Help a family with home DIY project and gardening in Lescout, France

Details

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  Description

  We are an American and English family of 4, our kids are 5 and 2 1/2. We are in the process of restoring and renovating a home with several historic outbuildings in Southern France.
  
  Our property was formerly the working buildings for the nearby chateau and surrounding farmland. It includes a family home which is mid-renovation, two gites, an empty building which was once a Michelin star restaurant, a very large tractor barn, an open barn with a beautiful arched wall that was formerly used for outdoor dining, a water tower, a gorgeous pool (done now!), over a dozen 100+ year old olive trees we imported in, an established rose garden, orchard, woodland, etc.
  
  We're located about an hour from the Toulouse airport at the base of the Black Mountains. It's beautiful countryside here, and there are several small villages nearby and a big town within 20 min or so. People are really nice, there are always little community events going on and markets. There's a stunning lake nearby, mountains if you fancy hiking, lots of bikers on the road (Tour de France passes by our house sometimes!).
  
  I (F, late 30s) am American by birth. I moved to London in my early 20's and lived there for about a decade. My husband is British. We moved to France about 5 years ago even though our French was nonexistent, because we needed to beat Brexit, and both our kids were born here. We are kind of bilingual now, although our French is still not great. If you wanted some practice with English we can certainly help with that, and we could use some forced exposure to French lol!
  
  I'm a photographer and retoucher, and I generally fly back to London about once a month for work. My husband is working on our property full time and has a background in property development/renovation and in human resources in the UK. Our kids are in school here in France during the weekdays, and they are both really friendly and fun.
  
  My husband's parents usually come to help us for about a month in the spring and fall, and my parents come for about a week, so those are the only dates that need to be worked around. Otherwise, it's just us and we'd love to have some fun new people around for a bit:)

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Videography

  

  Fashion or beauty

  

  Self development

  

  Plant care

  

  Photography

  

  Mountain

  

  Beach

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Fitness
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are an American/British, English speaking family living in France, so if you'd like English language practice we can absolutely help with that.
  
  I'm a professional photographer and retoucher, and have been sucessfully running my business for 10+ years now. I also teach small workshops and mentorships. I'd be happy to talk shop if you're a current or aspiring photographer, a creative freelancer, a small business owner, or you have a desire to start any of these things. I'm really good at helping people get started:) I'd also be happy to offer you a complimentary photo shoot if you could use some updated images. I could also be helpful with a website critique, copywriting help, strategy, etc.
  
  My husband is an expert level DIYer now, and could share a lot of knowledge on all manner of DIY and construction things. We previously bought, renovated, and sold many flats in England as our side gig (always on a tight budget while turning a good profit, and we often finished them to a really "designer" standard as I used to use them as photo shoot locations when they were done lol!), so we know a lot about that. If you're interested in buying property in France, we have a lot to talk about there too.
  
  We are hoping to have a few fun, new people around to help lighten the load. Please no complainers, no bad attitudes, and try to keep swearing to a minimum in front of the kids as the little one is currently in parrot mode.

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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

  We have, frankly, bitten off a bit more than we can chew with this place!
  
  We could use help outdoors. We put down tons of weed barrier but haven't been able to maintain keeping as clear as we should, so there's lots of weeding to do, pruning for the olives and roses, keeping the grass down, moving piles of branches, etc. No knowledge needed really, it's very simple work, there's just a lot of it and everything is growing so fast!
  
  We also could use help with renovation. We are about to move our family out of our house and into one of our gites to start on a big kitchen/bathroom/living room renovation. It's going to be cramped with 4 of us in a 1 bedroom place, so we're hoping to complete renovation as quickly as possible. There will be all sorts of things to do with that, skilled and not depending on when you're here. If you have skills or a trade, I'm sure we can put them to use. If not and you'd like to learn, my husband would be happy to teach you or we can find simple things for you to do. We'd love someone who can just pitch in and help where needed with what they are able to do.
  
  If you are the sort of person who loves to make order from mess, we also have that! I basically haven't sold a single thing since my kids were born, and there's a growing mountain of clothes and toys to be organised and listed for sale. Alternatively, my husband has not had the benefit of a consistent tool storage area or garage, so he could probably use some organisational help too.
  
  We would welcome someone who loves kids and is good with them, but I am not really looking for childcare help. They will be so excited to meet you and play though, so bonus points if you like (or can pretend to like!) dinosaurs and princesses for a few minutes a day:)

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  We can help if you are working on your English! You can help us if your French is good:) We are interested in language exchange, but our main goals are work related at the moment. It's quite a busy time for us right now, so ideally language lessons would be "on the go" and in real time while also doing other things.
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  Accommodation

  We have a fully renovated, brand new gite available. It's a studio with one good sized bed, so could suit up to two people sharing a bed. It has a new kitchen, bathroom with shower, and we've recently added on a large raised terrace. We have AC in there, but it's really scarily easy to run up a large electric bill in no time, so we'd need to chat about that if you want to use it. There's a large overhead fan and a small stand fan too. You would also have full use of our pool, and can do laundry wherever we're doing ours at the time lol! We are only looking for people who can be really respectful of the space and take good care of it, as it's only just been finished and we want to keep it really nice.
  
  For food, we are flexible on this. The gite has a kitchen, so you're welcome to look after yourself as much as you'd like. I think it will be easiest if you sort your own breakfasts at a minimum. We don't really do the typical French lunch - it's more like a quick sandwich and then we're back to work, but you'd be welcome to share that with us if you'd like. We do our bigger meal in the evening as a family. It's usually pretty simple food, but if you'd like to join us you're of course welcome. As I mentioned earlier we're about to move out of our main house and into one of the gites during renovation, so indoor table space will be a little snug. We're going to probably end up eating in our outdoor covered terrace area most of the summer, but we'll see how it goes. We usually do a food shop once a week on Saturdays so you can go along or put things on the list as needed.

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  What else ...

  A car would be really useful around here, there's nothing within walking distance. Toulouse is an hour away and great for cheap flights and trains. Carcassonne is also about an hour away and is worth checking if you are flying, especially in summer.
  
  We are really hard workers, which is lucky becaues there is a lot of work to do lol! We're looking for people with a positive attitude. We don't need any childcare help, but we do expect people who can be friendly and kind.
  
  I grew up in farm country USA. It's old school there - the whole neighborhood rallies to get the potatoes out of the field before the frost, your local farmer plow your driveway when you're snowed in without you even having to ask, and people send around a sign up sheet to drop off homemade dinners to families with new babies or health challenges. We haven't quite found that here yet, but that's the sort of spirit I'd love to foster.

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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

  There might be a day or two where we have to turn off the electricity. We can give you advance notice of this. This really heavily impacts my work too, so don't worry, it will not be a surprise! Occassionally we get a bad storm and it knocks the power out for a day or so, but it's maybe 2x a year at most. Hours of work are totally flexible.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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