Building a sailboat, veggies and household tasks in Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

  • Favourited 146 times
  • Last activity: 20 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    Second half of August till mid September.
    Or from october till end of the year.

    ==========

    I'm building a 45 ft (15m) boat and would like some help!

    Me and my friends ( Dries and Sander) and my brother have occupied an old warehouse to fit our big dreams in.

    I'm building a boat as I said. Dries creates smaller and bigger art pieces or furniture or does some music recording.
    He also grows combucha for the leather but the drinking variant is also available.

    Besides that we have a small garden with chickens. My brother recently took it upon himself to revamp the garden into something more cosy for the summer months.

    We're both really open minded guys with barely any taboos but still we hold privacy as very important norm to be held.

    Our place is located 25min by bike from a train station. From there Ghent and antwerp are only a 20min trainride away.
    If you want to go to Brussels it's only 5min ride to another trainstation.

    We definitly value dining together and helping eachother where needed but we like finding our peace in doing our own thing in our separate wood and metal workshops. Practically I like volunteers that I can support and set them of on their own projects and then do my stuff while answering all your questions inbetween ofcourse!

    Music is a big part of our existence and between the two of us we have plenty of instruments to share and jam together.
    So please bring your own as well!

    We're both in an improvisation orchestra and we won't exept it if you claim you can't play some fitting notes or drum on the beat of our current daily vibe.
    Everyone can create music!!

    Expect to learn how to weld, lots of diy projects and some household task only if you Love doing them

    Who wants to learn the following? :
    woodworking, plasterplates, sanding, electrical, insulating, window placing and thinking together how everything will fit best.
    I'd love to build another room and could use some help.
    I've learned all these skills by myself so I'm sure I could teach them to you and give you plenty of tips and tricks for every tool you will need to use.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    DIY and building projects
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    In general I'm a guy with endless patience who'll be very happy when my guests will leave when they have learned something completely new and useful.

    With me you get a chance to learn the following tasks: Powertools, woodworking tools, welding (metal and aluminum stick and mig) , cutting and shaping metal, drilling metal, grinding metal, shining up metal, finishing welds.
    Also bike maintenance, minor electrical work and soldering, wood framing,...

    Dries is more used with the following.
    Chiseling wood, combucha leather lamps, auditive artwork, metal furniture,... Ask him what alse cause he has plenty more skills I can't think of right now.

    When you will leave without having learned a new skill either means you where already extremely skilled or that I have failed my purpose.

    To be honest. You might even do skilled things I haven't done before. You might have to learn me how you did it!

    The wharehouse itself is also a cosmos on it's own. You can always tackle a small or big project to improve the warehouse or a piece of equipment.

    Culturally I've got plenty of wordly experience to share. From corporate culture to my work as a nighttime care assistent.
    I've biked about 8000km in Africe
    Some 2000 in the US and Canada

    Definitly more than 20000km of hitchhiking experience. (mostly in the US)
    Even 3000km of canoeing
    I can keep on bragging about how priviliged I am but that won't add anything useful.

    We both have plenty of friends in the young artscene in Flanders so if we're doing anything you can come and tag along.

    We also recently restarted dumsterdiving so expect to eat smokes salsom for days on end. ( I know... How aweful!)

  • Help

    Help

    There's a variety of work to do.
    Depending on how long you'll be staying though task might differ.

    I'm definitly willing to teach you to do metalwork or woodwork when you'll be staying long enough.

    Tasks could be
    Woodwork.
    Building an extra room for more workawayers

    Welding, grinding, cutting.
    Calculating detailing drilling.
    Everything to do with building a aluminium sailboat.

    General improvement tasks around the warehouse.

    Making an art installation with available junk or painting a mural.

    Cooking a meal for us all or going dumpsterdiving at night.

    General boring but calm household tasks.

    Making a diy hottub with a solar heater.

    Fixing and cleaning old sailboat equipment.

    Fixing up bikes

    Serenading the neighbours by playing soft music with the gates open.

    Organizing and cleaning

    So you could do a different task every day or you could focus on your own longer project.

    We are always available for advice. Never ever ever be afraid to ask a question or to admit you aren't comfortable enough to use the equipment (fear creates accidents). We're always there for pointers but we expect some courage too.

    Sooner or later things break.
    If it's not the workaway then it's easily forgivable but treat equipment as if it were your own.
    ....

  • Languages

    Languages spoken
    English: Fluent
    Dutch: Fluent
    French: Intermediate
    Arabic: Beginner

    This host offers a language exchange
    Arabic is high on the list of languages I'd love to learn. French needs practice and lots of improvements. English only to be used when all others fail since I'm already fluent in it Portuguese would be hella cool too

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    A private room with a bed and bedding.
    There's several options. We're still building them but they will be cosy enough.

    In the morning you eat breakfast whenever and eat whatever you can find in the kitchen unless it's me or Dries (I'm deadly funny I know...) . In the middle of the day we often share some food in the sun but sometimes we eat separately.

    We often eat together during the day but it's never a set time so you just eat whenever you're hungry. In the evening we always try eating together. This so we always have a space for nonconfrontational critique and cosy bonding. Creating an open atmosphere where everything can be discussed.
    Dries often cooks (mostly vegan) , I cook a lot less (I do sin and eat some fine meat sometimes),once a week or once every two weeks we'll order someting like fries or pizza.
    I don't consider cooking as a task. It's more of a cohabitation task.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    We love people who can get there hands dirty and do their work independently (after the appropriate coaching).
    I personnaly need allot of mental rest and peace and quiet but definitely love to have people around to bounce ideas around (so they stop bouncing chaotically in my head) and take the time to ask and answer questions fully and honestly.

    We know allot of artsy places in Belgium that are gleefully weird and wonderfull.
    We still need to discover the specific area itself but flanders is a magnificent place to bike and just get lost in the little villages and small alleys.

    In the summer you can swim at a local lake or take an hour train ride to the sea and dive in the murky north sea.

    Besides that evey mayor city in Belgium is worth getting lost in and spending a full day just taking it in.

    Ghent and maybe Antwerp is reachable by bike and the rest is only a train or 2 away.
    By the summer you can lend a bendable bike and jump on the train with it with no extra costs attached!

    If we're going to visit some friends or having a party or get together you're more than welcome to join and if those friends don't greet you with the same homely warmth that we'll try to give than they won't be our friends anymore.

    Besides that there's nature and culture all over the place. We'll still have to discover the area with you so pleace relay any beautiful spots you've found on your sunny afternoon bikeride.

    Collour codes:
    yellow: welcome but preferably for longer periods
    Green: hop in.
    Red:holiday or month without workers
    You can still message me in these months but it might take longer to answer.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    We plan to have sufficient acces to unlimited internet. A specific calm desk space is not available but the living space will be plenty calm during the day

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    You can either park inside of drive behind the building and park on the parking lot. Electricity can be obtained through a cord and water with a hose but no connections to the sewer so please use our bathroom instead.

  • Can possibly accept pets

    Can possibly accept pets

    We have a cat and my brother's dog visits often in the future. Besides that chickens and goats. Very animal friendly but keep it safe. Safe for their ears in a loud environment and safe when heavy equipment is being used. There're free to roam inside as long as they can be called quickly when they need to move away. or attach their line to their harness so we can take control if needed.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    Two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Host ref number: 574699799666

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