Stay with our family, build a food forest or tree house in Lliria, Valencia, Spain

Details

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  Description

  [update 02.02.2024] We are back from our travelling during the month of January 2024. Happy host again in the new year!
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  Hello Workaway'ers!
  We are a party of five: Renata, Peter and 2 children, Isadora (Jan 2021) and Jonas (Dec 2022) + Malu, our 10 yr old Yorkshire terrier dog.
  
  Peter and I work from home. We both work for a multinational software company. I (Renata) am Brazilian and speak Portuguese, Spanish and English fluently. Peter is Belgian and speaks Dutch, German, French and English fluently plus Spanish and Portuguese intermediate. Our oldest child speaks Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch.
  
  Both our kids are at day care during weekdays from 9am to 5 pm. A typical day start around 6:45 am. The mornings are busy getting the kids ready for day care. As soon as they arrive back home, we like to have our working day over and done with. So we can focus on the kids to either play or have dinner together. We rarely watch TV, especially with the kids around. So after play time and diner, it is bath and bed time! Usually we find ourselves winding down from the day around 9pm.
  
  We find it import to inform you that we do not follow the classic Spanish lunch and dinner time. We have breakfast at 8am, lunch around 12:30pm and dinner around 6:30pm. It's important for us to eat together and although it is of course not mandatory, we invite our guests to eat with us :)
  Obviously you are free to cook your own meals and eat at the time that suits you best. Just note that the indoor house kitchen is "closed" from 9:00 pm until 7:30 am. You can always use the outdoor kitchen (gas pit / wood stove) or the caravan kitchen (gas pit for coffee/tea only) to cook beyond those hours.
  
  We are neither vegetarian nor vegan, but now and then we appreciate a meal without meat. So if you are vegan or have food restrictions, please let us know in advance. We are both lactose and gluten intolerants, so dairy products or regular bread are rare in our house hold. Apart from that we are open for new things. We define our own cooking as a mix world cuisine: fresh & unprocessed fusion of continental Belgian and Brazilian kitchen :-)
  
  One thing we would like to communicate upfront is that we LOVE the silence that our place has to offer. Living remotely in the country side has spoiled us over the years in a sense. As our future guest we hope you will appreciate this in the same way. We prefer that you keep quiet after dinner time and during the kids day time naps. In other words: no loud music or noisy work around the house at those times. At the caravan you will have your privacy and be free to listen to music and watch TV, to do what pleases you.
  
  Our guests are free to smoke outside, but we ask you to keep away from the children while smoking (during play or outside meals).

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Both Renata and Peter have travelled the world and lived in various countries (Brasil, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, ....) and are more than happy to exchange travel stories.
  
  We are raising our kids tri-lingual (Portuguese, Dutch and Castellano) and speak English among the two of us. So if you are into learning new languages, we can definitely offer you some language exchange (together we speak 6 different languages).
  
  You can learn how to cook Brazilian food, about Brazilian culture. Same applies regarding Belgium (Flanders) and Spain. Before moving to Spain at the end of 2017, Renata & Peter lived together in Brussels for 2 years.

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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

  Our main project is our extensive garden! We live on a rather big plot of land (30m by 50m) with a Summer garden and fruit garden.
  Our dream is to turn the fruit garden into a food forest, following best practices of permaculture where possible. We have tons of work to do to get there but not enough time. Today we manage to keep the lights on and maintain the garden basics, however, with your help we would like to turn the garden into a productive and sustainable environment for home-grown fruit, eggs and veggies all year around.
  
  AROUND THE HOUSE
  Some potential improvements that we have in mind (we are open for your realistic ideas!)
  1) review the current fruit assortment (bananas, nectarines, kaki, cherry, oranges, olives, pomegranate, passion fruit, blackberry). e.g.. add strawberries, lemons, ... (insert your own suggestions)
  2) finalize our water irrigation system - we have started but need help to get it up and running using our own water tower!
  3) turn the soil and plant more cloves/grass or any other plant to help recover the soil. The soil is very compacted and needs a lot of love and mulch
  4) tidy and secure the chicken run under the olive trees, so that our future chicken won't escape
  5) tidy, mount and arrange our "flower" garden - we are not too sure about this one , so it can be something else!
  6) support us with the design and the built of a children's tree house. We are looking forward to hear your ideas in case your inside carpenter vocation voice is calling....
  7) replace the current green fence made of Cupressus (a type of evergreen conifers) with another sustainable alternative (e.g.. wooden fence Viking style, ...)
  8) become a plant doctor and help us to cure our pomegranate tree
  9) optimize the outdoor BBQ place / outdoor kitchen within a limited budget
  - And many other "little" things ...
  
