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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
14 Jun 2026
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100.0 %
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Description
Hello kind people,
we are Ad and Elsbeth, a 65+ couple,
Elsbeth has another partner Karin who lives 2 hour travel away.
Ad has another partner Sandra who lives only 15 minutes, on bicycle, away.
Because of these relations we like open minded people, not too judgmental and not too fanatic on any religion. We respect all religions and do not want to be converted to any one of them.
We live in the north of Holland , close to the city Groningen in a farming area.
The center of the city can be well reached on a bicycle.
There is also good public transportation by bus within walking distance of our house.
Ad & Elsbeth would like some have helping hands at our old school. Both inside as outside as well as a bit in the garden. The outside needs a lot of painting.
Sandra would like some light cleaning and sometimes a house sitter when away, because of her three beautiful cats.
We like to socialize when we are around and share supper. Breakfast and lunch we usually take apart from each other. We like to watch movies together, play board games or online games, have good conversations etc. We have a lovely veranda where we like to hang out, sometimes with a fire going.
Smoking is not permitted in the house, nor any kind of open fire (e.g. candles) upstairs.
Also please no or a limited/normal use of alcohol and/or soft drugs. No hard drugs.
We are looking forward to meet you. One person (or two) is welcome. Or a couple is welcome if you can share the room and if you can operate individually, not as a two-person-bubble.
Recently we got a few workawayers who wanted the stay and use it as an entrance ticket to stay permanently in the Netherlands. We don't want to support this. And we had workawayers who also worked fulltime besides our workaway stay- that didn't work either.
And we had some experiences with younger workawayers that didn't quite work out well. So in our family meeting we deciced to host only people who are 23 or older at the moment. ( right now we don't have much time to guide you all time along).
We are looking for workawayers with a minimum stay of two weeks, preferably a month.
We are not looking at this Workaway site every day- so it might take some time before you receive a reply.
Although we like to do activities together, it would be better if you are a person who can work independently, as we both are quite often not around. Sometimes we are away for 1 or more weeks and request you to take care of the house and cat as well as for Sandra cats.
This is some extra work, but also gives you more freedom.
What we offer:
- Your own bedroom,
- shared use of kitchen and living room
- if you want you are most welcome to join in with board games and watching movies
- if we go out, you are often welcome to join on (mostly small) trips
Types of help and learning opportunities
Light gardening
Creative DIY projects
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
Light maintenance
House & pet sitting
Interests
Charity work
Vegetarian or vegan
Self development
Movies & TV
Pets
LGBTQ
Languages
Cooking & food
Books
Animals
Cycling
Dancing
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We would love to show you around in our province/ country, when we all have the time for it.
Of the 250000 people in the city Groningen one in every eight is a student(!). That translates to Groningen being a very lively city. There are always many cultural activities, and various museums.
There is an excellent bus connection from our home to the city. Going to Groningen on a bicycle is a nice experience as well.
A swimming pool is about 8 km from here, as are several gyms, bouldering and most other sports available around. There are quite a few lakes close by in which you can swim in the summer. Where we live is a good area for walking as there are lovely walking trails nearby.
In the weekends we sometimes go out. If we get along, you are welcome to join us most of the time.
We love playing board-games and Ad likes online gaming and we love to watch movies together.
We can help you learning English or Dutch.
Help
The jobs include basic house cleaning, gardening, quite a bit of painting and other maintenance, DYO jobs. Sometimes you 'll work together with one of us. You also need to be able to work independently.
Keep the house at least mess neutral- meaning you don't make more of a mess than there already is.
When we share our meals with you, you are requested to either cook or do the dishes which we do not count as working-time.
We request 4 hours/day for 5 days a week. When you work these hours is up to you.
When we are not around you are requested to look after our cat and/or Sandras three cats at her place.
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
French: Intermediate
Portuguese: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
I, Elsbeth, have been a Dutch NT2 teacher for about 5 years, so I like helping foreigners to learn to speak Dutch. We don't request you to learn our language, but are willing to assist you in learning Dutch. I would like to learn some basic Portuguese. Sandra would like to learn some basic Danish, Ad would like to learn some basic French.
Accommodation
We have a spare room of about 18 sq meter, with slant attic walls.
For a second workawayer there is a second, smaller room.
Downstairs you may use a private bathroom. Because we live in an old school which is large it is expensive to heat. So we don't heat all of it, just the main living room.
We share most living spaces: living room, kitchen, veranda, garden. Your room is your own.
If you like, you can join us for supper around 6 PM. The other meals are usually not shared, but you can take food for yourself. With Elsbeth around we eat vegetarian food most of the time. If you are vegetarian that should be no problem. Vegan turned out to be a bit too strict and impractical for us.
What else ...
You need to be an independent person. We like to socialize, but we are also busy elsewhere. Elsbeth with work and Ad as a new pensionada also likes to spend more time out of the house. Besides we both have a partner and are sometimes staying with them ( which is why we like you to do house sitting activities part of the time) So you would join a non- traditional family form. Being LHGBT+ friendly would make your stay easier. As we live in a poly-amorous situation we appreciate the person to live with us to be open-minded/ accepting. We'd like to include you in our discussions / exchange of ideas. But- to be extra clear- we are not open to sharing our physical lives with you, besides the normal house sharing ! Some people interpreted our profile that way :)
Being open minded is important for us, we do not like to spend energy on close-minded people on subjects like religion or politics.
We have learned from 16 previous workaway experiences. Some stays were great, others a little less and we try to learn from those, by describing more beforehand what is important for us. We had a bad exchange experience with theft in the past, so we want to make a copy of your passport and see your insurance and driving licence papers ( if you want to drive.) When you arrive it is important that you have a good health insurance. If you don't have any we are willing to pay for it, in exchange for 3-4 hrs/ work extra/ per week. We have some house rules, but I think they all come down to common sense and respect for each other.
We would like to hear/ contact/ read some references about you.
Our kids live on their own now, We see them when they come over, which is most weekends.
Our daughter has some handicaps and has an autistic thinking style, which we find enriching.
Our cat hates other dogs ( besides a few she really knows well) , so unfortunately we can't take in workawayers with a dog.
We are looking forward to getting to know new people, like you !
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Internet access via Starlink, so around 100-200 Mbit.
Space for parking camper vans
There are parking facilities in front of the house, on private property. It is right next to the road in the front of our house.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Mayday (16 years)
very lovely cat, loves to cuddle and sleep on your bed, if you let her. Lives inside as well as outside. Must be around 15 years old, but aren't sure, she is a stray.
She will consider to let you stay in her house:)
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (11)
During her stay, she took on several tasks with dedication. She cleared out the garden,… read more
Communication was sometimes a bit of a problem, since he didn't know English, but with the help of a translator app we went along fine and after these weeks he picked up some English too.
He was… read more
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Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
During her stay, she took on several tasks with dedication. She cleared out the garden,… read more
Communication was sometimes a bit of a problem, since he didn't know English, but with the help of a translator app we went along fine and after these weeks he picked up some English too.
He was… read more
We also shared good times together, walking, driving through the northern part of the Netherlands and visited Groningen, where she showed a keen interest in architecture.
We spent some interesting… read more
They are fair and square, and openminded,… read more
They are very nice and made me feel as another member of their family. They have been very helpful with my English and were always making efforts to make me feel comfortable with the communication.
The work isn't very hard and they were very… read more
He is very open, friendly, works hard and fits in socially with our family.
We had many nice philosophical exchanges about our views in life, he joined watching movies and computer games and even in Sinterklaas with our family.
It felt a little like getting a Spanish son- he'll always be welcome… read more
