Bedroom in a family home in Scotland

По-перше, я хочу сказати, що ми зареєстровані в урядовій програмі «Дім для України» Великобританії, тому вам буде комфортно знати, що це безпечне та перевірене місце для проживання.

Learn more about us

Hello! We are a family of four Natasha (31), David (28), Travis (6), and Luke (1).

We live in a small town in the Scottish Borders, the town name is Walkerburn. You can use this map to see where we are in the UK and what is nearby.

We can offer one bedroom. The bedroom is for my baby when he gets bigger, but now he is too small and he sleeps with us in our bedroom. Right now the bedroom has one tall ‘cabin’ bed with a desk below it. We can leave the computer there for you to use or we can move it to another place if you have your own. The bed is called a shorty, which means it is a little smaller than a normal bed but not a lot. I am 154cm and I can lie in that bed no problem. We can add another bed to this room if you want to come as a Mother and child. There is also a way we can add a bunk bed if you have two kids. With 2 beds or with bunk beds in the room will feel a bit small. There is storage and we can also leave some toys in for your kids. We have two sons (6 and 2 years old) so we have a variety of different toys here.

I think probably it is best for one adult and one child, but if you have two children and are happy to use bunk beds then we can make it work. Also, to get to our home you have to go up some steps. This is a reason it is not good for the elderly and it also means we can’t help anyone with a wheelchair.

***UPDATE (17 March 2022 at 3.08pm) I have just read a post about the UK government rejecting an offer to put three people in one room. I am not sure how true this is as the applications have not opened yet.

There is also a living room with TV, Netflix, Xbox, and the internet. The living room also has toys, because our kids like to keep them everywhere! There are movies and books throughout the home too.

The bathroom is shared, it’s a little old and could use an upgrade but it’s okay. We have a bath and a shower in there and both work. Recently we knocked the side off the bath to check for a leak, we just have to get a replacement for it and we can do this before you arrive if it will be an issue.

Inside we live with a Labrador puppy called Bear. He is very hyper and loves to play. In the picture below you can see Bear having a nap in our car.

Usually, he will walk around the house and will sleep in any room where we are. Other days he will sleep in the living room and he has a cage in there where we can put him to sleep, calm down, or when we go outside. This picture is of Bear in his cage when he was much smaller. My baby also likes the cage!

We have a lazy cat who is always asleep too. The grey cat is our lazy cat. He likes to lie in the beds or hide under them. He does not like Bear very much but tries to ignore him.

We had one more cat but he decided to live with the neighbour instead. He might come to visit when you are here, but I don’t think so.

Outside we have one chicken. Our garden is small and our dog ruined it a little. But beside the garden there is a big green space, actually, the whole town has a lot of green spaces like a park, football fields, rugby pitch and many paths for walking. In our town, there isn’t a lot of things to do that you pay for like the cinema or bowling. It’s a small town and you can easily walk to the school. It’s a safe place where all people know each other.

The school is small with only 30 pupils. I know the school teachers well and I can help you get your children into school. The school is not busy so I think they have many places for children and it is not already too full.

There are many hills and forests to explore nearby. If you like mountain biking then this is a good area for you. There are many popular mountain biking tracks here. A lot of local people also do horseriding and there is a football club in one of the nearby towns. The next town to us is Innerleithen and this is where the closest supermarket is. It is easy to get deliveries from the supermarkets to our home.

You can get the bus to Edinburgh from near our home. It takes only a few minutes to walk to the bus stop. There are some medium towns nearby where you can find jobs. The best website for jobs here is called Indeed. You can search for Walkerburn and maybe filter to around 10 miles from here. You can see an example of the jobs available here. The towns of Peebles, Innerleithen and Galashiels are all easy to get to on the bus.

We also have a business where we plant trees. That is why we have this website. The work is hard but maybe you can try it and see if you like it. There are other tasks we do that are not only planting trees, some work is easier. It can be tough working in the cold and wet weather of Scotland some days but we enjoy it. Sometimes we both travel to work and the children stay with their Grandmother. Their Grandmother and Grandfather (Davids’ parents) live almost next door to us. They will treat your children like their own and are so kind and lovely.

I think our offer is quite specific to a small family who doesn’t mind sharing a room together. I hope we can help someone soon. Also, we might be able to help with a small pet. Maybe a small dog or lazy cat like ours. We can discuss it if it is something you need.

Also, we only speak English. I don’t think it matters but I can speak a little Mandarin. I am happy to try to learn some Ukrainian if it helps. Because the school is small here there is no chance any classes or teachers will speak Ukrainian. If you do want to live with us we can discuss with the school before you arrive and maybe the teacher will learn some phrases and share them with the pupils. I am also hoping to make contact with other host families so we can meet with other Ukrainians nearby.

If you want to talk to me you can send an email to natashahaley@hotmail.co.uk, you can send me a text message or use my number in WhatsApp (my number is +447810393020) or you can send me a message to my Facebook account.

My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zayerayy/

My WhatsApp: +447810393020 or 00447810393020

My email: natashahaley@hotmail.co.uk

Keep reading if you want to learn more

You can stop reading there, but if you want to learn more then you can read on.

More about Tasha

Well, I am Tasha. I am the Mum of the family, right now I am 31 but on April 13th I’ll turn 32. When I was bored I lived in this same town, but growing up I moved around a lot in this local area.

Before I had baby Luke I was working online. I worked on different jobs online since 2013 and most recently I was teaching English online mostly to Chinese students. I also worked for a British energy company called Octopus Energy.

Right now I don’t work very often. Sometimes I will work with David and go to plant trees. I also do his accounting work from home.

