Does anyone in London want a housesitter or houseswap (we're in sunny Los Angeles) in early August?

[SofiaAmes]

Somewhere in my warped vacation planning brain, I thought that it would be nice to spend a few days in the UK in between 3 weeks in Italy and returning home to Los Angeles. The point was for dd and ds to see MIL (their grandmother). However she lives in NE and it's a bit of a haul from London and we have only a few days. And I don't know quite how I imagined we were going to get from Heathrow to Hartlepool on Saturday night after traveling all day.

Soooo.....I was thinking maybe there is a mumsnetter who wants to do a house swap with us during that period, or who is simply going to be away on holiday and would like someone to come and look after their house and water their plants.

If it's a house swap, we're flexible since we'll be gone for the 3 weeks prior and could also accomodate a small family even when we're here.

We have a lovely 3 bedroom house in sunny Los Angeles with swimming pool and views! My ds and dd are 4 and 6 so the house is ready for kids.

Oh why don't I live in London

Repeat what Sarahhal says

Message withdrawn

Well funny you should say....Dh has just informed me that mil is not well enough to come down to london (I highly doubt it, but.....). So we have decided to rent a car at Heathrow and go up to Hartlepool, but I don't want to stay with MIL as she is a chainsmoker and I have asthma (so excited about the smoking ban....!!!). How far north are you... in or near Hartlepool by any chance?

Or anyone else want to do the same deal, but with a place in Hartlepool or nearby? By the way, my children are very well behaved and know how to conduct themselves around antiques and persian rugs.

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, we have large house in Teesside and family in hartlepool, but our is like building site at min so woul be no good>

oh I love mumsnet!!!! We are arriving in London at 7pm on august 4th and then renting a car and driving up to Hartlepool, therefore arriving at some awful hour like 2am. We then need to be back in London for a morning flight on August 7th, so I guess we would leave late on the 6th and drive down and spend the night at a hotel near Heathrow.
When I write it all down, it really hardly seems worth it. But I guess that's what you do for family.

I suspect that for the 2 nights it probably is easier for us to stay in a hotel (we usually do the holiday inn express in stockton on tees). But I would still be quite happy for someone to come and housesit for us anyway while we are gone! Our house is empty from July 12 - Aug 7. (No smoking and no pets, by the way). Only problem is that flights are expensive to Los Angeles at that time of year.

And I'd love to meet some mumsnetters while we're up in Hartlepool.