Weeks 29 & 30.

Autumn sunset

 Another big update today - I have been waiting to write the blog as I couldn't bare writing another post without having finished the bathroom! We've been very busy and looking back at the photos 2 weeks feels like ages ago, so I'll try my best to remember what we've been doing!

 

Monday

 

We plasterboarded the bathroom ceiling. This was quite quick and easy as we decided to cover the beams in this room to avoid the wood getting wet and rotting. We also foamed all the gaps - including the big gap above the end of the beam, which we will fill and plaster.

 

Ceiling done!

Foamed

Tuesday

 

The bathroom now neaded taping and joining so it was ready to plaster. This was really only a one man job, so I got on with that and, as it was a lovely sunny day, Pete got up on the roof to render the chimneys. In the heavy rain we have had a slight leak in the yellow room chimney which we think (and hope) is from the gaps in the bricks where the old mortar has washed away. So hopefully rendering the chimneys will solve this problem - we will have to wait until it rains alot to find out! I also cut back all the foam and filled in the gaps above the beam.

 

Oh we put the last bit of wall up too!

Ready for a socket for our heater

All taped and joined

 

Once all this was finished Pete got chainsaw happy and decided to cut down a tree and then he went out for a dog walk/mushroom forage whilst I made dinner. There are some amazing and colourful mushrooms around at the moment - but still haven't found any that we are certain to be edible.

 

Tree before

Gone!

Crazy mushrooms and another boar skull

 

In the evening we decided to have a night off the telly and played a game of scrabble and stayed up drinking red wine! A very fun night.

 

 

Wednesday

 

First thing I had to do today was to sand back the filler so that Pete could get plastering. This was a very horrible dusty job. Then it was over to the plaster master! I left Pete to it and he was in there all day and even managed to get two coats on one wall. Obviously we didn't plaster at the end where we were going to tile, but it is starting to look like a room now!!

 

 

Plastered

 

Whilst Pete was doing that all day I decided to make myself useful and finally face that kindling in the barn. I decided not to make bundles (stupid idea!) so instead just gathered most of the kindling up and put it in boxes so it is easy to take a bunch. Once all this mess was cleared - and a beetle nest burnt away, eurgh - I bought a pallet over and stacked the wood we had cut up the other day. It's looking good but has made me slightly nervous that we won't have enough wood for winter as when it's stacked it looks like alot less. Well we have alot more wood to cut so we will have to wait and see I suppose!

 

Beetles everywhere

Looking good!

Chickens in the rubble

 

Once I'd finished in the barn I went upstairs in the house to organise the storage room and hallway. We planned to buy a instantaneous boiler this week for the upstairs sink - so we can finally move inside and wash up in hot water. So I moved around the fridges and washing machine and cleared the sink area so we are ready to install it. Oh also I put the slow cooker on with a huge bit of pork and turnips and other root veg! This was incredible at the end of a long, cold day working! Yum yum yum.

 

Organised

Organised

Such a good dinner I took 2 photos!

Thursday

 

In the morning Pete did the second coat of the plaster on the last wall whilst I got to work painting the ceiling and starting to paint the finished wall - until I realised the plaster was still a bit wet - oops!

 

White paint going on

 

This didn't take too long and we couldn't do anymore as we had to wait for it to dry, which is taking alot longer in this cold, damp weather than it did when we were doing the bedrooms in summer.

 

Anyway, we decided we might as well crack on with tiling the wall! After some deliberating of where to start and working out how the tiles would fit (very happy to find the width at the back was exactly five full tiles, just completely by accident) we decided to start on the small shelf. This was the trickiest bit as we had to make sure it was leaning forwards so the water will run off. We also had to cut all the tiles using the disc cutter and we had to do it outside in the pouring rain and it was miserable and wet. I also managed to break our bloody toilet, which for some reason we had sitting outside the front of the house and when I put a tile down on the seat it fell backwards and smashed. Not good. This made us both grumpy and annoyed, which wasn't helped by the crap weather!

 

 

Anyway we carried on and after doing the shelf it was easy and surprisingly we got the whole top half of the back wall done and started on one side - which is alot more than we expected. This is great - actually looking like a bathroom now!! :D After letting it go off for a bit we went back in to clean off the excess adhesive and that was more than enough work for the day.

