When we want to leave a swap home early, something is really wrong. At our last swap home the problem wasn't the nice exchangers or their new house in a relatively convenient location. No, the problem we found was breathing. And shedding. A lot.
These swappers have a really nice cat. With long fur. Lots of it. All over the floor, the furniture, and us. Vacuuming the floor and using tape to clean fur off the furniture didn't help. Even members of my family who have never been allergic to cats were sneezing.
But we couldn't leave early. Because we had to take care of the big, furry cat. Was there any solution short of medicating everyone out of their minds?
SUBSCRIBE NOW
You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
SHOULD YOU SWAP HOMES WITH KIDS?
We arrived at our Asheville home exchange after two days of driving for 6-hours. Our kids had done well despite being cooped up in a car for hours on end. As soon as they stepped out into the country air they were mesmerized by the big butterflies with blue on their wings that fluttered around the swappers' perennials.
This let to the first of many "DON'Ts" that they would hear in the next few days: Don't walk near the flowers.
We are not permissive parents. We don't believe that we are crushing our children's creative spirit by making them aware they need to respect other people's property when those people are kind enough to let us use their home.
At our apartment our kids share a bedroom. They are close in age and play well together but often wake each other up. It is a great luxury for us to use a swap home, such as this one, that has three bedrooms so each child can sleep as long as s/he wants.
In fact, having kids is the best reason to exchange homes, in my opinion. I can wash their clothes in the laundry room and have milk and cereal ready in the kitchen so they can get their own breakfast. I don't need to supervise them during every second they are outside their bedrooms. The most important benefit of swapping with kids is that they are not sleeping in the same 150 square foot hotel room in which I am trapped with them.
Having said that, home exchange isn't right for every family with kids. How would your children behave in a swap home? As a swapper you are not only responsible for taking care of the home, it is your duty to monitor the behavior of all guests, especially your children.
Think carefully before swapping: will your children respect the swappers' home and possessions?
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
This let to the first of many "DON'Ts" that they would hear in the next few days: Don't walk near the flowers.
We are not permissive parents. We don't believe that we are crushing our children's creative spirit by making them aware they need to respect other people's property when those people are kind enough to let us use their home.
At our apartment our kids share a bedroom. They are close in age and play well together but often wake each other up. It is a great luxury for us to use a swap home, such as this one, that has three bedrooms so each child can sleep as long as s/he wants.
In fact, having kids is the best reason to exchange homes, in my opinion. I can wash their clothes in the laundry room and have milk and cereal ready in the kitchen so they can get their own breakfast. I don't need to supervise them during every second they are outside their bedrooms. The most important benefit of swapping with kids is that they are not sleeping in the same 150 square foot hotel room in which I am trapped with them.
Having said that, home exchange isn't right for every family with kids. How would your children behave in a swap home? As a swapper you are not only responsible for taking care of the home, it is your duty to monitor the behavior of all guests, especially your children.
Think carefully before swapping: will your children respect the swappers' home and possessions?
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
HERE COMES HOME EXCHANGE
The home exchangers are arriving one day before we leave for our Asheville, North Carolina swap. That way, we can orient them to our home before we leave. We rarely meet our home exchangers because we are usually traveling to their home while they are traveling to our place. That's why it's important to "get to know" your swappers via phone and email before the exchange is confirmed.
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
FREE VACATION IN EXPENSIVE MANHATTAN?
You may not have a concierge in your home but if you swap with a hospitable home exchanger you'll have one on vacation. The swappers who will use my apartment in March just wrote me an email about which NYC attractions pass they should invest $300 in.
Larger cities like New York and Chicago often have these multi-attraction passes. They feature all-inclusive admission to a mix of museums, historic sites and, well, tourist traps. For instance, several of the New York passes include admission to the local franchises of a British wax museum and a hall of reproductions of "unbelievable" oddities, most of which were probably fake in their original iterations. What either of these tourist traps has to do with New York City is unclear, except to prove what was said about the work of local tri-state area son P.T. Barnum: "A sucker is born every minute".
