Week 4

Unbelievably we have been here a month this week. So much has been achieved but so much more to do.

This week has been incredibly busy with so much being completed. Autumn has finally arrived with most days being cold and wet.

Monday we finished the potting shed. Whilst trying to erect some shelving in the new shed I discovered that English claw hammers and Bulgarian nails are not compatible. The only way not to bend the nails is to use a 3lb lump hammer on them and they go straight in!! Pam and I struggled to get the roof panels on as they were each 5m long and it was pouring of rain, but I wanted to finish it as the forecast is rain all week. Coupled with a set of really slippery homemade ladders we had a few comedy moments We are really pleased with the result despite none of the barn walls being straight nor having the tools we needed for the job. Not to Borko standard but good enough!!

One disused out building, a few days later.....

 

........becomes the new potting shed

 

Tuesday the new windows went in so we spent the day in Ruse city looking for a car as we are selling our van to Borko our builder. The roadworks in Ruse meant that we had hours of fun trying to get 1.5km to where all the car dealers were. In the end we gave up and went shopping for light fittings instead. As we still have no kitchen we are cooking by camp stoves but are having real trouble finding gas bottles that fit our cookers. We only have four left and are getting through them rapidly. We manage to find a stall on the market that has some but we get ripped off as he charges us almost £2 a bottle. We have no choice but to get them as we have no idea when we will have a kitchen or if we can get the gas anywhere else.

 

By the time we got home all the new windows and the exterior doors were all finished. Borko had recommended that we have two huge windows put in the gable end of the laundry room. This amazingly was a cheap option and looks stunning.

 

Love these new windows

 

 

Wednesday Pamela spends the day knitting whilst I make a few last minute adjustments to the potting shed and restack some of the house moving boxes in the garage as the ceiling is leaking quite badly. Not sure yet how we are going to fix that as the roof is the floor of the old barn whose roof we have taken off. That was a mistake!! Between heavy rain showers I tidy the community rubbish bin area. Each street has it's own rubbish dumpster rather than each house having a bin. If the lid is not closed the local wild cats will scatter rubbish everywhere. It was driving us mad seeing all the rubbish strewn along the street but now it looks so much better.

 

The builders have started work on the upstairs holiday let.

 

Ceilings exposed before being treated for bugs and then boarded

 

The amount of dust created when they took down the ceilings was horrendous so I offered the builders some face masks so that they did not breathe all the dust in. They looked at me like I was mad. Bulgarians aren't into health and safety then!!

 

Doorway cut for new bedroom

 

 

Thursday was spent on the internet looking at vehicles but when you have no idea what you want it is a long process. Still we continue to look........

 

Exterior insulation finished and rendering going on

 

Work carries on despite the rain

 

The exterior is now totally finished and has a resin finish that never needs painting. Ummm we'll see if that's true............

 

Friday was Black Friday so we hit the shops in Ruse. We managed to get all the kitchen appliances for the holiday lets  and our home, and some excellent quality laminate flooring at a super low price. From Ruse market we bought two plum, two cherry and a peach tree for the top garden. We also took the opportunity to stock up on vegetables and other essentials (read vodka and wine) as today our van goes to Borko. Whilst we were out Borko cut all our wood for us as a present. We could not thank him enough as there should be enough wood for a couple of years and still we have another woodpile to cut yet.

 

All our wood cut and ready to store

 

 

Saturday Pamela, one of the builders and myself spend the day in pouring rain stacking the logs. The builder decides it would be more efficient to use an old cattle trough to carry the wood to the woodstore. Him being 23 and fit, and me 50 and not so fit, he nearly kills me but we manage to get most stacked before torrential rain made it too slippery to work. Pamela stacks all the wood that is too wet to use this year in the entrance to what will be the holistic treatment barn.

 

A good idea but boy was it heavy.......

 

The rest of the builders crack on getting the internal insulation and plasterboarding done upstairs whilst all the new electrics are being installed. Note adherence to health and safety Bulgaian style.

 

 

Sunday morning and we get the last of the logs stacked. A job well done! The electrics are finished upstairs but as a consequence we now have only one socket that works downstairs. It should only be a week or two before upstairs is completed and we can move in there whilst downstairs is completed.

