Week eight.

Tuesday

 

We were sleepy and got up a bit late this morning as there was a massive storm in the night which scared Pete and especially scared Robbie who demanded he got in bed with us! Once we were up though we drove to SG to feed the cats and then on to Chirpan. We needed a few last bits and bobs before we could start laying the floor, as well as some more food. This took most of the morning and it was already about lunchtime before we were home.

 

But we got straight to work on the floor. First I swept it up and covered the gravel trench with sand whilst Pete did the finishing touches to the earth rod. Then we lay down the damp proof sheet. This was a bit tricky as we needed it pinned to the walls so it was out of the way, but stone is pretty hard to pin in to! But with the use of loads of gaffa tape we got there in the end. Next in was the headboard. We were hoping that having it buried in cement would keep it secure, but just to be sure we drilled down into the floor and screwed it in with extra long screws, as well as drilling two lengths of re-ber through it to balance it out (not sure if that makes sense but nevermind!) We also used batons to secure it to the ceiling whilst we layed the floor - so it wasn't going anywhere! After the headboard was ready it was time to lay the insulation, which was relatively easy. This all took some time but we were very pleased with the results - very professional we think!

 

In the evening we skyped Petes dad and afterwards I went up to the tent to cook dinner, whilst Pete went back to work for a bit - getting the shuttering ready for tomorrows screed laying. After an early dinner we drove to feed the cats and then came home to an early night and a film in bed. 

 

Gifts today: 1 egg from chickens, 1 jar of homemade honey from lovely neighbour. :)

 

Sand in trench, preparing the floor.

Earth rod and wire ready.

Damp proof in (it's see-through!)

Voila! :)

Robbie is impressed too.

Wednesday

 

Yesterday M called us to let us know our van was ready for collection. Excellent news! We were up, cats fed and in Chirpan by 8.30 as we wanted to pick up the van before getting on with our floor. Annoyingly though the garage didn't open until 9.30 so we browsed the shops and had a coffee whilst we waited. Oh, we had also found out about this 'plant pharmacy' and as our fruit trees have some sort of disease we took in a leaf and a fruit to show the lady in the shop. She took one look at our diseased leaf and gave us some plant medicine to sure it - so cool! Like a doctor for plants! Anyway, back to the van. As M was our translator we aren't entirely sure what was wrong with the van/how it had been fixed, but we were very pleased/shocked to hear it was only going to cost 10lev - thats 3 pounds 60 pence!!!! Madness!

 

Back home we cracked on with screeding the floor. I was doing all the heavy lifting on the cement mixer whilst Pete was inside doing a fantastic job of levelling it out and making it look great! It was a very muggy day and kept threatening to storm, we even started packing up a couple of times as we are not too sure about the electrics on the cement mixer and didn't want to get it wet. But luckily we didn't pack up fully as the rain never came - only the sunshine. 

 

In the afternoon S & G popped by to see if we wanted one of the puppies they'd just found abandoned by the side of the road! They were SO CUTE, but we sadly we have to be realistic and we can't get a dog this year as we are going to be returning to the UK for winter. This was especially upsetting for Pete!

 

Anyway, we finished about two thirds of the floor, which is all we wanted to do today as we couldn't get to the last section through the door way, and then spent the early evening down the road doing some gardening (paid work.) Then another evening feeding cats, eating dinner (made with freshly laid eggs) and watching a film in bed.

 

Gifts today: 2 eggs from chickens, 2 punnets of cherries straight from the tree from another lovely neighbour.

 

Views whilst driving.

Cafe in Chirpan.

Shuttering down - ready to screeeed.

Mmm cherries!

CUTEST PUPPIES!

Looking good - done for the day.

Egg from our chickens.

Thursday

 

Not much to say about today. We started the day by cooking dinner - Pete made a delicious pork, honey and mustard stew in the slow cooker and then we went to work finishing off the floor. The floor now looks fantastic, we are so pleased - one big step closer to moving into the house. Also at some point in the day our next door neighbour invited us over to look at her house and make us pick cherries from her tree! All the cherry trees are bursting with fruit at the moment and everyone is giving them away - it's amazing! Once we'd finished the floor, at about 4 c'clock, we decided to celebrate with a gin and tonic. This turned into a few more gin and tonics and we took the stew to M & D's to enjoy whilst waiting for the cats to return. Yum.

