“Steve's garden rivals the National Trust gardens”

At the end of 2019, we asked you all to look back and celebrate the special pets and people you met through TrustedHousesitters. 

After reading through so many wonderful stories (through both tears, laughter and deliberation) our judges finally chose the winners of The Trusted Awards 2019. However, the vast amount of stories did mean that some special mentions had to be shared. 

Here we have Young and Steve, who was nominated by Jim and Bea, who the judges also felt deserved a special nomination of which we titled The Warmest Welcome 2019.

Listen to Jim and Bea’s story as to why they nominated Young and Steve for Sit of the Year 2019...

Young and Steve have an amazing home, garden, and pet (Chewey). They were very thorough in advance coordination and gave us very detailed instructions on the care of their home and Chewey. We house sat for five different properties this year. When we evaluated them according to the following criteria, Young, Steve, and Chewey came out first in ALL of them.

Best Pet: Chewey is adorable! He loves to travel and preferred to go to the store with us and stay in the car (kennel) rather than stay home. He loved to cuddle when we were downstairs with him and was content when we left him to go upstairs for bedtime. We had many pleasant walks and cuddles with Chewey.

Best house: Young's home is immaculate and easy to care for. She had everything labeled for us so we could easily find items in the kitchen. They also had a "starter" larder for us where they provided eggs, milk, and some other basics so we did not have to go shopping on our first day there. Their wifi was high speed so we could do our business from their home, and they had a good selection of programmes on their TV. Their home was a great place to work, relax, and play.

Best Garden: Steve's garden rivals the National Trust gardens in the UK, but on a smaller scale. It was a pleasure to sit outside and was easy to care for.

Best location: They live in a quiet area but are within walking distance of stores and Costa Coffee. Chewey would go for walks for coffee and a quick shop with us every time. They also live close to the Peak District, an area of natural beauty in Great Britain. We had several enjoyable walks there with Chewey, both in the countryside and in some of the towns. Plus, they live close to several National Trust properties which Chewey happily agreed to show us.

Best Neighbors: Steve and Young introduced us to their dear friends, Phil and Suzie, who live next door. They took us to a great pub (with Chewey), watched Chewey on occasion, and had us over for tea.

Best Communication: Steve and Young were great about staying in contact before, during, and after our sit.

We have stayed in contact with Young and Steve and are all making plans for another visit and sit in 2020! We look forward to our continuing friendship with Steve and Young, as well as taking care of Chewey and their new kitten!

Want to receive the warmest welcome? Head to Young and Steve’s listing.

Or why not hear more stories from our Trusted Awards winners and special mentions?