 



All logs away but the lawn is a quagmire

 

Woodstore 1

 

Woodstore 2

 

 



Tonight we will celebrate our first month with some almost quality wine (our usual tipple is only £1 for 3 litres and vodkas is only£2.50 a bottle!!!!). Happy days...............

 



 

Week 3

As England shuts down because of wintry conditions we continue to have great weather, I am sat on the patio writing this but everyone we talk to tells us to make sure we prepare ourselves for the oncoming winter. We have now got a storecupboard with plenty of pulses, pasta, rice, dog food (we are sure the lady on the checkout at Lidl thinks we have 10 dogs as we currently have 60kg of dog food stored in our house!!) and of course a good supply of wine. We are cutting wood every day to ensure our woodstore is full, but as yet we have only had the woodburner on a handful of times.

All the Bulgarians are dressed as if it is really cold (then again they are used to 40 degree summers) and we are walking around in summer clothes (it is mid 20's so a good English summer temperature). They look at us as if we are mad.

This week has seen lots of progress on the house. The insulation is now on and all the outside walls of the house have been rendered. The woodwork for the facia boards is completed with just a coat of paint to finish them off needed. Rain is forecast for next week so the painting of the exterior of the house may have to wait.

The new windows will go in next week which sadly means the current windows, which have lots of character, have to go. It will change the whole feeling of the house but it is what it is. However with the new external doors going in we should then be well insulated for the winter.

All the plasterboards and internal insulation have been delivered as work starts tomorrow on transforming the top floor of the house into a holiday let.

The first vegetable plot has now been cleared and the soil all dug over by hand. So glad that job is finished!!

From this..................

 

To this, four hard days of labour later

 

 

We have now started to make the potting shed out of a disused outbuilding. The roof is off and the Perspex has been ordered for the windows and roof. None of the builders could understand what we were doing but a few pictures and charade games later and they think it's a great idea.

 

I start to remove the roof tiles

 

Roof tiles all off of the new potting shed. Note top of the range Bulgarian ladder.

 

 



We have started to clear another vegetable plot but it is sloping land and is hard work. The top of this plot will have grapes and fruit trees which we will get from the market next week.

Pam collecting walnuts before we start clearing the land

 

The clearing begins and yet another bonfire

 

 

Saturday we take a day off and go into Ruse to get the light fixtures ready for the holiday lets and a few bits from the market. There are lots of roadworks in Ruse and sat nav has lots of fun trying to get us where we want to be. Finally we get out of Ruse and are so glad to be home. As much as we love Ruse, we are beginning to love the peace and simplicity of our village life even more.

Sunday is another day off. Monica, her husband Vlady and Alisha come over. Vlady works in IT and has soon improved our internet connection. We are so fortunate to know these people and really do think of them as special friends.

Monica and Alisha

So no dramas for once. Lets hope that trend continues.............................

Week 2

Days and time have ceased to exist already. We don't have weekends or set times for anything. If we are tired we sleep, hungry we eat or if the sun rises we get up. Speaking to people in the UK they are telling us of their Christmas preparations. We just have no concept that it is that time of year. We are not exposed to the onslaught of consumerism or adverts that we were in the UK. Add to that the fact that the Gypsy Summer continues here. We eat breakfast on the patio every day and work in the garden in t-shirts. Anyway at present it looks like our Christmas dinner will be cooked on our camping stove or in the clay oven and we have to get permission from the local Mayor to receive post!

Monday saw us head into the civilisation of Ruse for some retail therapy. Finery on ( read clean clothes for a change) we spend the day trudging shops but manage to get a chainsaw, bed settee, mobile phones and internet (which is temperamental at best!!). We are also starting to stock up for winter when we are told we will be village bound for at least two months due to the snow.

The chainsaw is a godsend as it speeds up jobs no end. Within just an hour the old animal feed store is reduced to much needed firewood.

                            

In the village is man with a horse and plough, he comes around to each house and ploughs the land for each villager. We were also hoping to use him but we cannot get the horse and plough through the garden gates so we have had to resort to digging by spade and fork. The digging seems to be endless but we are getting there. This is the vegetable plot.

 

 Before

 

 

                                    

                                                                        Nearly cleared!!