 

In the slow cooker.

At work...

FINISHED

Look at all those cherries!

Friday

 

A bit more of a chilled day today. It was market day so we spent the whole morning in Chirpan stocking up on fruit and veg. It's great how each week we can see what has come into season. This week everyone had, of course, cherries and also strawberries - we bought a plastic bag full of deliciously sweet strawberries for 70p! M & D were coming home tomorrow so it was also our last day with the tipper. We took advantage of this by getting 2 more cubics of sand.

 

Back at home we thought we would make the most of the tipper again and decided now would be a good time to remove all the old cement off our boundary wall, as we could throw it straight in the back of the truck! Once we'd got all the old stuff off we were on a roll and thought we might as well tile the top of it with all our spare tiles from the old outbuilding. This took all afternoon and although we still need to get some ridge tiles for it we think it looks great. It has really finished off the wall and frames the garden from the inside.

 

It was our last night feeding the cats, and our last night with Robbie - hopefully he has scared off the cats for good!

 

Pizza at the market.

The sand shop.

Old cement top off and into the tipper.

Re-laying some of the stones.

Lovely new wall from all angles!

Chicken love (no eggs for a few days though :( )

Saturday

 

This morning we loaded up the tipper with a few more bags of rubble that we had laying around the house and garden and set off to SG to feed the cats and visit the dump (everything is so easy with the tipper!) Then we drove into Chirpan (again) as we needed to fill up with fuel and buy all necessary materials for doing the floor in the other room next week.

 

Pete was feeling pretty rough (not sure if it's very bad hayfever or a cold) so we had a fairly relaxed afternoon. I pottered around the house, clearing up some old rubble and emptying out the 'horrible' room which we are going to start laying the floor in on Monday. M & D also returned home so we met them at the shop for a coffee, a catch-up and to return Robbie and the tipper (oh how we will miss them both!) By late afternoon Pete had perked up slightly so we decided to head down the road to do some paid work as the lawn really needed watering.

 

At about 5 o'clock we were back home and feeling like we should do something productive today, so got the cement mixer going and began to brick up the alcove in the 'horrible' room. We were quite reluctant to cover these alcoves as I think they are intersting and add character, unfortunetly though this wall is underground and just constantly damp so covering them is the easiest solution :(.

 

Once I had mixed the cement, or should I say mortar (I'm becoming an expert), I left Pete to do the brick laying whilst I cooked dinner. I made a traditional Bulgarian dish of lightly battered and fried courgettes in garlic yoghurt which, may I say, was delicious. The evening has been spent writing this whilst Pete had an early night, hopefully he's feeling better for our BBQ tomorrow.

 

Wild flowers...

All ready to lay floor number 2.
 

Hosing the lawn (not ours!)

Goodbye lovely alcove/fireplace

Done for today.

Also filled trench in hallway and tidied.

 

Good dinner.

Leka nosht xx

 

 

 

Week seven.

Wow I've got a long post to do today! We did alot of different things though last week, so I won't do a day by day and also I have a lot of photos so hopefully it won't be too boring!

 

Sunday - Thursday

 

I'll start where I left off. We went to another party on Sunday evening at The Russians - more amazing food and a very enjoyable evening. We also met G (the wife of A - who we have met before when we were viewing houses last year) and their daughter IO. They are all lovely and we hope to see more of them in the future.

 

 

From Monday to Thursday we were back to work! Early starts and long days in the hot hot sun. We have two friendss coming to stay for a week in mid June, so we have set that as a target to get one of the downstairs rooms 'sleepable in'. So we've been concentrating mostly on that, as well as a few other things around...

