1) yes and yes
2) 3 beds
3) I won't say but "significantly" more than min plus a bonus up to a month's salary
4) TV. Laptop with Internet access. Some extra free days. Extra paid trips home.
"what things do you think contributed to the success of your helper?"
Well, she has a great personality. Hard worker, cheerful. So that certainly helps. As employers we let her do her thing without too much jostling. She knows when the bathrooms need to be cleaned etc and it gets done without any need for our input. She is good at "reading" us and figuring out what we want. In military terms, we give her "missions" and she has to figure out how to fulfill the mission objectives by herself. We don't tell her how to do it. We don't even decide what she will cook unless we particularly crave something. Great food, healthy and varied, lands on the table. Good enough for us.
Note that this approach may not work, initially, with some or many helpers. However I think with time a helper should become more and more independent. There should be no need to manage the little things. And yet many employers still tell their helpers what to clean and otherwise do every day after months of employment.
Find someone you can live with and don't be afraid to speak up and give her feedback, both positive and negative. In fact, always give feedback even if it is just to say "you're doing a great job". If you are unhappy with something, say so. Do give her a chance to improve and praise her if she does.
We "communicate" a lot with our helper, chatting and talking all the time about the kids and things in general. This is important. I marvel at some of my friends when I seem to know their helpers better than they do! If you don't know your helper pretty well, there is no way to know if things are actually going well or not.
"How did you get her and what were your interviewing tactics or was she "pot-luck"?. "
Interviewed a bunch of candidates. She made a strong impression. Confident, cheerful, smiling. She "felt right" to us and this was clearly a person we could live with. No annoying traits immediately apparent (and still not apparent!). It is important to give "scenario" questions in which the candidate must think before answering, and where the answer is not just "yes" or "no".
There's a good book on the subject, recently published:
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