OVERVIEW
I am an Austin resident who has recently become responsible for the care of an estate on a Greek island, located about 10 km from the nearest village. It is 24 seaside acres of mostly wilderness surrounding a beach and a compound of structures sleeping up to 9. It has off-grid electric (solar), plumbing (rainwater cistern), and internet (starlink) amenities, terraced gardens, and other features. It has won architectural awards for its unique design. It is 50 years old and in need of constant maintenance.
The designer, creator and owner of this compound is my father, an elderly architecture professor/dean. We are looking for a person or a couple who is ecstatic about the prospect of making a new life on this island. We hope this will be a long-term relationship.
Please contact us with a short cover letter telling us about yourself, your qualifications, and why you are interested.
COMPENSATION
You will live rent free in a caretaker’s house on the adjoining property (i.e. free lodging as a fringe benefit) and will receive a stipend equal to the average Greek salary, recalculated annually (this currently works out to 1345 euros/month—which stretches far in the local economy). We would assist you at our expense in getting a Greek work visa as our employee. We will provide a vehicle. We will reimburse your out-of-pocket expense to travel one-way to Greece over the course of one year as an addition to your regular paycheck.
DUTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
You will be responsible for keeping the estate well maintained at our expense. This may include cleaning, gardening, repainting, traveling to the village for needed materials, light structural repair work (replacing worn out screens, rusted hinges, etc.), regularly testing and maintaining the good working order of the off-grid amenities, troubleshooting issues and hiring local help for any major repairs that are beyond your own skill. You will report monthly on your activities and make sure the estate is looking its best in advance of our occasional visits. You will have substantial freedom to set your own hours without direct supervision, but will be expected to take the initiative to find and fix issues without instruction. There will be plenty of work.
We are searching in Austin in the hopes of finding a locally interviewable person with whom we can see eye-to-eye on a personal level. The ideal person or persons will be educated, trustworthy, capable, levelheaded, earnest—and a smattering of Greek, or willingness to learn, would be a huge plus (although many locals are conversant in English).
Perhaps you are a writer or artist looking for peace and quiet to pursue your passions (when off-duty) without distraction; perhaps you are an introvert who wants to disappear for a good long while; perhaps you are a couple fond of each other’s company who would like to share these duties and thus semi-retire in a low cost-of-living area.
We stress, emphatically, a comfort with and preference for social isolation is a key requirement.