 

 

Taking off the walls

 

Although most people suggested we didn't really need to take the old plaster off the walls we decided we would do it anyway! For one it will save us a few centimetres on the room size and also it just feels better to take it right back to basics. Anyway, it was lucky we did it really as we found a few bits of rotton wood - the worst being the beam holding up the internal wall. We also decided afterwards that we will keep one wall exposed as they are just too pretty to cover them all! The job only took about 1 day - our new hammer drill came in very handy.   

 

There was hair in the walls - creepy.

I wish we could keep it like this!

 Knocking down the old privy

 

I can't remember if I mentioned it before but we discovered the other day that there was a large hole underneath the old privy. We decided we would make access to it this week as it would be the perfect dumping hole for all the old mud plaster from the walls.

 

Privy there

Privy gone - place to hide more rubble!

Building the chicken coop

 

After demolshing the old privy we realised the door from it would be perfect for the front of the chicken coop - it even had the right sized hole where the window had been for the chickens to go in and out! Amazing! M & D also had a few old doors from their house, which we picked up and used one as the lid for the coop. Inside we built nesting boxes and perches, so hopefully the chickens will be comfy! We also made a fenced area outside, joining the coop - we hope to eventually let the chickens run wild, but we need to train them to come back to the coop at night first.

 

Old privy door on the front.

 

Another old door on the top (this opens as well so we can collect eggs)

Ready to go!

Re-building the rotton wood

 

Where all the wood had gone rotton we knocked it out and replaced it with bricks, stones and cement. This also involved a little bit of wall building with stone - which we were quite pleased with the results (not drywalling though sadly - we used alot of mortar!)

 

Rotton wood gone.

 

Wall is not going anywhere now (excellent stone wall laying skills by us!)

Headboard

 

My plan is to have a 'walk-in' wardrobe behind the bed, hidden by curtains. But we realised that we needed to have plugs by the bedside, so have built a large headboard which we can have sockets on. Clever, I know.

 

Changing the lintel

 

We had noticed from the outside the the lintel above the window was rotten and also completely filled with ants, so it needed changing. When we took the plaster off the window frame we also discovered that there were two other rotton lintels behind it (thankfully the big attractive lintel on the inside of the room was in good condition, as this is the wall being left exposed.) This was a bit of a scary job as we had to build props to support the house whilst we changed them! After building the props we dug out all the above stone work and got out the old rotton wood. Putting the new beams in was relatively simple - but building the stone back up was much more difficult. We did a pretty good job though (we think) and it will eventually be covered with render anyway. Hopefully we built it strong enough to last - only time will tell!

 

ANTS

Old lintel

Props up

Stone coming out, new lintels waiting to go in

Empty! Ah!

Lovely new lintel :)

Pool night

 

Thursday evening we went to the nearby hotel with D and had a fun evening playing pool and drinking wine.

 

Another sunny evening.

Friday

 

Friday morning I woke up feeling really sick and aching all over (and it wasn't just a hangover!) I think the work and sun had got to me and I was really really crap. We went to Chirpan in the morning anyway as it was market day and we needed to buy some CHICKENS!

Chickens, chickens, chickens.

After getting the chickens settled in I slept all day under the shade of a walnut tree whilst Pete did a few odd jobs and chilled out in the sunshine. M & D are going away this week and we are going to look after their dog and feed their cats, so at about 5 we set off to drive to thiers so they could show us the ropes. But disaster struck! Just as we were driving through our village our gearbox went in the van and wouldn't move out of first. We managed to drive it back to our house and called M & D to let them know. They came to pick us up and as they are absolute legends they called the garage in Chirpan, who said to come now with the van. We managed to tow the van to the garage with their tipper and the man had a look at the problem - thankfully it is not the actual gear box, just something in the housing. But it will need a new part and the garage is closed until Monday so we left the van there. M & D have been kind enough to lend us their tipper whilst they are away so we still have wheels over the weekend - phew!!!

Feeling poorly :(

Van may be broken but at least we get to ride in the back of the tipper!

In the evening we had a stroll with their dog (Robbie) around SG, but didn't stay long after as I was still feeling a bit ill.

Evening walk, saw a pig.