I am doing some small bits of volunteering right now. On a Monday I help with a local community group in the town’s public hall. After I drop Travis off at school on a Monday I go with Luke to the hall where we meet other local people, chat, drink coffee and play. This is something you can do with me if you choose to stay with us.

I am also studying online at The Open University. In Scotland, you can study for free. Maybe this is something that will be an option for you too. If you are interested we can look into that.

More about David

David is 28 now and will be 29 in November. One interesting thing is he shares his birthday with Luke. David works a lot. Some days he leaves before I wake up and gets home late. The business is his own so he has to work hard to keep growing the business.

This website is for his business and you can read some of the pages here to learn more about it. He does good work so he is always very busy.

He usually likes to play video games, play football or watch TV at home. David is also studying right now at The Open University.

More about Travis

Travis is 6 now, and in July he will be 7. He is a very smart boy and he does very well in his schoolwork. Travis might have autism or ADHD. This means he can get frustrated about small things. He is learning to handle it very well. We have to remind him often not to jump about too much.

Travis loves video games. Because of his ADHD, he gets bored easily and the only thing he can pay long attention to is video games. He enjoys Minecraft and Roblox the most.

Learn more about Luke

Luke is still very young but he has learned to walk now. He likes to play but also enjoys just walking around and climbing on things in our home. He doesn’t speak any real words yet, only ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ but he makes a lot of pretend words and babbles.

He always takes toys out and makes them messy. In our home, you’ll find a lot of toys and things around during the day because we are busy and we like to enjoy the things we have each day. So our home is not spotless and tidy all of the time.

More about the room and home

The room is regular size for these types of homes. A lot of people locally use these rooms for 1 or 2 kids at a time. We can try to make the room work for your needs. If you want to be able to work from home we also have a room in the attic with some desks. You will have access to our internet all day and night so you can try to stay in touch with friends and family back home.

The room has a lot of the baby’s things right now, but we will take all of his clothes and things out and put them in our room for him. There are two small wardrobes. This black one is in the picture above and the other one is part of the cabin bed. There is also this cupboard in the wall with a rail for hanging things.

Right now this bedroom is blue coloured. There are some stickers on the wall of stars and planets. The curtains block out all of the light but they are short. We can get longer ones to make the room warmer.

The kitchen is yours to use too. It is small but we have a gas cooker, microwave, kettle, toaster, and a slow cooker too. We have a lot of space in the freezer to store food. It is always full.

More about the area

We understand that maybe you won’t have much money when you arrive. That is ok. Not only are you welcome to eat our food but we can show you our local community shed and hall. The hall volunteers collect extra food from the supermarket and the local people can take anything they need. Often the volunteers also make meals which you can enjoy.

This hall I am talking about is only a few minutes walk from our home. In the town there is one small shop. The shop is also a post office so you can easily post things to your husband if he is stuck in Ukraine.

There are a couple of businesses in this town that might have jobs. There is a factory for fabric where you can be a darner. There is a nice hotel too and it was named the best hotel in Scotland. There is a shop and post office, a cafe and the school too. The school is linked with the next school in Innerleithen so sometimes you can find jobs that work in both schools.

In the next town, you can order food to have at home and eat inside restaurants. They have more shops there too and you can find gifts, books, hair-dressers and barbers, a supermarket, some bars and cafes and also some bike shops. There is also a golf course.

How we can help you settle in

When you move here, there are so many things we will need to sort out together.

School and nursery

Before you arrive I will notify the school if you have children who need to attend. This means we can start the process of enrolling them as soon as we can. The school also has a nursery and usually, the children start nursery at age 3. Sometimes they might accept a 2-year-old.

Jobs

If you want to work right away I can help you by sending you some of the websites that have jobs in our area.

Doctor

The local doctors surgery is in Innerleithen, the next town from here. I can speak to them and get the paperwork ready for you to fill in when you arrive.

The local surgery also has nurses and some specialists like a health visitor, midwife, and nursery nurse. I think any mother with a young child will have to see the health visitor. She is an expert on children and will visit us at home too. She can get you clothes, money, food, and other support you need.

We can also get access to mental health support if you need it. Travis and Tasha both have ADHD so we know which specialists you need to speak to if any of you have ADHD, autism, or anything else like that.

Dentist

There is a dentist in a town not far from here. I can call them to see if they will take on new patients. Some dentists are very busy now because of COVID. There were a lot of people unable to see the dentist in the lockdown and now they have to see a lot of people. We can get the right information to get you signed up anyway.

Money

When you arrive we can help with the cost of food or anything else you need so do not worry about that. I can help you look for a good bank account if yours will not work here and I can also help to do the paperwork for you to get money from the government. When you need to go to an appointment for this I can take you there myself.

Clothes

I know a local charity who can bring clothes for your children if they need them. If your children are the same size as my children they can also share those clothes.

For you, we can help get donations from people and we can also take you to a store if you need anything.

When I know who will come here, I will try to have clothes ready for you before you arrive.

Toys

There will also be charities that can offer toys for your children, but I also have so many toys, books, and movies here. Toys will not be a problem.

Our family has an Xbox, one Nintendo switch which goes on the TV, 2 small Nintendo switches, some tablets, an iPad and also laptops and a computer. If your child enjoys games then we have plenty here and we are happy to share. We can also get a TV in your room if you want it.

We have many board games and also jigsaw puzzles too.

Transport

When you arrive we can pick you up at the airport or train station if you need or want that. Also when you first come here you’ll maybe feel a little worried about travelling by bus so we can help you understand that and also offer you to go by car anytime we can. We have three vehicles for work so sometimes they are away because David is busy. But if we are available we will drive you.