2 hours of help a day (so 14h per week). Please, note that, if you are 2 people, you will share a 140x200cm bed and will have to help 2h/day each, unless one of you works 4h/day. The same applies for parents and kids.

    Trains are frequent, very cheap (specially now, that with a 10 euro's frequent traveler card you can travel fro free as much as you want until end December to Barcelona, Sitges the airport and all around the Barcelona's area) and comfortable, and we live close to the railway station, so you can go around by public transportation. There are also buses that brings yo to many places, including the airport and Barcelona.

    Closest airports: Barcelona's airport and Reus airport. Many low cost companies land on them, such as Ryannair, Easyjet, Vueling, etc. The train connects the airport with our home: nearest train station: Vilanova i la Geltrú.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    Maybe it's obvious to say it, but we are a family, not a hotel, so we are sure that you will act as you would do at home (so you will clean up after yourself, let your bedroom in perfect conditions the day of your departure, switch off lights and/or fan when not in your bedroom, etc).

    We enjoy having a coffee cup with our guests and are willing to answer to your questions about living in our country. but we just don't have time to show you around Barcelona and/or provide entertainment in a regular basis. This is why we tend to get on better with couples or self sufficient singles. We can host individuals and couples. The bedroom at your disposal has a very comfortable140x200cm bed.

    We wish you safe, inspiring and happy travels... and a wonderful experience in Catalonia! :-)

    And thanks for reading!

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    Decent wi-fi conection

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    Two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    Maximum 14 hours per week - food not provided

Host ref number: 687653292599

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