Saturday

 

In the morning D came over to drop off Robbie and also fitted our water pipe into the house so we could get on with finishing the floor and not worrying about doing the plumbing wrong! We spent the morning cleaning up the tent and doing a few other jobs that needed doing, until heading into Chirpan with the tipper to get some gravel. But just our luck we got a puncture on the way. So annoying!! We called M & D to let them know and also so they could speak to the tyre guy because we think he was trying to rip us off. It took a while to change the tyres (everything takes a while over here, and also they were working in the garage with no shoes on - slightly unrelated but anyway!) but we were right opposite the builders merchants, so we could buy what we needed whilst they were doing it. Eventually it was all finished and after picking up a load of gravel we set off home.

Water in the building!

Changing the tyres.

Pete and Robbie dog

In the evening we needed to go and feed the cats at M & D's. The cats are both lovely; one is very friendly and loves food, so came in the house very easily. The other is much more scared of us and it ended up taking us three hours to get her in!! She'd just slink off whenever she caught sight of us! It was about 9 o'clock by the time we'd got them both in and set off home with Robbie. We hadn't yet closed the chickens in and came home to find one missing - how she got out I have no idea as there was no evidence of escape. We thought oh well, she might come back (as long as she's not eaten by wild dogs.) What a day!

 

Sunday - my birthday!

 

24th May is a Holiday in Bulgaria - celebrating the cyrillic alphabet I think. There was festival happening in Chirpan but as it was such a glorious day I decided that I wanted to walk to the lake instead (hoping to get further than we did with mum and dad!)

 

We fed the cats in the morning and got some food for a picnic. Oh we also woke up to find the stray chicken hanging around, wanting to get back in the coop! As we were coming back from the shop we bumped into our neighbours (the ones with the chainsaw) and they invited us in for coffee. They fed us pancakes with homemade jam as well and gave us some home made quinces in syrup. They are so lovely! We didn't dare tell them it was my birthday as they already give us too many gifts!!

 

We eventually set off on the walk. It was lovely - wild flowers everywhere and the lake was beautiful as well, nestled amoungst the forrested hills. At some point it must have been more accessible, probably as a fishing spot, as there were two old dilapidated buildings which were slightly eerie. We enjoyed a leisurely picnic and then walked back, it was about an hour each way.

Some of the wild flowers

 

Following the stream

Creepy old fishing huts

At the lake :)

More flowers!

Back home we checked the chicken coop and found our first egg! For my birthday! After this excitement we relaxed for a bit and then went to feed the cats. We waited this time for about an hour - we were having a beer anyway - but then decided we would come back to get the cat in after dinner. As it was Sunday I was expecting it to be very quiet but we managed to discover a local restaurant we hadn't been to yet and it was so busy. It was in a small shaded court yard and the food was yummy and we had a great evening. We went back to M & D's to let the cat in and she was there waiting this time - she must have thought she'd been locked out - bless her! Back at the tent we had more beers and listened to music and chatted. Great birthday :)

EGG!

Lemon with red wine?

Evening drinks with Robbie

Monday

 

A slightly late start but we did eventually crack on with work. Still focusing on getting the room done we lay our soil pipe across the whole ground floor. This was slightly easier said than done as it has to slope a certain amount (obviously so the waste can flow out) but you don't want it too low otherwise we have to dig the septic tank even deeper. We did get there in the end though and we even filled the trench around the pipe with gravel, Pete also manged to get the earth rod into the ground (after alot of whacking with a sledge hammer and digging up our lovely new floor) so we are now ready to lay damp proof and insulation tomorrow - woo! Also in the afternoon A and IO popped by and dropped off some Piriton - much to Petes delight as he has been suffering very badly with hayfever and we bought the wrong pills with us from England.

Getting the earth rod in.

More digging through rocks

Pipe in!

Pipe in hallway!

Pipe in future bathroom!

Ready for laying floor

 

We are now sitting at M & D's waiting for the cat to come in again! We are having a beer though as using the time to write the blog, so all is good.   

Also, we have swallows living in our house