Your home exchange partner offers "local intelligence". I shared my opinion of the attractions passes with the swapper. Where else would you get the real story from someone you can trust?
"The Citypass and NewYorkpass are not good deals. You can go to all the included museums for free or pay-what-you-like. Details here:
http://gonyc.about.com/cs/museums/a/museumdeals.htm
"The Statue of Liberty isn't really interactive once you're on its island and the ride there in the tiny boat is nauseating. It's more thrilling to see the the statue for free from the Staten Island Ferry than on its island because the new arrivals to America saw it from a ship as well.
"The Circle Line boat tour is a long day and its most interesting views are also available for free from the Staten Island Ferry. Top of the Rock is more interesting than the Empire State Building but it's not worth buying the pass just for that. The other attractions offered with the pass are tourist traps. The passes also rope you into a whirlwind of tourism since they are only valid for consecutive days. Skip the passes."
I MAKE HOME EXCHANGE HISTORY!
Not to brag, but I made home exchange history in 2011. I completed what has to be the most comprehensive swap in the history of home exchange. I traded my tiny tenement apartment in Manhattan for the following:
* FREE LODGING for two weeks in a luxurious Orlando house with a private pool
* TICKETS TO DISNEYWORLD, EPCOT, DISNEY STUDIOS and DISNEY STUDIOS for a family of four on three different days (we had our choice of visiting any and every Disney Park)
* USE OF A SAAB CONVERTIBLE for two weeks. It even had leather interior.
* DINNER OUT EVERY NIGHT AT 8 DIFFERENT RESTAURANTS
The only fixed expense we had during our trip was airfare. The only thing we traded was the use of our apartment. Can you top this swap?
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
* FREE LODGING for two weeks in a luxurious Orlando house with a private pool
* TICKETS TO DISNEYWORLD, EPCOT, DISNEY STUDIOS and DISNEY STUDIOS for a family of four on three different days (we had our choice of visiting any and every Disney Park)
* USE OF A SAAB CONVERTIBLE for two weeks. It even had leather interior.
* DINNER OUT EVERY NIGHT AT 8 DIFFERENT RESTAURANTS
The only fixed expense we had during our trip was airfare. The only thing we traded was the use of our apartment. Can you top this swap?
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
THE YEAR IN HOME EXCHANGE
Home exchange made it into our 2011 holiday letter. Do Europeans send out general holiday letters? Many Americans do. Here's an example, from a Jonathan Coulton song:
This year has been a little crazy for the Andersons.You may recall we had some trouble last year.The robot council had us banished to an asteroid.That hasn't undermined our holiday cheer.
And we know it's almost Christmas from the marks we make on the wall.And that's our favorite time of year.
Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime, Where we're working in a mine for our robot overlords.Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime.[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/jonathan_coulton/chiron_beta_prime.html ]On every corner there's a giant metal Santa Claus who watches over us with glowing red eyes.They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good.Not everybody's good but everyone tries.And the rocks outside the airlock exude ammonia-scented snow.It's like a Winter wonderland.
Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime, Where we're working in a mine for our robot overlords.Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime.
That's all the family news that we're allowed to talk about.We really hope you'll come and visit us soon.I mean we're literally begging you to visit us.And make it quick before they [MESSAGE REDACTED].
Now it's time for Christmas dinner - I think the robots sent us a pie! You know I love my soylent green.We didn't have any news nearly that interesting to report, but we did make note of our 2011 home exchanges, as follows:
Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime, Where we're working in a mine for our robot overlords.Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime.
We are still enjoying vacationing by swapping homes with other adventurous travelers. In 2011 we traded homes with swappers in Montreal, Toronto and the Amish Country of Pennsylvania during our summer road trip to visit Grandma, Grandpa and the rest of the family Down South. Because driving 300 miles from New York to Canada is how most people get to Tennessee, right? We now have a new GPS so our next home exchange to see the family will be in Asheville, North Carolina this Spring.
One negative about holiday letters is the difficulty negotiating the line between informing others about the high points of your year and bragging. We accomplished such a home exchange triumph in 2011 that it was impossible not to sound smug about it...
SUBSCRIBE NOW You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)