BE OUR HOUSEMATE/ DOG SITTER ON CANEY FORK!

$450/ month

(FREE rent in exchange for dog-sitting)

STARTING JANUARY 1, 2026

(Lots of Photos at bottom of page)

PLEASE READ ENTIRE DESCRIPTION BELOW BEFORE APPLYING 

Hello, our names are Topher (40, he/him) and Kayla (35, she/her). We are passionate about birds, music, crafts, cooking, fermenting, gardening, and spending as much time as possible in beautiful spaces with good people and sweet critters. 

We are in search of a mature, kind, and value-aligned person (or couple) to live with us on our small creek side property near Cullowhee, NC (1hr from Asheville, 15 min from Sylva). 

For $450/month utilities included ($650/month for a couple), our housemate would rent a beautiful, cozy, just-renovated room in our log-cabin home with a private deck overlooking the creek, a semi-private office/reading room and shared use of our home and property including a swimming hole, wood-fired hot tub, propane pizza oven, craft room and garden. 

We work as backpacking guides and naturalist educators and we travel a fair bit throughout the year for work. While we are away, our housemate’s rent would be reduced in exchange for dog-sitting our two lovable goofy dogs which basically just involves playing ball, feeding them 2x/day, and making sure they feel loved and cared for. 

The dogs are medium sized (40 & 50lbs) mixed breed mutts. Their names are Korra and Iroh and their passions include ball, stick, belly rubs, and licking the cookie batter off of mixing bowls. They stay enclosed in a fully fenced yard at home though they love hiking adventures.

We share the garden and swimming hole with Topher’s aunt, uncle, cousin, and her toddler who live across the yard. Topher’s parents  live for half the year four houses up the road. It’s a very sweet and quirky intergenerational community. Our intention is to eventually have two to three more young, enthusiastic, and creative folks sharing our property and living in our tiny house across the creek. We have friends and guests over fairly regularly and sometimes host house concerts and craft workshops out of the house. 

Other perks of living with us include the opportunity to learn about birds and wildlife tracking, guitar, banjo, ukulele, or songwriting skills (all of which Topher teaches), learn to ferment, bake sourdough, and cook amazing gourmet food (Kayla’s wheelhouses), or join us for crafty workshops to learn spoon carving, block printing, or pottery. Folks who are eager to learn carpentry skills and/or are relatively competent handy-persons or gardeners may also work-trade portions of rent in exchange for work on the property.

APPLICANT MUST:

• Be available to dog-sit from Jan 8 - Jan 24 and again from February 10 - February 22 of 2026. Rent would be free (reduced by $15/day) for each day we are gone. Future dog-sitting dates and arrangements can be discussed during the application interview.

• Be an animal lover but NOT a current pet owner. Caring for our dogs while we’re away is an essential part of this deal. Iroh has a hard time making new animal friends so no new pets are allowed. In addition to the dogs we strive to live in harmony with all the creatures on the property (including spiders, insects, and snakes). 

• Be clean and respectful of our shared kitchen. Kayla is vegetarian and we cook almost exclusively vegetarian food for ourselves here at the house. While house-mates aren’t required to be vegetarian we wouldn’t be super stoked for bacon or burger smoke filling the house on a regular basis. We use peanuts, soy, and wheat flour often in the kitchen- this wouldn’t be a good fit for folks with severe allergies to those foods.

• Be tidy and attentive to the cleanliness of shared spaces. We try to keep a relatively clean and organized home and expect our house mates to contribute to the upkeep of shared spaces.

• Be generally aligned with our waking/sleeping schedule and be respectful and flexible about household sound. The room for rent is above the kitchen and the walls in this house are far from soundproof. We are conscientious about noise but we use the kitchen often and enjoy music while we cook during the day. We generally make meals around 8 or 9am, mid-day, and early evening. We almost always get into quiet bed-time mode around 8-9pm and would expect a house-wide quiet-time between 10pm and 7am.

• Be mostly sober- we have no qualms with occasional drinking or occasional smoking of cannabis or tobacco (outdoors only) but we try to maintain a mostly sober home. If you tend to drink or get high more than 2 or 3 times per week then this is not the right fit.

• Be an excellent communicator, able to express your needs, follow house rules, provide and receive feedback, and engage in monthly house meetings in service to creating the most joyful and harmonious household possible.

• Be a respectful, open-minded, and relatively social community member- we strive to create a safe and welcoming space for people of all backgrounds and identities and we won’t tolerate discrimination of any kind. Our home is a space for gathering and community connection- highly introverted folks might find this challenging.

$450 rent includes water, electric, and internet. In the case of a couple renting the room, rent would be $650. Propane and firewood for heat is split evenly by all house mates and usually amounts to $200-$300 each/year. 

There will be a trial period of two months (Jan + Feb)  at which point we will assess if the situation is still a good fit. After that, rent can be either month to month or 6 month commitment, whichever feels best for you.

A short commitment of just Jan & Feb is possible but ideally a good-fit renter would stay for 6-12 months or longer.

If this feels like a good fit for you, please send us a short letter of introduction and interest to info@wildremembering.com along with two references who can vouch for your maturity, reliability, communication skills, cleanliness, and ability to live harmoniously in community.