Enjoy Maine while helping a multicultural family breathe life into a century old home in Boothbay Harbor, United States

Details

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  Description

  We are a multilingual family of 5 that has recently moved from Spain to my family's 19th century home in the middle of the beautiful town of BOOTHBAY HARBOR. The house has been in my family for almost 50 years and after moving away when I was a child I always dreamed of finding a way to move back. Through many twists and turns, and meeting my husband who thought my dream could actually be his dream too, we've finally found a way to make this a reality.
  
  So, we finally found our way to Maine, but the house is huge! Which is both a blessing and curse, there's plenty of room, but also plenty to do. We are also a very busy family with three children aged 2 to 8 years old. We've always enjoyed getting to know people from other cultures and we welcomed aupairs to our home in Spain for 4 years. This led us to think that a work stay arrangement might suit both our family's needs, but also offer other people a way to better understand our cultures (Catalan, Spanish and American) and of course be able to enjoy the beautiful place where we live.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are a multilingual/multicultural family. My husband is Catalan and I am an American that grew up in French speaking Quebec. We can help people perfect and learn English, Spanish or French. We also love to celebrate each cultures different holidays. Other than a vibrant cultural family life we live in a region that offers a wide variety of outdoor activities.

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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

  *****FOR FEBUARY ****** Since Winter in Maine is cold our outdoor projects are on hold for the moment. We are looking for people who can help us with day to day tasks, keeping our children company while we tackle other projects and small maintenance and upkeep projects.
  
  *******For the rest of the year **************
  
  Our Spring/Summer projects will probably include
  Building raised beds
  Repairing Gutters
  Painting outdoor/indoor
  Repairing a ceiling
  Assorted yard work
  Cleaning windows
  
  And if you are not particularly handy we can also use help with day to day chores and following the toddler around.
  
  Our beautiful home was empty for many winters and now needs updating such as painting and in some places a thorough cleaning. The yard has been left rampant and the trees, shrubs and bushes need pruning and care. We also would like to do some repairs to the outside of the house such as replacing gutters, some rotted siding and maybe, hopefully build a small deck of the kitchen. My husband loves to do these projects, but with our three small children it's been hard to find the time to get them done. Although we are not looking for specific help with the kids we are hoping that our guests will want to teach them about where they're from and give us a hand with them so we can get things done around the house. It would also be great if our travellers would cook a meal or two. Also we expect everyone to pitch in with cleaning up after meals and meal prep.
  
  We expect our travellers to help between 3-4 hours a day, but we are flexible. For example if you would like to get a particular task done in a day and then have a day or two off to do your own thing we are fine with that. We also aren't very picky as to the schedule, except if you offer to cook a meal, then we do need to eat on time since the kids will get grumpy :) There are many tasks to choose from so you can choose what you like best.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  Catalan: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Italian: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  Our traveller will have a bedroom on the third floor of our house and a separate bathroom. The room has a double bed so we would also welcome couples. Our travellers are more than welcome to share our meals with us, but we cannot accommodate special requests such as lactose free, gluten free or vegan meals. Although we are not vegetarian we like lots of vegetables, so we can usually fin vegetarian options for our travellers. We expect our travelers to meet their own needs for snacks and if they are very specific about what they eat.

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  What else ...

  BOOTHBAY HARBOR is a beautiful coastal town in Midcoast Maine. In the Summer there are many boating possibilities along with hiking and swimming, in the Fall hiking and enjoying foliage are some key activities and in the winter Maine offer different winter sports such as skiing and skating.

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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

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Although we are in town our driveway and yard are quite spacious.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Our kids would love a pet, unfortunately right now we feel like we can't make that commitment, but we love animals and don't have any problem with sharing our space with them.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  3-4h/day, 5 days/week