Caretaker/Grounds/Handyman or Couple Team - Stonington, CT

Caretaker/Grounds/Handyman for rural property in Stonington, CT. Salary commensurate with experience. Housing adjacent. 50 hours a week for an individual, 80 hours a week for a couple team, flexible schedule. On call for occasional emergencies. 

The ideal candidate will be organized and self-motivated and take direction well, have an eye for detail, be willing to get his or her hands dirty, and be involved in jobs big and small. Private service experience helpful, realizing that there is no staff. You are the staff.

 Responsibilities include grounds maintenance, handyman projects, supervising vendors, and working with and filling in for housekeeper as needed. 

There are no formal gardens, but we have several organic flower and vegetable gardens. The candidate will need knowledge of plants and conservation practices to care for our 30 acres of combined hayfield, wetlands, and forest. (Knowledge of native plants, or the desire to learn, is a plus.) Our house is 4,300 square feet with an additional 3,000 square feet of basement space. 

We are hiring help because our health keeps us from doing the work ourselves.

Wife has three physical disabilities around which we've tried to create a safe living space.

RSD/CRPS, a pain syndrome aggravated by hot, cold, air flow, vibration, humidity, and noise.

A tracheostomy that requires humidity and control of dust and pollen.

Multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) and breathing issues. She needs to minimize odors and chemicals, and deodorizer-type smells can't be tolerated. 

Planning projects around her health requires flexibility in thinking and time management. People who aren’t familiar with CRPS or pain syndromes will need some time to make sense of what does and doesn't aggravate her symptoms. Her immune system can’t handle having someone coming here while sick or possibly contagious. We require all employees to be fully vaccinated. 

50% of the job is grounds. So if you don't like to pull weeds, water plants, or shovel snow, this isn't the job for you. Because of the seasonal nature of some of the work, we need to be both flexible and direct about our mutual expectations. 

We have an indoor cat and a large dog. The candidate must like animals and be willing to help us with pet care.

Vendors:

We have some reliable vendors but our location can make finding vendors difficult. As our representative and go-between to the public, we expect you to represent us professionally and with kindness. 

Grounds:

We try to keep an organic yard as much as possible, and we don't use chemical pesticides or herbicides. Planning the yard so wife can enjoy it through windows when she can’t be outside (which is most of the summer) is important. 

Handyman Plus:

Willingness to tackle projects from changing light bulbs to maintaining hurricane shutters to tarring the driveway. 

Communication:

Excellence in communication is essential: a good listener who can learn the intricacies of the job. We need to know how things are going, what work is being done, and have comfortable two-way communications.

Personal considerations:

The greatest challenge, as we see it, would be working around and with our limitations. This would mean some evening hours and working around wife's sleep and health issues. The year-round plan includes generally longer hours during the growing season. 

We are able to pay a fair salary without going beyond our means. We live informally and this isn’t an “estate” with staff. 

Why would you want to work for us?

We really need the help.

Even though much of the work may be repetitive, you would truly be needed. There are a number of creative challenges that would keep you on your toes.

Employee housing is on an adjoining property in a partially renovated farmhouse with a heated garage/workshop, a barn and a shed.

We’re in a beautiful rural setting halfway between NYC and Boston. 

Employer profile:

We like to think of ourselves as fair, reasonable, down-to-earth and direct. We need collaborative approaches to projects and problems because of the complicated nature of health-related projects. We have to be flexible because wife’s needs change on a daily basis. Her pain level fluctuates from moderate to very severe. There is no pattern to it. She may appear to be distracted or short-tempered. Husband has sleep apnea and on any given day may act distracted or harder to communicate with.

Health problems have isolated us socially to some extent, and neither of us is especially outgoing. This may be interpreted as unfriendly, but we aren't; we're quiet and we're used to leading a quiet life.

A highly social person might be lonely here if no vendors were on the schedule. 

Husband and wife’s skills are complementary. Wife has mechanical knowledge and is knows most about how things work in house and yard. Husband is more office-savvy and can help organize a house manual which we desperately need. 

Wife has limited speech. Much communication will be through daily notes and email, with regularly scheduled meetings near the end of the day. Email can seem cold and impersonal or easily misunderstood, and we’ll try our best to overcome any communication difficulties. Wife can’t send or receive text messages because of limited use of hands.