 

The facia boards and guttering have been started. The guttering is metal as plastic would split in the cold winter (they even have heated guttering we are told but that is way out of our price range). The guttering guys fashion all the downpipes and corners on site using a gas torch to heat a metal tool that seals the joints together. Holes for the downpipes are cut out using a hole punch and every joint fits perfectly - amazing.

 

The walls to roofline have all been bricked up and the woodwork has been started. Again everything is done using the most basic of tools. One night we even have to hold torches for the joiners so they can finish their work in the dark!! They all work so hard.

 

Facia boards and guttering up. Staining in progress.

 

We now have a bed settee so no more sleeping on the floor. A few pictures up on the wall and it starts to feel like a home. Basic pleasures but little things are beginning to mean so much to us. No internal work has started yet as the builders want to get as much external work completed as they can whilst the good weather lasts.

 

Thursday night there is a banging at our gates. When I answer it there stands a Policeman. Oh God, now what. He fails to understand me and me him but he seems very interested in our dogs. A quick call to Monica and she sorts it out (as usual!!!). Our next door neighbour has goats that roam freely in the woods. A villagers dogs had managed to escape from their garden and had killed one of the goats. The mayor had decided that the goats owner should be compensated for the loss of the goat so the Policeman was investigating whose dogs had carried out the attack. Once established it wasn't our dogs he was on his way. Monica to the rescue yet again.

 

Once a week we travel to Popovo, about 12kms away, as they have a lovely fruit and veg market every day and a larger general market on a Friday. We are starting to get a grip on names of food stuffs and the money is getting easier to work with. Today we also buy a washing machine so no more hand washing. Yay. But so far we have not seen a tumble dryer anywhere. Luckily the weather is so good we can dry outside but what will happen as the weather worsens?

 

So much has been achieved this week but so so much more needs doing. However, we have to remember this is only our second week and we still have so much to learn about life here.

 

Next week windows will be ordered, insulation will go up and more digging awaits and the weather is forecast to be good for the next week or so. Happy Days.

 

 

 



Week 1 in Bulgaria

We woke early as we are so excited to be home. The dogs can now have a good run around and explore their new surroundings after being trapped in the van for the best part of a week.

The builders have not yet fully completed the roof of the house or laundry room, just some minor finishing off to do. The amount of rubbish they removed from the house attic is astounding and is such a shame that the rain has ruined the hundreds of books and publications that were found. We spend the next 6 days burning them all.

                                                  No wonder the ceilings were bowing!!

 

We have had a text to say that we may exchange on the house today and complete on Friday, after the week we've just had that is awesome news and for once our gamble coming out before the house is sold could be the right decision. Fingers crossed.

 

The weather is lovely, really cold at night with hard frosts but sunny warm days. We can really crack on getting the gardens ready for next year.

 

The van has been repaired so now we can collect a few provisions and get some essentials for the house. First job though is to heat the house so we installed a log burner!! Happy days.

 

                                 Pamela clears out the old kitchen ready for the log burner

                                                             Installed and blazing away

 

Still sleeping on the floor so our next purchase will be a bed settee.

 

Not a week goes by without an issue or two and this weeks is that the boiler has packed in and the toilet is leaking. No hot water for 4 days but Borko to the rescue and a new boiler and toilet is fitted. That first hot shower is pure bliss.

 

Thursday night we are woken by what sounds like a cat running across the floor upstairs at 2am. Not being that brave we both go back to sleep and decide to investigate in the morning. It turns out the rats have chewed through the wall and literally burst out upstairs. Earlier in the week I had sealed all the gaps between joists and walls so they had to get out someway I suppose. Add gun to shopping list!

 

The exchange of contracts goes ahead after a few days delay and on Friday it finally completed. That's it, we are finally here with no question over whether we may have to return to the UK.

 

We only got here through some really kind people helping us and no doubt some will continue to help us. There are bound to be lots more dramas and hurdles so the adventure continues...............

 





 





How not to move to Bulgaria Part 3

One final check at the Romanian border where again we are warned out how dangerous Bulgaria is and we are across the border in Bulgaria. Yippeeee.

We need a vignette for the van so I queue for twenty minutes to purchase one whilst at the border, don't want to get a ticket on our first day. The smirking teller then informs me that he cannot issue me one here but that I should get one at the next garage which is only 5kms away. All the tellers are laughing. I think they are playing games but who cares, we are on the way home now. We are tired, emotionally and physically but are all coping exceptionally well considering the last few days dramas. 20km later we find a garage that sells Vignettes so are legal at last.

