Business trip

[Mattzlaff]

I need some advice for myself now. I had posted for my brother earlier.

I'm going on a business trip. It will likely be 8 weeks or longer and start late March-early April.

I live at my house with my GF, she works a crazy hectic schedule usually with only 1 day off at a time. We have a dog, I do almost all of the taking care of it, walks, poop duty, ect. I also do all the yard work, snow shovelling and the house keeping. 8-12 weeks isn't a terribly long time but I also don't want to stress her out by getting her to do all the work on my house with her only time off.

I'm thinking of at most getting a local guy/company to come by the house once a week or once every 2 weeks to deal with the yard work. Where I live, while I'm gone, we're prone to having all the snow melt for weeks and then have second winter hit us with a cold snap for a few days and then no snow for a while and then third winter by May long weekend. I also need to do the aeration this year and a few extra things done that they will do. Dog poop pick up is just one example. So I kind of get two birds stoned at once.

I have reached out to one person seems pretty good just by talking to them but I have not received a quote from them yet.

I do get some home time if the trip is longer than 61 days I get 2 days of non vacation time to be home. 2 days for flying and 2 days for being home. The start and end dates are undetermined right now. My hard stop is June 30 as I have bought and paid for vacation starting July 2, before this opportunity hit.

It's a good opportunity for me, work experience wise, financially, ect. I expect lots of overtime pay on top of the per diem which I highly doubt I will max out daily, figuring that would cover all of the yard guys costs and have a good sum or more left over. I also make a really good salary and being away and not spending while I'm gone, and taking that and spending it on a yard guy makes sense but I also like the idea of getting a 3 month bump on my FIRE.

My family, although I do a lot for old mom(lots of upkeep on her house), she's unable to assist me. But hell I can't blame her she assisted me for over 18 years.
My older brother lives 5 hours away, my younger brother lives a mustachian life style, with out him knowing it. He lives 35 minutes by car and does not drive.

What would you do for house care options?

I'll post again when it comes close to go time in another topic, but how does Costco look for Canadians using their member ships? How do I go about getting a phone plan in the states?

[Mattzlaff]

Not even one suggestion? bummer.

I know most people reading would say get a friend, get a family member, never hire out. Get the GF to do it. I have a really really good friend of mine who I know would do it if I asked, however, he's going away on a very extended trip to Thailand in November for an undisclosed amount of time, so much time in fact that he's turned down my offers of 100k/year jobs to live his dream of traveling. He owns a dog(through a relationship turned sour and it was take the dog with him or she was going to put it down.) and I can't facilitate it's care while he's away. So I will not allow him to take on burden that I cannot reciprocate.

Since I solely own the house and the dog, I don't see it as my GFs responsibility to do the house care beyond the few things that she does already.

I've probably answered my own question by now, but I have only hired out one job in my short homeownership life and I am a huge DIY'er so it hurts me to spend money on something that I know is easy within my skillset yet time consuming...
I still have yet to receive a quote from the guy, I can't see it as being more than a couple hundred bucks a month, since I'm making my normal salary, plus per diem, plus extra amounts of overtime.

[MayDay]

I'd hire it out for sure.

If your per diem will more than cover it, then it isn't worth stressing over it or overburdening your GF. I might frel differently if it was her house and you've been doing it to help out. But as it is your house, it's your responsibility.

[PJ]

Maybe you've already done so, but do make sure that you talk to your GF about it.  Chances are that it's not a problem for her, but she may have some opinion about "a stranger" coming on the property to do work while you're away.  Not likely to be a problem that would stop you from doing it, but she might have some opinions about who it is.  And, how does she feel about taking care of the dog while you're away?  Feeding, walking, letting it out in the yard.  Any chance that the dog will have trouble waiting until she gets home to go out, or get destructive in the home due to boredom or anxiety?  Figure out how it will be handled if the dog gets ill or injured, how will she get it to the vet, will she know what kinds of things to look for?  Etc. 

Anyway, I agree that as it's your house, not "yours" plural, and the fact that you usually take care of these things, and with her schedule, that it makes sense to hire it out.  Or, if you really think that your friend would be willing, then ask him, though make it clear that you would want to compensate him for his time, and regret that taking care of his dog wouldn't be the way you could do it.  He might decline to be compensated, but there are ways to do it anyway - gifting him something, or helping him do something at his place he couldn't do alone (build a deck, etc).

Also, you didn't really ask this, but if you want advice about how to save the maximum amount of your per diem, there are definitely people on the forums who know how to do that!  Different strategies abound, depending on the facilities where you're staying.  I'd post a different thread for that, if I was you, with a catchier title.  "Maxing out my per diem!" or something.