Cleaning up garden, sheds and inside a large, old house in Birr, Ireland

Details

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  Description

  Hello!
  We live in an amazing house which sits in a large garden. We love this place and have loved it for 20 years but now it is too big for us. Now we are preparing the house to be sold to someone else who will love it as we have. Our four girls grew up here and they are now all adults and some of them have already moved to other exiting places. We have quite a lot of projects to do outside the house (and if it's too wet outside there is plenty to do inside also) and there is not enough time for the two of us to do it on our own. We love animals and have horses, dogs and cats. Our three lovely dogs, Sybil and Storm, and Abba live inside the house and they are good company and great 'helpers' outside. Our cats Tjikko and Katjoe live outside.
  Eamon is an Irish farmer and is originally from East Galway where he grew up on a farm, Anna is from Sweden and came to Ireland 30 years ago, helping with horses, both of us are working full time.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Eamon is very interested in Irish history and he knows a lot about the area and generally loves to talk about this. Anna is from Sweden which brings that set of culture for example the food. We love food and cooking and if you want to share your food culture we are very happy to exchange recipes. You will get the experience of living in an old Georgian Irish house with all that it entails (bring a warm jumper!) The garden has a lot of interesting plants and trees, some of which we don't even know what they are :)

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  Help

  We are looking for someone who is willing to help outdoors, preferably with some experience of old somewhat wild gardens and/or maintenance work. As we are planning to have the house ready for sale sometime, we need help to clean up outside and in the various sheds on the grounds, also. We need someone to help us keep on top of the growth in the garden particularly the ivy which is covering the old stone walls. The garden has many different trees and plants and it is really a lovely place to hang out in. We have an old oak tree which is said to be older than the house and one part of the house was built in 1714, which makes the tree very old.
  The tasks can be quite physical and it is not always certain to have nice sunny weather in Ireland. If the weather is too bad to be outside, there is cleaning, painting or small maintenance projects that can be carried out inside the house and in the sheds.
  
  We are very open to people who can think 'outside the box' and come up with their own ideas, which we can discuss. With a large place like this we appreciate workawayers who can work on their own initiative and have some maintenance and repair skills.
  
  We are also looking for someone who loves cleaning :) The house is in need of a deep clean overall, all three storeys of large rooms. This is a project for someone who gets excited about cleaning and can maybe freshen up windows and skirting boards with paint.
  
  //We need our workawayers to have been fully vaccinated, and have a vaccine passport//

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Swedish: Fluent
  French: Beginner

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  Accommodation

  We can offer en-suite bedrooms and there is plenty of space to hang out in the house. The kitchen is large and it would be lovely to share the cooking, but only if you want to. We will try to eat at least one meal per day together which will give us opportunity to share stories. We will do our very best to make you feel comfortable and enjoy the stay. When we are going places or if you want to explore Ireland (we live right in the middle) there will be ample opportunities to travel and if we can assist with that, we will. We have quite a lot of experience of having workawayers here and we love meeting new people and exchange culture experiences.

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  What else ...

  The Georgian town of Birr, our nearest town (less than 10 minutes drive) is beautiful and there are lots of lovely coffee shops and pubs. Birr castle garden and Science centre is open to the public and very much worth a visit. There are other interesting visitor attractions in the area and we are not too far from the Slieve Bloom area with its hills and rivers. There is a bus stop about 800 meters from the house which can take you into Birr and to Tullamore which is a bigger town and which has a train station. We have bikes that you can use also.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  5 hours/day 5 days a week, helping days could be at weekends.

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