Help with garden, animals & DIY projects at our family home in Istanbul, Turkey

Details

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  Description

  Hi! I am Bilgehan, an archaeologist, and after living in İzmir since 2014, I recently moved back to my family’s house in Istanbul. I have traveled across India and Europe, and since my excavation work is with an international crew, I’ve always felt at home in multicultural spaces. I also hosted Workawayers back in İzmir and really loved the experience.
  
  My family moved here around 2000 and built pretty much everything on the land with their own hands. It’s a 3-story house with a large garden in Arnavutköy. My retired parents live downstairs, while my sister (who teaches ceramics) and I share the top floor, which is where you will be staying with us. My brother is a yacht captain living in central Istanbul, though he pops in from time to time.
  
  The house is busy and full of animals: I have a donkey named Sam’al, whom I rescued in Gaziantep during an excavation in 2024 and brought along with me. We also have a few goats that go out to graze every day, two indoor cats named Amar and Bünyamin, and my mom’s little dog, Dudu. We have a lot of ongoing dreams for this place—turning an old goat shelter into a ceramic studio for my sister, transforming an old barn into a little studio flat, converting the hayloft into a garden kitchen/workshop, and clearing out the coal shed as we burn the wood in our stove upstairs. It’s a slow, organic process shaped by time and budget, but there is always life moving around here.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Help around the house

  Light maintenance

  House & pet sitting
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  Interests

  

  Languages

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Carpentry

  

  Mountain

  

  Hiking

  

  Beach

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Pets

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Culture

  

  Charity work

  

  History

  

  Animals

  

  Nature

  

  Fitness
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We offer a down-to-earth look at life on the edge of Istanbul, tucked between traditional village rhythm and city life. Because of my background, we can talk endlessly about Anatolian archaeology, history, and ancient life. With my sister around, there is always ceramics and clay in the air.
  
  Depending on the time of year, you can pick up traditional Anatolian homesteading skills—like making seasonal preserves, fruit vinegars, and wine—or simply learn how to care for rescue animals like our donkey and goats. Mostly, we enjoy sitting down to good home-cooked food, drinking tea or coffee, and having honest, easygoing conversations with people from different parts of the world.

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  Help

  Life here is a mix of everyday routines and creative projects, so what we do really depends on the season and your own interests.
  
  There are always garden chores like clearing, weeding, and picking fruit or wild herbs. In harvest times, we spend days in the kitchen making vinegar, wine, or homemade preserves. Our outbuildings (the old barn, hayloft, and coal shed) are currently packed to the ceiling with disorganized tools, wood, and building materials. If you have workshop or DIY experience and enjoy sorting tools, setting up sensible shelving, or bringing order to messy storage spaces, you will be our absolute hero! There is also daily animal care—taking the goats out, keeping an eye on them while they graze, and brushing or checking in on Sam’al the donkey. Occasionally we do some small painting and repair jobs around the place.
  
  One thing that is very important to us: we are quite strict about keeping the outside dirt outside. We don’t walk inside with shoes, nor do we run out to the garden in house slippers or track muddy, bare feet through the house. As long as you respect keeping the living space clean, we will get along wonderfully.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Turkish: Fluent

  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

  You will have a private room in the top-floor apartment that you’ll share with my sister and me, with access to a shared bathroom, stable Wi-Fi, and hot water. In colder weather, we heat the flat with a wood and coal stove. If you are traveling in a campervan, you can park right outside our gate, and we can easily run electricity out to you from the house.
  
  We are in Arnavutköy, about 20 minutes from Istanbul Airport (IST). The local town center is 6 km away; you can catch a bus right from our neighborhood to get there, and from the center, there are metro and bus connections to the rest of the city (it takes around 1 to 1.5 hours to reach central Istanbul). Whenever one of us is driving into the city, you are of course welcome to hitch a ride. While we don't have a forest within walking distance ( which I definitely miss from my previous home) you can take long, quiet walks through the fields down to the Sazlıbozna dam. For real forests and Black Sea beaches, you can hop on a local bus to the coast.

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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

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  We have cats, a dog, and a donkey. You are welcome to bring yours.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Dudu

  Dudu is my mother’s favorite child. She is considering transferring all her assets to her.

  

  Amar

  

  Bünyamin

  

  Samal

  Sam'al is a donkey 🐴 he is name is coming from an antique city

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