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AIBU?

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Original poster

Help! My housesitting job has gone horribly wrong!

123 replies

Jewel1984 · 08/04/2023 23:11

Hello mumsnetters, I’m a long time lurker but haven’t ever really posted (not sure I’ve ever got anything useful to add to discussions and I tend to ramble on!)
so my family (7 yo old, 4yo and baby) are housesitting at the moment, visiting my sister. The air bnb we had booked pulled out at the last minute, and my sister put a post on her local fb page and the owner of this house responded saying we could stay here and look after their dogs. The house is really lovely and the furnishings are quite high end. The owner seems nice (I haven’t met her face to face tho my sister has) but she seems very highly strung. She went through all the instructions about the dogs, including to take them out to do toilet before bed, which we’ve followed religiously. She also was very adamant we didn’t go into the front living room of the house (which was fine!! )
so yesterday I realised that a coffee cup left on the bench next to the sink (it doesn’t have a metal drained) has stained the terazzo worktop. I’ve tried a load of (gentle) cleaning and nothing has worked. I’ve ordered a specific terazzo cleaner product and will try that when it comes. Woke up this morning and one of the dogs had somehow gotten into the bin and chewed a used nappy, and done a big yellow wee and poo on the ‘good room’ white rug (there’s no door you can shut) and I’ve cleaned it with carpet cleaner I found in the cupboard but I’ll have to have another go. Finally, my son has broken one of her son’s toys. This all sounds as if we’re a family of brutes and that’s not the case! I’ve managed to source the exact toy in a local shop and have done click and collect for Monday (they are back Wednesday)
I am EXTREMELY anxious now - the absolute last thing I wanted to do was wreck her house!! Any tips on how to approach the subject with her? We’ll be gone by the time she gets back. Needless to say I’ll never be housesitting again, and I don’t want to cause her distress, I feel like she is the kind of person who will find this all upsetting.
I should add there are people in our house doing the same thing (though we have no pets) and I am very chill about it - though our house isn’t as high end as this one!
sorry for the Ted talk 🙈🙈🙈

OP posts:
Climbles · 09/04/2023 07:52

Jewel1984 · 08/04/2023 23:55

It does seem as if they’re the kind of people who don’t have accidents 🤷‍♀️ the rug is kind of carpet-y with a raised kind of pattern - off white in colour. I will look at carpet cleaning too - it’s the bench top I’m most worried about tbh

Cif cream cleaner and/or magic sponge will clean the counter top.
Can’t help with the rug I’m afraid

RWB9 · 09/04/2023 07:56

Use 1001 spray for the rug, it’s amazing.

I have a white worktop that stains really easily, I find leaving cream cleaner on the stain overnight until it dries helps. I’ve also been known to use a bleach spray and leave it for a little bit. The stains usually end up fading away naturally anyway. Good luck 😬

GrainOfSalt · 09/04/2023 08:01

As another poster mentions I have found normal toothpaste to be remarkable successful (removed curry stains that wouldn't budge with anything else) but I don't know the surface type so maybe patch test under the edge. Good luck

Eattheeel · 09/04/2023 08:06

For the worktop, do the tiniest spots of bleach, cif, barkeepers etc on the underside of the worktop (the overhang) to see if they mark before tacking the stain.

CaveatmTOR · 09/04/2023 08:08

Mammillaria · 09/04/2023 07:50

and also people with haunted houses can't get friends or relatives to sit and that is where the likes of professional sitters come in

Ummmm WHAT? 💀

Took me three gigs to realise. When the parents and friends come and see you and bring nice things to welcome you and only live locally but won't house sit, you know there's a problem.

I could tell stories of terrible things that have gone wrong on my house sitting gigs. Half a Welsh hillside swamping the house, electric fences breaking down, sheep being delivered on a trailer with no field to put them in but being alone in a house that no friend or relative of the family will sit for, is hair raising. On my last gig the couple had written on a piece of paper in their bureau drawer what I would experience. As I described it, they showed me what they had written before they went. Fuckers!

3luckystars · 09/04/2023 08:09

Being in a house with small children and unknown dogs was a kind of crazy idea though. Regarding the worktop, leave the spray or a wipe on top of it overnight, keep it wet. All the best.

CaveatmTOR · 09/04/2023 08:10

I should start a thread. Hilarious stories of house sitting disasters.

QuitRunningForThatRunawayBus · 09/04/2023 08:33

Oh you poor thing. The best thing for dog accidents is an enzyme based pet stain remover. Simple Solution is brilliant, and more effective than normal cleaning stuff (speaking from experience here!). Pets at Home sell it if you can get to one.

Ireallycantthinkofagoodone · 09/04/2023 08:34

White vinegar is the best for anything on the carpet. You can even use it neat without damage. Works for pee, poo, vomit, milk, red wine, coffee……
Vinegar is so useful for general cleaning anyway, I buy 5 litre containers from Amazon, especially the one with lemon added. You never smell the vinegar on the carpet either.

