Free accommodation for housekeeping & some cooking

Area:

Kentish Town

Postcode:

NW5

Available:

Now

Min term:

None

Max term:

None

Short lets considered:

Yes

Double room:

£1pcm

Hello,

Having looked at the picture, please do not fire off a one-line or one-word message saying, 'I'm interested, call me', 'what's your number', 'available? as you will get no response.

I repeat, do not send messages saying, 'interested', 'I want the room for a month', 'I'm male but does it really matter?, 'I'm only 22 but very mature', or just 'hi'.

This room is not available to an illiterate, post-pubescent adolescent with no manners.

I am looking for a female lodger/housekeeper, a situation resulting from Multiple Sclerosis putting me in a wheelchair and my husband, who was gradually taking over from me in the house, having been killed whilst on holiday with our sons (search 'Martin Ellis St Lucia').

I am looking for someone in their 30s or older, with experience of running their own house and of living with teenagers.

We have a spacious house in Dartmouth Park, with Parliament Hill Fields, Hampstead Heath, at the bottom of the road. (This is where people come when they get tired of East London.)

I am offering a decent sized room on the top floor, approx. 17x15 feet, rent-free in exchange for 12-14 hours a week helping run the house - cooking three to four meals a week for us all, including you, some laundry and cleaning communal parts of the house - two bathrooms, stairs and the kitchen. Pretty much what you would do wherever you live.

Male readers please skip to the final paragraph below.

The household comprises me, three sons, age 17, 19 and 22. The eldest works in the city, something incomprehensible to do with analysing investment strategies; the middle one will be going to Leeds university in October to read economics; the youngest is doing A-levels (economics, politics and maths, also wanting to do economics at university. I blame their late father).

Carers get me up, make my lunch and get me to bed, but sometimes I need help transferring from wheelchair to seat, putting on a shoe or getting ready to go out of the house. Everyone is here some of the time and an extra person who is also here some of the time makes a big difference to me.

The arrangement will suit someone with a part-time job, working from home or studying. This is a very quiet area, the house has been designed to maximise natural light with lots of glass ceilings and skylights (blind closed on skylight in photo) and there is plenty of space.

Applicants should be resident in the UK, ie. not hoping to be sponsored for a work permit, have experience of running a household, be a decent cook and familiar with the species known as male teenager.

This includes realising that things like not dropping towels on the bathroom floor, or thinking to empty an overflowing kitchen dustbin, do not come naturally to them and they have to be asked again and again. However, if you want someone to build you a remotely controlled camera drone, or use an electric drill, the boys are the ones to ask.

Location - Dartmouth Park (above Kentish Town, before going up to Highgate). Put NW5 1SH into StreetView and find the house with clean bricks and a tall thin cypress tree in front.

The room concerned is on the top floor at the front.

Transport links: 7 minutes’ walk to Tufnell Park (Northern line) and Gospel Oak (London Overground), buses 88, 214, C11, 4, 134.

To reiterate, please note that senders of messages comprising, 'I'm interested, call me' will be ignored, and again, may I stress I am not looking for someone the same age or younger than my own children.

With three sons and two large male cats, there is sufficient testosterone in the house already. The only other female residents, a cat and a hamster, are long since dead and buried in the garden, so I beg forgiveness for seeking to redress the gender balance by stressing that females are preferred.

Location info

• Kentish Town
• NW5
• (5-10 minutes walk to Tufnell Park station)

Extra costs

Deposit

£200.00

Bills included?

Some

Amenities

Furnishings

Furnished

Parking

Yes

Garage

No

Garden/terrace

Yes

Balcony/Patio

No

Disabled access

Yes

Living room

shared

Broadband included

Yes