18 Century house and garden in rural Westmeath, Ireland

Detalhes

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  Descrição

  We are a married couple with four grown up boys who have all now left home and live overseas. The eldest is working and living in London with his wife. The second trains racehorses near Sydney, Australia. The third is in the fashion industry; he is married and living in New York with his husband. The fourth is works in London organising conferences around the European Union.
  We found and bought this house 30 years ago. Built in about 1760, it was a virtual ruin and we have restored the main block. The gardens, which include two walled gardens, are gradually being restored. Caroline is a keen and knowledgeable gardener (RHS qualified) who has made our garden out of a wilderness. The garden is large with an orchard, vegetable garden, flower garden and lots of grass that needs cutting.
  We both work from home, Patrick is an architectural historian and Caroline sells garden items that are displayed in the walled garden.
  Our sons, daughter and son-in-law come home whenever they can and we have students staying in the house at times.

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  Tipos de ajuda e oportunidades de aprendizado

  Jardinagem

  Construção/faça você mesmo

  Cuidar de animais

  Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

  Ajuda a cuidar da casa

  Manutenção geral
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  Oportunidades de intercâmbio cultural e aprendizado

  If they want to learn English we can help them and Patrick is TEFL qualified and can give English lessons. These have to be paid for and cannot be done in lieu of extra hours.
  We encourage them to explore the surrounding beautiful countryside and take them with us for walks and visits to local sites if they want to come. We teach them about the Irish legends of this area and Irish history and architecture.
  Many of our workawayers have come to us for their first experience and have learnt lots about gardening, building, painting and house maintenance.

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  Ajuda

  At this time of year there is always help needed in the garden, looking after vegetables, weeding, clearing up after the winter and preparing for the summer. When it is raining, there are plenty of things to do in the house. This building is an ongoing restoration programme for us. There is always painting and decorating to do plus some housework. This is our 12th year of hosting workawayers and, as you can see, people like staying here.
  We make a point of treating our workawayers as part of the family and every night we all sit down to dinner together. We really enjoy it if a workaway cooks for us sometimes - particularly food from their country.

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  Idiomas

  Inglês: Fluente
  Francês: Fluente

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  Acomodação

  Full board. We have a double room and a single room with a bathroom next to them and two power showers. As many workawayers like to eat a lot at lunchtime, particularly French and Italians, they usually have to prepare this themselves using the food in the cupboard or fridge. We eat a very healthy diet with home cooked food at all times, eating many vegetables from our garden, tended by workawayers and eggs from our own hens.

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  Algo mais...

  This area, largely unknown to tourists, is situated in the North Midlands of Ireland and is rolling country with beautiful lakes. It is 100kms northwest of Dublin, close to Mullingar, with good transport links: train, bus and main M4 close by. There is good fishing in the lakes. The village has a good pub with music on occasions and restaurants nearby (driving). The house is very much in the country, surrounded by farmland (though we are not farmers). As such it is not suitable for people with allergies to animals. The local village is 10mins. walk away. There is a daily return Bus Eireann bus to Dublin (about 2.5 hours each way). There are, however, other faster methods of getting to Dublin by bus and train. We also have bicycles and high viz tops.
  We encourage workawayers to go on weekend trips by bus or train to visit Dublin, Galway, Belfast and other areas of Ireland; we are very flexible about this and about how our guests manage their hours.

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  Mais alguns detalhes

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    Acesso à internet

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    Acesso à internet limitado

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    Temos mascotes

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    Somos fumantes

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    Pode hospedar famílias

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  Pode hospedar nômades digitais

  The wifi is very good as we have fibre broadband.

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  Espaço para estacionar campervans

  There is plenty of room around the house, all on gravel.

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  Quantos Workawayers pode acomodar?

  2

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