Reliable and Experienced Retirees

About this sitter

We are Chrystine and Richard, retired and now passionate travellers. We have had 7 years experience of house and pet sitting. Richard was a boat and house builder and loves a project (failed retiree) and I do holiday letting management covering all aspects including bookings, cleaning, meeting and greeting and all the hundreds of small details involved.
We have sadly just sold our beautiful, sailing catamaran which Richard built and now live in our beach house. We decided after a lifetime of sailing to have a land change and discover travelling ashore. Having sailed for many years we are trained in crisis management - on a boat if anything can go wrong it usually does! We are resourceful, practical and very fit.
We do yoga, walking,swimming and gardening on a regular daily basis and are very health conscious.

Why they want to house sit

Housesitting has opened so many fabulous new experiences for us. As travellers we prefer to slow down and stay in one location as a local instead of checking off the tourist sights. It doesn't matter where, because it is always different from our own environment which gives us the stimulation we enjoy. We have continued friendships with owners and it has become one of the unique highlights of our trips every year. It is a win win situation with everyone happy - owners, pets and us!

Their experience

We have 7 years experience of very different locations and all varieties of pets. We also have over 20 excellent reviews on another housesitting site (Trusted Housesitters.com) but I’m having trouble loading them here. If you are interested you can view them on this link:

https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/accounts/profile/reviews/received/

We have had a variety of housesits including: English manor houses, French chateaux, French farmhouses, French mountain chalet, Spanish fincas and villas and tiny village houses and units. We loved them all!

Our responsibilities have been caring for pets , managing a chateau as well as a holiday rental chateau, maintaining a home for selling and just regular daily maintenance of a home.

Some of our references:-

- Chelsworth, United Kingdom
22 Jul - 24 Aug 2016

Chrystine and Richard house, garden and cat sat for us in July/August for a month. We'd recently adopted a rescue kitten to live with our two eight year old cats and Chrys and Richard took on the energy of Sid and the integration of her into the family in good part. The cats were relaxed and well cared for on our return.

We have a garden and a two acre field. Richard used our tractor mower and other mowers to keep the grass mown and our garden has never looked so tidy! The roses were pruned to perfection.

We received regular updates and photos of the cats whilst we travelled and we really appreciated receiving the emails.

Our house was tidy and clean on our return.

I'd definitely recommend Chrys and Richard as house and pet sitters!

Organised
Reliable
Self-sufficient
Tidy
Pet care
Received | Sep 20, 2016



Kathy - North Luffenham, United Kingdom
6 - 9 Sep 2016

Every once in a while you meet two people you wish you could either clone - or even better - talk into living next door to us for the rest of our lives! Chrystine and Richard are in the very very top of our list for perfect house-sitters. Ultra responsible and obvious animal lovers we were very sad to say goodbye. Charlie (Rag doll cat) and dear George (10 year old Lab) were pampered and treated royally. When we arrived home to an IMMACULATELY clean and tidy house, beautifully kept garden and well loved, brushed and exercised pets we knew these two were very special people indeed. Interesting, intelligent, positive, curious, ULTRA professional, well traveled and brimming with brilliant common sense puts them in the special category of “PLEASE PLEASE come back and house sit for us again!!” We cannot recommend Chrys and Richard highly enough. Superior House sitters, as well as being totally trustworthy and FUN people! I do hope we will see you again!!

Organised
Reliable
Self-sufficient
Tidy
Pet care
Received | Oct 20, 2016



Penne d'Agenais Maison Maitre with 4 gites:
Chrystine & Richard looked after our property and our Labrador, Harper in early May 2015.
We needed house sitters at quite short notice and they were readily available and fitted all our criteria. They are a lovely, friendly couple who proved to be all we had wished for as house and dog sitters.
They tended the gardens & lawns, cleaned the pool & generally kept the property clean and tidy.(House, Barn with 3 gites, pool and large grounds). May is a very busy time in our garden but they worked hard in it with no complaints.
They were particularly good with Harper, our labrador – he was evidently very happy with them (and vice versa). They took him for lots of long walks and he obviously enjoyed their company. We have struggled to keep up with the amount of exercise he had.
Chrystine in particular was efficient in organising the house sit & keeping us updated by email on how things were going during our absence. She had a professional approach showing initiative and common sense.
We would certainly be keen to have them back to house sit & look after Harper again. They know they can come to stay at any time in the future even if we don’t need the house looking after! We now talk about them fondly and regard them as friends.
We are more than happy to recommend them as ‘top’ house sitters.
Jan & John Hunter


Jane Rowlinson

24 February 2015 | Guernsey:

Chrystine and Richard Flavell looked after our house, garden and most importantly our mixed bag of animals for us last September.
This was the first time I had used a site such as TrustedHousesitters.com and I felt slightly apprehensive. My doubts were immediately allayed when we met the day before our departure.
The Flavells spent time getting to know our pets (4 cats, 2 rabbits and 3 hens)and asking questions about their care. I was reassured from the way the animals responded to them that they were going to be in safe hands.
Throughout our holiday we received bulletins about how everything was going and they which I found very reassuring. When we got home the pets had obviously been well cared for and were relaxed and happy. Everything was spick and span and it is worth noting that at least two of our cats were just beginning to become allergic to their regular food with horrible results - I can't thank Chrystine and Richard enough for dealing with this beyond the call of duty task in the way they did.
Suffice to say I would love them to house sit for me again and have no hesitation in recommending them.

Homeowner Reference
Richard Livingstone

01 September 2014 | Bath, Bath and North East Somerset, UK:

Chrys and Rich housesat for us when we went to France for 4 weeks this summer and left our cats and house in their capable hands. They looked after the cats, took them to the vets for their regular checkup and kept our garden and allotment in great shape. We got regular updates via email etc and when we returned the place was tidier than when we'd left.

As we'd never had housesitters before, it was a bit of a leap into the unknown for us but Chrys and Rich were great. We found them to be very organized and reliable and lovely people too. We'd have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone looking for housesitters and would be happy to give a reference by phone on request.


Homeowner Reference

Louise Cliff

03 May 2015 | Montagnac, France:
They were with us for 3 weeks and the property was looked after splendidly. They even cooked us a meal when we came home.

What can they bring to the assignment

Along with a good sense of humour we can offer our wealth of valuable experience and skills, including building skills, gardening (including ride on mowers, strimmers etc.) and holiday letting management to name just a few.
Most importantly we offer our integrity which we hope would give you peace of mind.
We take our responsibilities seriously with full commitment to meet (maybe even surpass!) all of your expectations.
We are flexible and open to new experiences so would be delighted to hear from you.