The roads in the Vidin region of Bulgaria are poor to put it mildly. Nasa could train the drivers of the lunar vehicles how to negotiate craters on these roads. Sat Nav is now working again and shows that at our current speed it will take 6 hours to get home for a less than 100km journey.

The driving is tiring and you have to be so alert so as to avoid every pothole you come across. Going through a village I have no way to avoid this crater and our van hits it at only 10kmh, but that is enough to bring a loud snapping and scraping noise from the rear of the van. We grind to a halt once more. The opposite leaf spring has snapped. In hindsight we should have had both springs replaced in Hungary but we didn't. Are we destined not to get home? Just then a van with a trailer pulls up and says that he has a colleague who may be able to rescue us. He gets straight onto his phone but then drives off. Did he arrange our rescue? Who knows but at least we have our very own Bulgarian angel in our friend Monica. One quick call to her and she is organising everything. We will be recovered to Pleven where our van will be unloaded onto another van and we will be taken home. The van will then be repaired and we can collect it later in the week. During our wait t be rescued another local bus also is damaged by the same pothole so I don't feel so stupid. Again there are wild dogs in the village so despite all the lovely countryside we cannot get the dogs out of the van. But Monica is amazing. Everything happens exactly as she planned and at about 2am we finally get home!!

over a metre wide and 40cm deep equals a broken leaf spring

 

A now familiar sight on the roads of Europe. Our van broken down.



Home at last and Pamela opens goody boxes that our family has given us. We are so lucky!!

 



How not to move to Bulgaria Part 2

5 hours later we are at the Romanian border and have to show our passports but not the dogs passports, still nobody has given the dogs a second glance even though they are sat in the cab with us. We are questioned why we are going to Romania and when we explain that we are moving to Bulgaria all the border guards tell us not to as it is so dangerous in Bulgaria. This is a recurring point of view with all Romanians we meet.

Through the border and we carrying on driving even though our Sat Nav does not recognise Romania anymore? I have had 24 hours rest so am keen to get to Bulgaria as quickly as possible. I want to be at our house early tomorrow morning. It is soon dark but we are making good progress. Fuel stops are few and far between in Romania but a kindly attendant lets us park behind his garage to get some sleep even though we bought nothing from him. We stop and grab a couple of hours sleep before starting off again in the middle of the night

The roads are not nearly as good as we have had in the rest of Europe and Hungarian roads were far better and well serviced than we expected. But we are now heading along the Serbian border heading for Bulgaria. The route would have been spectacular by daylight I am sure as we could see all the bays lit up and as we climbed ever higher through very steep hills our headlights picked up some lovely views.

As we neared the summit of a very long, steep hill the engine died. It was dead. No electrics. Hi Viz jackets on and warning triangles out, we are used to the drill by now. But this is a really dangerous place to break down, right on a bend on the direct route to the Bulgarian border. It will be light in a few hours and lorries will soon fill these roads. I call the Police who thankfully had an English speaking officer there. She was amazing and promised that she would organise a recovery truck, pointless contacting our insurer as we now know they will not help us, and she tells us that the local Police will soon arrive to make sure we are safe. Two hours later and no Police or recovery truck. We are slightly concerned as we are in the middle of nowhere and seemingly have no way out of this mess.

Then a Romanian lorry stops. He speaks English and we explain that the Police and recovery are on the way. He smirks and tells us not to believe anything they have told us. He will tow us back to the main town. Me being cynical now have visions of us being towed to a backstreet where we will be murdered and our van liberated of its cargo. But what choice do we have? As he uncouples his trailer and fixes a towrope to our van I call the Police again. I ask them to speak to our rescuer to find out where he is taking us so that at least they will know where to find our murdered bodies in the morning. But this guy was just doing a decent thing for somebody in need. He towed us back into town, stopped at a truck repair garage, checked with the Security guard that they would be able to help us when they opened in the morning, gave us his mobile phone number and said that if ever we needed any help whilst in Romania to call him. And off he drove. What a saviour.

