Move to Bulgaria: 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.