Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
27 Feb 2025
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 4 days
Feedback
52
ID verified
Email verified
Badges (3)
Details
Description
Hi, I'm Andrew, thanks for looking at our profile,
We are a family of 3 living in the suburbs of Newcastle about 10 mins from the local beaches. I have 2 kids (well, sort of kids... @16yo & 18yo - they are getting big now). We enjoy cafes and going to the beach and playing in our pool. We also like cycling and playing games, chilling out and chatting with friends.
The younger of the two kids attends the local school which is just up the road.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
One of the great things is getting to know the kids (they're teenagers now) and teaching and learning from them about how a household runs in Australia, including the strange beetles, spiders, snakes, etc that live here (not in our house though ! ).
I love learning languages, (although I'm not that great at any other than English yet), but I'm more than happy the help you our with your English picking up grammatical error to make your English sound more natural (and learn some words of your language too!).
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
I spend lots of my time renovating (fixing/building) houses, including the house we live in, and love to have people to work with. The house we live in is currently being renovated and an extension is being constructed. Right now I really need help with timber framing - putting the house-extension together - we are currently up to the floor frames and working on getting the rest of it up.
Help at work:
Generally we ask you to help out in the renovations about 21 hours per week each (normally 3 x 7.5 hour days - we tend to stop for half hour to have lunch but the hours could also be spread over more days with less hours), fixing the place up or helping with the build and then spend the rest of the time at your leisure.
Ideally we are looking for helpers who have been involved in building or renovating (or are keen to learn) but also people who will get on with young people (teenager-friendly) and are happy to get involved in the regular bits of life such as cooking and eating together.
By the way: if you have a background in building or construction please let us know: having skilled trades such as carpenters, plumbers or electricians stay is such a blessing and we are super keen to make sure it's worth your while.
There are always a huge range of jobs to do like:
• Painting walls and fixtures
• Installing joinery
• Gardening
• Attaching fixtures and fittings
• Carpentry
• Hanging new doors
• Putting up new plasterboard onto the walls
• Cooking and cleaning
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
German: Beginner
French: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
"Beginner" doesn't give enough weight to how poor our French and German is... We know some basic nouns :-$ but we like learning new words and phrases!
Accommodation
We live in the Newcastle suburb of Waratah, about 15 minutes drive from the beach. It has a local shopping centre with Coles and K Mart and about 10 other little shops. At the moment we are renovating the house that we live in but you will have your own room, and the house bathroom and kitchen are safe and functional. It has a really nice pool too and there is an indoor deck looking over the pool and facing east which is really nice in the morning sun.
Your room is at the back of the house and has a queen-sized bed, a desk, bedside tables and a lamp plus various hooks around the room to hang your things on.
Our house is joined (via a common rear deck) to our neighbour, so we sometimes need to keep the noise down.
We have NBN internet which is pretty good and achieves 50-10 Mb/s (good for Zoom and Skype).
What else ...
Generally we are looking for people who are going to fit in with our family. People who are: Independent, friendly, hardworking, willing to work in the team to get things done and solve problems.
One of the biggest things is people who have some life experience and know how to help out without direct instruction.
What else...
We try to offer comfortable accommodation and warm hospitality! You have your own room (no sleeping in refurbished shipping containers or dank rooms here), but sometimes we have to swap bedrooms around depending on who is staying (the kids/my partner/family etc).
We have built up a helper’s book over time with lots of suggestions of things you can do around Newcastle and we also have a range of brochures.
If you’d like to be involved in our life and projects, send us a message and we can hopefully get to know each other better in the coming weeks and months.
So come and stay, it’s a great life and a great place to stay
Looking forward to meeting you soon.
Andrew, Annaliese and Liam
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Digital-working your way around the globe? - Awesome! I work from home too, (as an Architect) so can help out with where to get printing (if you need it) and I understand the need to work odd hours to fit in with other timezones (my draftsman is in Turkey and book-keeper in the Philipines). There is a desk in your room which you can set up for meetings etc. The internet is good (most of the time - recently the internet company has been upgrading the local network so we will soon (est July 2024) have fibre connection to the house.
Space for parking camper vans
Our driveway is a little narrow so not really suitable for large motor homes, but your average campervan fits just fine on the street. There is free unlimited parking on the street and you can usually get a spot right in front of the house.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (25)
These guys only stayed with me for a few weeks but they are just such a delight to have stay.
