Welcome to spend time with our family in London, UK

Details

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  Description

  **Please note: we are looking for guests who want to stay with us for a few months at least - ideally longer. If you want a speedy reply PLEASE write in your subject line the dates you'd like to stay - we get a lot of messages!**
  
  We are a busy London family: we are both self-employed so our working hours can be quite variable, and Christian travels abroad for about a week each month. In addition, we've both recently become trustees of a local charity that was about to close down (we're still trying to save it from that fate!). In case all that wasn't enough, we have two very energetic children aged 6 and 2; a house that we are still (after 8 years!) working on; and an allotment (a small plot of land for growing food) too!
  
  We bought our house together with Serena's brother Alex (and his cat). Since then we have added two children, another cat and a hive of bees (we would like to keep chickens but first we need to build an enclosure secure enough from the foxes which are EVERYWHERE in London). Since both children are boys, Serena is now completely outnumbered by messy males and definitely appreciates an extra hand teaching them all to clean up after themselves.
  
  If you speak Norwegian that's a bonus so our children can grow up hearing more of their Pappa's language (and maybe you can help Serena a little with my very unconfident Norwegian conversation...) But there aren't very many Norwegian-speakers in the world so that's just an added bonus :-)
  
  According to Workaway rules, in the UK we can now only advertise for an au pair or a house-sitter; most of our previous Workaway guests have got involved with anything and everything we have going on, and some of them have loved working on our allotment and having food grown at home.
  
  Our house is a good fit for workawayers who:
  - Want to be welcomed into a family and become an important part of it for a substantial length of time
  - Have a great sense of initiative and can look around them and notice the tasks that need to be done
  - Love keeping a space clean and tidy and nice to be in, with great attention to detail and would rather do a job properly than hastily :-)
  - Enjoy the company of small children and animals
  - Are passionate about nature and love to grow things
  - Have an enthusiastic, positive attitude to life

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Of course we will look after you, introduce you to London culture etc. On the evenings when Christian cooks you can expect to be fed extremely well (when I'm on my own my supper, if I remember it, tends to consist of beer and Pringles...) Christian's diabetic, so we usually try to have a diet that's low in carbohydrates to keep his blood sugar more stable (also sadly after two babies this is nowadays the only way I can keep my waistline stable). This inevitably means we eat quite a lot of meat, fish and other animal-derived products so we might not be the best hosts for a vegetarian (or, like one lovely Italian guest we had, someone can't survive a single day without eating pasta :-D )
  
  Several of our workaway guests have come back for a repeat visit so I think they enjoy their time here :-)

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  Au Pair Help

  This host has let us know they’ll be complying with UK regulations for au pair stays.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  The help varies quite a lot depending on the time of year and what our work commitments are. At the moment both of us are doing a lot of volunteering for a local charity that almost closed down last summer - and since we're both involved, that sometimes means we need someone to entertain the children while we're at a meeting. Christian travels for work about one week in four, so I'll need a little extra help on those weeks staying on top of housework and getting the children to the various places they need to b.
  
  It's probably going to appeal most to people who love bringing order to chaos, enjoy the outdoors, or like home improvements :-) Serena spends a lot of time working on the garden and allotment and some of our previous Workaway guests have really enjoyed being involved with that :-) (This is not part of your duties as Workaway rules for au pairs state you cannot be asked to help with gardening.)

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Norwegian: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  You would have your own room, on the top floor of the house. We live in a lovely Victorian house with a garden, which was in a pretty bad state when we bought it, and which we're doing up. However the top floor is now almost completely finished and has a brand new bathroom, and small balcony with a lovely view! The only other person on the top floor is Alex, so you will only be sharing 'your' bathroom with him :-)
  
  All our Workaway guests have said they love the house - even when we had no showers and the bedrooms didn't have doors yet! - so I guess we're doing something right :-)

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  What else ...

  We live in zone 3 of London, so it's a bit quieter than the centre and has a strong community feel, but it's still really easy to get in to central London when you want to. If you're happy riding a bicycle you'll find it really easy to get about and find local coffee shops, pubs, the shopping centre etc. There are several parks nearby which we've learned to appreciate properly in the last couple of years!

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  Since there are 3 of us working from home we have made sure we have really good internet and we're on a business contract so get priority from the provider for fixing any outages.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  There is free parking on our street.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

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  Hours expected

  max 25 hours a week

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