Help with building a shelter for a camper van with my son in Aquitaine, France

Infos

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  Description

  I am a retired teacher living in South West France, about 55 km north of Bordeaux. I have a husband who works abroad, and I am often on my own, running a gîte and looking after my grandchild when her parents are at work. This leaves me very little time for my garden, so I have used workawayers in the past to help me with the garden. At the moment, my son wants to repair his old camper van, but as he lives in rented accomodation, he has no where to work on it. I suggested he put up a shelter, and work on the renovations in his free time. I bought the kit, but now realise that I am just not strong enough - 50kg, 1m56 - to help him assemble it. This would be the main task of the workawayer. It doesn't have to be a young man, but it needs to be someone who is quite strong. If the person wants to stay on here after the construction of the shelter, there's no problem. There's always work to be done in the garden.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Jardinage d'entretien

  S’occuper des animaux

  Garde de maison et d'animaux
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  I'm a native English speaker and I speak fluent French. Anyone wishing to improve in either of these languages would greatly benefit from staying with us. I will give him/her all the help they need. Bordeaux is a lovely city and is accessible by public transport. It's well worth getting to know. Someone with particular nterest in wine and wine making could learn a lot from living in this area.

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  Aide

  I need help to put up a shelter for an old camper van. My son wants to completely overhaul this old van which, unfortunately, spent last winter outside. As he'll be working on it as well as keeping down a full-time job, we decided to put up a garage/shelter to stop the already extensive damage from rain. As I'm not very young, I really need a pretty strong individual to help my son with the construction help. It's quite straight-forward but is not for someone who shies away from physical work.
  The workawayer would just have to follow the instructions to erect this garage/shelter and work alongside my son. It is not necessary to be a professional builder. The construction is really quite straightforward. The only difficult part is erecting the upright beams. One must be physically strong. I'm not. The shelter is in a kit. The manufacturer's say it can be erected in 5 hours! I estimate that with 2 competent adults, it would take 2 days. A workawayer can stay longer than that time. I always need help with my garden as it is getting more and more difficult for me with advancing age.

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  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Courant

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  Hébergement

  Family home. Own bedroom and use of family bathroom. Person will live as part of the family and be expected to act as such, helping in preparing meals and clearing away the dishes afterwards.

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  Autres infos...

  We don't have a TV! We have computers and WiFi. It's very flat here and perfect for jogging as there are several tracks through the vines. There are various historical and cultural sights to visit in the area, but the village where we live is somewhat off the beaten track. There is a good bus service to Bordeaux and there's a rapid train from Bordeaux to Paris (2h). What we expect is someone who has initiative and is curious to learn new things. We have had a bad experience with workawayers in the past (2 different women) who showed absolutely no initiative and were not interested in helping us. They had to be called in the morning, waited to be served at the table and spent most of their time on a laptop. One, in particular, was very disagreeable and only used our house as a good base for flat-hunting in Bordeaux. Once she had her accomodation, she left. I felt both hurt and deceived. I am asthmatic and prefer to have a non-smoker.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Mes animaux

  Mimi, Cotton, Bash, Wally (5 ans)

  I have four cats. Mimi is the oldest. Cotton and Bash are 3, Wally is 2.

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