  INSIDE THE HOUSE:
  The house was built in 1975 and is pretty well maintained. However, if you have any plumbing, builder or painting skills, we also welcome you with open arms!
  1) We would love to paint the house properly, in and out. So if you are willing to help with that project let's make a plan, a budget and execute (Define, Design, Build).
  2) We like to get rid of the flooring/tiling in the house and would love to mount a wooden/parquet flooring. Since this involves a time consuming and expensive labor/material, we will need a plan to define + design + budget + build.
  3) Besides the plumbing, building or painting, we also welcome anyone with skills to spare related to house keeping and child care (cooking, cleaning, child care, au pair, ...).
  We always appreciate help with the kids, so if you are willing to babysit, we can offer that kind of work too.
  Preparing a meal for all of us and helping with the household chores (washing, cleaning, cooking, ...) are also welcome contributions as a work-away'ers. The menu can be decided in advance (our kids eat the same as adults but salt/sugar free) before we go grocery shopping.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  Portuguese: Fluent
  German: Beginner

  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

  Meet "Miss Moss" - our fully equipped stand-alone caravan
  Even though the house has 4 rooms, we opted for a caravan to serve as our guest house. Mind that we have 2 little children around that might need care during night time (at any time!).
  
  The caravan - called Miss Moss - has recently been repainted and offers 1 double bed + 1 set of bunk bed (2 singles). Although the caravan technically fits 5 people, we only accept 3 adults at a time as a maximum. We ask that all 3 adults must know one another beforehand (friends or family). If you are planning to come over with children, let's talk and we can make arrangements for an exception (eg. pitch a tent in the garden for more space).
  
  The shower/toilet in the caravan are not to be used as they are not connected to fresh water/grey water. However, you will have access to a separate sanitary building with full-equipped bathroom (sink, toilet and shower) for your personal private use.
  
  A small gas stove and small fridge are available and operational in the caravan (using 220V). However we advice to only use this gas stove for coffee/tea as the sink is not connected to any water / sewage.
  
  A brand new aircon (incl heating) will guarantee that you will be comfortable sleeping all year round. "Miss Moss" also has also a small TV (DTTV) and it is currently parked in the far corner of our garden with a view to the National Park - Sierra Calderona (Search wiki for Serra Calderona ).
  
  You will have access to our private washing machine and dryer to do your own washing and drying once a week. We provide fresh bed sheets and bath & beach towels once a week.
  
  We have a swimming pool (5x3m) that will keep you cool during the summer (as it can get up to 40+ degrees in August) and a roofed barbecue place (paellero), which serves as an outdoor kitchen (gas pit, sink, wood stove, pans, cutlery...) to be used at your convenience.
  
  During the cooler months we also put our inflatable jacuzzi out on the terrace! It will be a joy for you to watch the night sky after a day of hard work.

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  What else ...

  Our "Chalet" or "finca" as it is called in Spain is situated in the country side of Llíria, Valencia. We are 6 km away from the village of Llíria, a small "pueblo" (+/- 25,000 inh) that has all type of services you might need, like public health services, post office, gym, supermarkets, drugstores, etc..
  
  To get to Llíria you can either take the bus - nearest bus stop is about 500m away or take one of our e-bikes and bike through the Sant Vicent park (link: ) on a dedicated bike lane, all the way into town. (downhill +/- 15min, uphill +/- 25min by bike)
  
  Lliria is known as the city of music and is also an historic (Roman) town. It has some open-air sites to visit and a small museum. It also hosts some classic Spanish celebrations all year around, live concerts and even its own small Fallas.
  Llíria is also the final stop for the Metro line 2 from Valencia, so you can easily get to Valencia by metro/train.
  
  We have beautiful views of the Sierra Calderona, national park. If you are interested in hiking, climbing and/or mountain biking this right at our door step (10min bike ride to the first climb)
  
  Please also check Llíria website for further information:
  
  
  We often go to Lliria, and our guests are welcome to join us by car. We don't go to Valencia city ("La Capital") that often. We drive a small e-car so taking long trips (Valencia is about 35' away by car) is not something we do very often.
  The closest beach is around 30´ min drive by car.

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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

  We have good internet signal. Two different companies to make sure we have signal, plus a travel router if the signal is not optimal at the caravan ;) Please let us know in advance if you need super speed internet so we can prep the travel router.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have place to park your campervan. Please note on the high of it.. if your campervan is higher than 3 meters it wont fit into our gate. Since we live in the "campo" you can also park it right in front of our property, if your van is higher than that.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  We can have dogs and cats here, but only if the animal is socialized and used to be around other dogs and cats. We have a dog that is totally ok with other dogs and cats, Malu (our dog) keeps it to herself regarding other animals. She's very small, weights about 2,5kg and is 10 yrs old. Your animal also need to be totally safe to be near children, we have two small children and having animals that are not at ease near children is not something we are willing to risk. Please note that we will not have dogs that need to stay in the caravan all day because cannot be near other animals.. neither tied to anything. That's not ok for the animal and we need to keep them safe! We do not have cats, but all of our neighbors do and their cats are constantly in our garden. We need to keep them safe too ;)

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Máximo 4-5 horas al día, 5 días a la semana

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