We grabbed a few hours sleep and when I woke I trundled off to find some coffee. We had not intended to stop in Romania so had no local currency. But a local café owner must  have taken pity on me as she took my euros in exchange for two cups of coffee which in our previous experience would never happen. At nine that morning I went to the garage to see if they could fix the van. Amazingly the security guard had stayed on until the garage manager came in to tell him what had happened to us. How kind were all these people? Again the garage manager spoke English so was able to tell us that his staff knew exactly what the problem was and would have us on our way in no time. Quite a gathering of men had formed around our van and the garage owner told me that they were the Secret Police who had come to check us out. He was concerned that they would beat us for no reason so he did not want us hanging around!! The area was full of wild dogs so we could not even take out our dogs for a walk. The garage manager even offered us coffee and the use of his office whilst we waited, then took us to the next town to use the ATM so that we could pay him. The repairs were incredibly cheap and we were so grateful to all the Romanians we met. An hour later and the alternator, alternator pulley and fan belt had all been replaced and we were off.

Bulgaria here we come, only a few more hours and we will be home........................

How not to move to Bulgaria Part 1

11th November and we find ourselves sat on the patio of our home in Bulgaria having breakfast in glorious sunshine! In November!!

How we got here is a long story and testament to the goodwill of many people across Europe......

Planning is my forte. I plan to the very last detail and for any number of scenarios within that plan. So on a whim, without the UK home being sold we decide to get a last minute ferry ticket and head for our home in Bulgaria. May as well be there doing something than sat in the UK waiting for the wheels of the house sale to turn. And if the house sale falls through again we will just have to come back. Worry about that if it happens. So no real plan. Just go. This is an adventure after all. Why oh why did I not plan???

How not to move rule 1. Don't put 4.5t of goods on a 3.5t capacity van.

A few last minute emotional goodbyes and we are off. We arrive at Dover for the Dunkirk ferry 4 hours early and they let us straight on. As we drive onto the ferry Nina Simone sings Its a new life and I'm feeling good on the radio. A good omen surely.

Two hours later we are off the ferry and heading for Belgium. I have decided to drive and only stop when tired or the dogs need a walk. We grab a couple of hours sleep in a service station and are soon across Germany (amazing toilets in the service stations, they lift, rotate and are sanitised when you flush) and into Austria in the first day. Van is going well but we travel no faster than 60kmh as the van is under a lot of strain.

Day two and we cross into Hungary. Still no-one has asked to see a passport or any kind of border checks. This is so easy. Famous last words. A couple of miles into Hungary we get pulled over by the Police who want to see my driving licence and ask where we are going. No dramas and we are off again. Sun is shining and life is good. BANG. Van shudders and starts to snake. I control it and bring it to a stop on the hard shoulder. A rear tyre is shredded. No problem, we have breakdown cover. A quick call to our insurance company will soon sort this. Wrong. Despite me asking specifically when I took out the breakdown cover if it covered all the countries we were passing through, they now decide we are not covered!! I call the local Police as we are on the motorway and are a hazard. They are not interested and just tell us to get off the motorway. But they do put us in touch with the local recovery company who will be with us soon. An hour later a recovery truck arrives. But not the one we were expecting. This guy recovers all vehicles on this stretch of motorway but knows nothing of our breakdown, so is concerned who is coming to help us. A few heated phone calls later he seems to know who is coming to help us and drives away leaving us all alone again. Another hour passes and another recovery truck arrives. As the van is so heavy he is unable to get us onto the back of his truck so I have to reverse the van off the hard shoulder and onto the slip road, thankfully a short distance. We wait again for another recovery vehicle. This time a guy in car arrives to assess the van. They cannot  get it onto a truck so will repair the tyre at the side of the road. A third vehicle arrives with a crane and lifts the van so that the tyre can be changed. Soon be on our way. Wrong. When the tyre blew out the weight of the van snapped the leaf spring suspension. We are going nowhere. So the van is craned onto another lorry and off to the garage we go. They are unable to get the spares today so we have to wait a day or two whilst the van is repaired. However as we have our two dogs with us we cannot stay in a hotel. The garage owner very kindly lets us sleep in the van, inside his garage all night!! Could you imagine your local garage letting you do that in the UK??

 

Home sweet home for the night



 The garage owner and his son work late that night to get the spring off and locate us a replacement. Early next day they travel 60km to get us the parts and by midday we are on our way again. How kind to drop everything to get us going again. Romania here we come.................