Short term rental opportunity.

With a litte bit of trepidation we are making our home available for a short term rental. We are not in business; this is a once off. We are both in our fifties. I work for the Federal Government and my wife works for the State Government.

We will be on holidays in United Kingdom and Europe for 18 weeks starting on Monday March 12^th 2007. It would be great if we could find someone who was arriving a couple of days before we were departing so that we could show them around and have a party to introduce you to family and friends. We would move out and stay with one of the children for a couple of nights.

We are looking for a couple who will appreciate and respect our home while they take their time to research and understand local conditions here in Adelaide.

Our first preference is for a couple who would be willing to make a commitment to stay in our home for at least 12 weeks. If a couple chose to do this it would then be possible to grant further extensions up to a total of 18 weeks if you have not found somewhere else to go. Naturally this will depend upon the date of your arrival. Twelve weeks may seem like a long time but it will give you time to have a good look around and not have to rush into any decisions.

However we will consider other shorter options but these will have definite end dates so that we can maximize the amount of time the house is occupied by having more than one couple stay at some stage during the time we are away.

If you are interested but are a bit concerned about some aspect please feel free to email me and we will try and negotiate a deal to suit both of us.

We are offering a fully furnished, three bedroom house located in Paralowie which is a northern suburb of Adelaide. It is ideally located if you are considering living somewhere on the northern side of Adelaide. Not suitable if you really want to be on the southern side. Paralowie is a 30 minute drive to Adelaide, 5 minutes to Salisbury, 10 minutes to Elizabeth. Within easy range of half day trips to the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley, Hahndorf, Mount Lofty Ranges, Burra, McLaren Vale. Within easy range for day trips to the Riverland, Port Pirie, Victor Harbor.

I know you want to see pictures so there are plenty of photos available for you to view as a slideshow at http://picasaweb.google.com/auspolly51/ourhome . Click on the link and then play the slideshow.

Although there are three bedrooms one is set up as a sitting room connected to the main bedroom. Under the main roof there is an entry hall, a small dining area, a larger conservatory style dining room with see through walls to the garden, a kitchen, a laundry, a second toilet near the laundry and backdoor, a bathroom, main bedroom, sitting room and another bedroom with 2 single beds which is used for grandchildren visits.

Outside there is a fully lined room which has a dining area and an office area concealed behind sliding doors. Then there is another fully lined room (6m by 12m) which is set up as a games room – containing table tennis, 9ft eight ball table, two dart boards, a home cinema room which also contains a fold down digital slot car racing track. The games room was only just completed in time for Xmas 2006 so it is all new. There are plenty of options for indoor entertainment. The tv in the second bedroom is connected to a video player, a dvd player and playstation one. The tv in the lounge is connected to a standard definition digital set top box with hard disk recording, playstation 2; and a stereo system. The home cinema room has a sony projector displaying on a 2.4m by 1.2m screen, connected to a high definition digital set top box, a hard disk/dvd recorder, Xbox 360 and a surround sound system.

There are extensive gardens with numerous spots for sitting and reflecting or plenty of room for entertaining. There are two barbeques. The garden has an automatic watering system and we will arrange for our son to maintain the garden.

We will provide you with a contact list of family members and family friends so you will not be isolated when you first get here. Our family will probably appreciate an invitation to come around and use the games room but this will be up to you of course. Some of us come from England and some were born here.

How much you ask?

For a 12 week stay - $4860 with any extra weeks in excess of the first 12 being charged at a reduced rate of only $382 per wk.

If we end up having to accept a shorter term rental then it will be at $450 per week.

What are you getting for your money?

- We will include the full use of a Mitsubishi Express 4WD van. Please note that this a manual vehicle with seats for two people only. Very good for sight seeing due to the elevated seating position. This is going to be our camping van once I get around to converting it. It is comprehensively insured so you would only be up for a small excess were you unfortunate enough to have an accident. You will be responsible for petrol and oil but we will pay for any mechanical repairs should they become necessary.

- A fully furnished, well equipped home including the use of games room.

- All rates and utilities paid for including the first $10 worth of phone calls. You will have to pay for any in excess of this amount

- An email address

- Use of two broadband connected computers

You can check out other rental prices at this site http://www.domain.com.au but note that these are for rental of unfurnished houses only with no extras included and requiring a long term commitment.

We would be looking for payment in advance together with a refundable $1000 bond to cover damages. We would not be picky about normal wear and tear.

We will be requiring two references.

We will be expecting you to invite one of the contacts over so that they can check the place out so that they can send us reassuring messages.

My email address is richman@westnet.com.au