House Sitting

Epsom, UK. Chances are you’ve never heard of it. We asked people that live in London, and many of them couldn’t say where it was. It’s a small town, on the south west corner just outside of London. The place where Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame grew up, and a famous horse racetrack. Aside from along with a couple craft breweries, there’s little else that sets Epsom aside from any other small English town. For two and a half weeks, this little village would be our home.

We applied for this house sit online back in February of this year, since we were making our way to Europe for a conference later in the summer. It took a while to get responses for this housesitting website because, since we had no reviews on this particular website yet, people were wary about taking us on. It was a bit of a catch 22 because we had owned our own house for 7 years and took care of other peoples houses and pets, but never through the website. We had experience, but no proper references, yet we couldn’t get proper references without a gig! However, this housesitting got back to us quite quickly after we applied, and it was her first time using the website as well it was a perfect fit.

The next step was to have a Skype call to get to know each other better and feel more relaxed about the situation. She showed us around her house, and of course the dog and we ended up getting along great. It was a perfect fit, and we got accepted! We were on our way to Epsom, just outside of London, for two weeks to take care of an apartment and a cute little puppy named Pepper.

Overall the experience was great, especially having free accommodation in London for two weeks is what saved our wallets. England isn’t often a place we visit due to the high costs, so housesitting was a perfect option. We got to try new things like taking the puppy to the pub when we went for beer. This might not sound too impressive, but due to regulations it’s unheard of back in Canada, so this was a cool treat for us! Pepper just sat in her little bed under the table chewing a bone while we had a beer on the patio on a beautiful afternoon.

We also went for several nice picnics in the park, which is a very English thing to do. We bought scotched eggs and “Melton Mowbray” pork pies, along with meats and cheeses and some cool cider. Relaxing under the shade of giant oak trees was the perfect way to keep cool during the hot summer heatwave. Our time in Epsom was just what we had needed to relax after several weeks of constant travel. And house sitting was the best way we could have done it! Check out how cute the puppy is in the photos below.