Both David and MJ are really chatty and social, they fit right in with our family and we're able to slip quickly into the household routine.
It's a little stereotypical but they have absolutely set the stereotype of Germans… read more
Spending time with them was wonderful.… read more
They… read more
Andrew is a great host and although we did not have prior building experience, he clearly explained what needed to be done and was patient as we… read more
For much of the time I was actually away and so they were house-sitting for us. They were really independent and looked after their jobs. They're also really lovely people and we're very warm to have around. More than happy to recommend these guys to any… read more
We had a good time and can recommend a stay with Andrew to… read more
Photos
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(5.0)
These guys only stayed with me for a few weeks but they are just such a delight to have stay.
Both David and MJ are really chatty and social, they fit right in with our family and we're able to slip quickly into the household routine.
It's a little stereotypical but they have absolutely set the stereotype of Germans… read more
Spending time with them was wonderful.… read more
They… read more
Andrew is a great host and although we did not have prior building experience, he clearly explained what needed to be done and was patient as we… read more
For much of the time I was actually away and so they were house-sitting for us. They were really independent and looked after their jobs. They're also really lovely people and we're very warm to have around. More than happy to recommend these guys to any… read more
We had a good time and can recommend a stay with Andrew to… read more
Particularly, Annalieses, my 17 year old, very quickly grew fond of them and was sad when they left.
The girls are really lovely polite and helpful around the house. I didn't mind any of the jobs we set for them and carried out everything well.
Their English is still developing but we didn't have any… read more
Productive and enjoyable at the same time where both of us were able to get stuck into work around the house. We both now feel we have gained new skills we would have not otherwise learned - how cool!
Andrew is kind, welcoming and made us two women feel very safe during our stay there. He is super friendly and… read more
Ellis and Jas have a really lovely demeanor, are beautigul people and were a great help around the house. They're also both really independent… read more
Nina's ability to connect with Annaliese, our 16-year-old daughter, was awesome. They got… read more
I am very grateful to have met you, Andrew!
Thank you for the conversations, the help… read more
When I arrived in Newcastle, the bus dropped me off in the center of the village and Andrew came to pick me up with his beautiful car. Immediately, the current passed between us. He explained… read more
Willie and I worked together… read more
she helped out with cleaning some bricks that we will be using for a recycled brick wall, tidying up the tool shed and helping to create a shadow… read more
The afternoons where lovely - if the kids where home or not - and it was always fun spending… read more
She was able to to get loads of the job's we set on the to-do list done, many of them autonomously. She fit in really well with the kids and Annaliese grew very fond of her.
I would thoroughly recommend her for future hosts.
Andrew
these 2 are so self sufficient, they organised their own fun in the time off and were really good at painting plastering and helping frame a wardrobe.
I was so impressed that I refer them on to my family who then hosted them as their first work away experience another great win.
I'd recommend these guys… read more
We felt at home straight away with great accommodation and access to loads of places around Newcastle. Andrew was an excellent host and we learnt so much from DIY to renovating to sushi making!
He took us to local beaches and out for pizza and we even… read more
They worked hard and were… read more
It was very pleasant. Andrew and his two children are a warm family.
We worked 20 hours / week organized on 2 days and 1/2. Andrew is a patient person who took the time to share his handyman knowledge! (Assembly of kitchen, painting, insulation, household etc). He is also attentive and rich in exchange.… read more
If this guy offers to coem to your place you should take him up...
Matt is Brilliant, between hardworking, humble, and able to undertake tasks unsupervised (and even without being requested).
We did heaps of things together from building work, to building his camper car (including cook top, sink and benches!)
He initially planned to… read more
He was helpful around the house as well as laying concrete and framing timber. He was also able to work to a list of tasks when I wasn’t able to be around which… read more
Everything was great; we loved working at the house project, playing with the kids (in the pool!!), having a room and bathroom upstairs to ourselves, we enjoyed Ruth's amazing cooking! They let us borrow their bikes and gave us… read more
Thanks for your work Henning
Highly recomend - fantastic with kids and willing to keep working above and beyond! Miss em lots. Ruth
The time was just fun and ran by soo quickly :) We had a lot of leisure time and hours for ourselves and even the work and the game nights were awesome!
Thanks for the time.
The only thing we can do, is to recommend this family to all Aussie… read more
Working on the new house has been very exciting and we enjoy… read more
Visit them, you definitely won`t regret it :)
Thanks for this fantastic… read more