ThePoetsWife · 09/04/2023 08:34

Jewel1984 · 08/04/2023 23:55

It does seem as if they’re the kind of people who don’t have accidents 🤷‍♀️ the rug is kind of carpet-y with a raised kind of pattern - off white in colour. I will look at carpet cleaning too - it’s the bench top I’m most worried about tbh

I have dogs and dr Beckmann carpet cleaner works brilliantly.

MrsMitford3 · 09/04/2023 08:34

Nancy Birtwhistle on instagram is an absolute genius at solving these sort of problems and is very quick at replying to DM's.

Highly recommend her and her books Clean and Green and Green Living
and no I am not her agent but she often has ingenious and cost effective solutions and is not one of those Mrs Hinch types (nothing wrong with her if you like) I think she won or did well in GBBO ages ago and is just a great resource!

Flowerly · 09/04/2023 08:42

I am concerned about the dog. Eating a nappy is not good as they are full of plastic let alone the shit. Why on earth was this left in a bin FFS? If I was her I would be livid that you let this happen. The dog needs to see a vet.

Flowerly · 09/04/2023 08:44

TessoftheDubonnet · 09/04/2023 00:42

It's their dog that pood on the rug, correct? Not your problem.

Relax. Anyone who asks people with little kids to housesit should expect some minor mishaps.

After OP allowed it to have access to a dirty nappy. OP's fault.

WizdomE · 09/04/2023 08:58

I don’t think her insurance is invalidated if they were guests at her home. Regardless if they were sitting. If she paid them that is probably different. If she did not pay them to sit, I would just say guests staying at the house caused damage, assuming she has accident cover, which she may not.

StoppinBy · 09/04/2023 09:16

Gosh, people are so dramatic. Lots of dogs eat stuff out of the bin and 99% of them will not require a vet visit.

Depending on the size of the dog and how much of the nappy it ate it it likely to be just fine.

OP, the dog went in to the front room and pooped and wee'd, while you should do your best to clean it, if there's a residual stain, that's the dog owners job to clean. If they want to avoid any doggie accidents 100%, they should close it off.

I once house sat and because the smoke alarm went off I had to pull it down, the blasted dog ate it, I worked as a Vet nurse at the time, I checked in with the Vets and they said no big deal unless it ate the battery.

I just kept an eye on the dog and it was fine as expected.

diddl · 09/04/2023 09:26

Was she let down at the last minute with dog care then?

Seems daft to give dogs the run of the house overnight when there's a room that you want to keep them out of that is easily accessed!

Jojobalone · 09/04/2023 09:28

Op

Someone genuinely house proud
Someone who is a good dog owner

is not going to invite absolute ransoms off Facebook who don’t have a dog themselves to rock up and live in her home and look after her dogs

Jojobalone · 09/04/2023 09:30

StoppinBy · 09/04/2023 09:16

Gosh, people are so dramatic. Lots of dogs eat stuff out of the bin and 99% of them will not require a vet visit.

Depending on the size of the dog and how much of the nappy it ate it it likely to be just fine.

OP, the dog went in to the front room and pooped and wee'd, while you should do your best to clean it, if there's a residual stain, that's the dog owners job to clean. If they want to avoid any doggie accidents 100%, they should close it off.

I once house sat and because the smoke alarm went off I had to pull it down, the blasted dog ate it, I worked as a Vet nurse at the time, I checked in with the Vets and they said no big deal unless it ate the battery.

I just kept an eye on the dog and it was fine as expected.

Your post is full of contradictions!

JeepersCreeperrs · 09/04/2023 09:36

You sound amazing! Replacing the toy, and caring so much.

barkeepers friend stain remover powder for the worktop.

scrub scrub scrub the rug. Good luck.

Original poster
Jewel1984 · 09/04/2023 09:41

Thank you so much all for responses. I will definitely ‘come clean’ clean being operative word, about all that’s happened. The health of the dogs is my first priority and have spoken to 2 vets - they are a greyhound and a big terrier cross and they are both fine thank god. I’m tackling the carpet slowly and have ordered a specific terazzo cleaner, but I’ll tell her about that if the mark doesn’t come out. My partner is here and he’s being v supportive, but he’s of the laugh it off school and wants me to stop stressing! Easter eggs for kids all hidden in the park down the street as was having visions of dogs eating them 😂

OP posts:
starfishmummy · 09/04/2023 10:23

Having g lived many years in a house with a terrazzo floor in the kitchen, I can't say we ever used anything special to clean it. Just regular kitchen cleaners.
Tbh it's used (or used to be) for floors because it's stain resistant and easy to clean, so are you sure this is genuine terrazzo?

StoppinBy · 09/04/2023 11:24

Jojobalone · 09/04/2023 09:30

Your post is full of contradictions!

Show quote history

Feel free to expand on the apparent contradictions...

Jojobalone · 09/04/2023 11:31

StoppinBy · 09/04/2023 11:24

Feel free to expand on the apparent contradictions...

Show quote history

Call it an Easter Sunday mystery for you! 🐰