 

 

Friday

 

Shopping, shopping, shopping! We started in Chirpan, at the market of course, and then went to SZ to get ready for winter! We bought a mini boiler, a small electric heater for the kitchen, a new toilet (which was half the price of our first one AND came with a free sink so not too painful on the wallet!) We also got paint for the bathroom and a new light. As well as all this we browsed the furniture shops that we hadn't been into before and got some lunch. Then it was back to Chirpan again for some other small bits and we went charity shopping and managed to get a pair of snow dungerees each and I got some snow boots. So we are fully prepared for the cold now!

 

Back in our village we stopped by at our neighbours as he had left a note on our gate - our window was finished. It's missing handles still and isn't varnished but it is perfect and so cute! We love it!

 

New window

Cooking by our new heater

Saturday - Sunday

 

We spent the weekend tiling the walls and got it all finished, as well as the splash back and shelves for the sink. We also cleaned and varnish the beam and fitted the light fittings - so the ceiling is finished! On Sunday evening K & R came over for a bonfire and bought with them their first ever bottle of home made wine, which they had made with their grapes this year! M & D also popped by for a bit and we had a really fun evening - including trying to open the wine bottle against a wall and then using the electric drill to get the cork out because we didn't have a corkscrew!

 

One side finished

Other side started

Cutting tiles

Day 1 finished

Day 2 FINISHED!

Sink area

Lights are in

Beam varnished

Opening the wine!

Monday

 

We were feeling slightly worse for wear this morning, but it was an early start as D had offered to come over first thing to hook our boilers up, get our extractor fan in and connect the socket in the bathroom. He spent the whole morning here and whilst he was working on that we did a few chores and got on with painting the walls and grouting the tiles. The big boiler is now ready to be filled and turned on - so it is up to us to get on with it so we can use the shower! The last thing D did was to look at our mini boiler upstairs, which needed to be wired in to the fuse box. This turned out to be much more easily done than I'd expected and D ended up showing me how to do it so he could go home and enjoy his day off!

 

Turquoize! The colour is much louder in real life!

Boiler is ready to go

 

Once D had gone Pete carried on downstairs, cleaning the grout, and I went up to try and sort out this boiler. I started with the water connection, which should have been quite simple but we had lost our grips so I wasn't able to make it tight enough and it kept dripping. Luckily Pete is slightly stronger than me so we got it slightly tighter, but then one of the flexi hoses broke so we couldn't connect it at all. Argh! Powering on I got the electricity connected without any problems and then we came to the issue of how to hang the thing on the wall! It had no hook or anything and even if it did the wall up there was made out of straw so we couldn't drill into it anyway. Luckily there were two massive nails sticking out where the old water tank had been, so we ended up strapping the boiler to that! Haha, it looks so Bulgarian!! We then decided that we needed to test it out this evening, so we quickly drove to Chirpan to get a new flexi hose (and stopped for a delicious chocolate milkshake.) Back home we connected the hose and everything worked fine! We have hot water now - exciting!! It was getting late but we still have some time left to bring in all the washing up stuff, including the big table, and get the sink all set up nicely.

 

Hot water!

Cosy and clean

 

Tuesday

 

As you know we have been doing gardening for an English couple that have a holiday home in our village. We got this job through M & D, so haven't actually met the clients yet! This week they were here on holiday though so we arranged to pop down for a coffee at 1 this afternoon. Wanting to get on with the bathroom we were up early and started straight away on tiling as much of the floor as possible before going out. We have chosen big tiles for the floor so I thought they would go down quickly as the room is small as well - but of course nothing is ever quick! Because of our drain we had to build up the tiles really high - about an inch in most places - which meant we were going through adhesive like it was going out of fashion! With that thick a layer it was also difficult to get it to the right level - which is really important in here if we want our shower to drain properly. So by about midday we had only put down 8 tiles! Just before we were going out our neighbour popped round with the handles for our window and fitted them for us, so that is looking really good.

 

Planning the tiles

Half a day tiling

Pete and Hristo

 

We had a nice coffee and chat with our clients - we'll call them T & Z - and they were lovely and happy with our work. Sadly they're leaving tomorrow so we'll have to wait until their next trip out here to see them again. On the way home we stopped at the shop and sat by the river for a bit to eat some bread and sausages. It's starting to look lovely and autumnal now.

 

 

Just as we got back home Baba Villay called us over to her house - a couple of tiles had fallen off her roof and her ladder wasn't long enough to get up and replace them. We got our ladder and Pete got up there to replace the tiles, and found that there were a few more that needed replacing too (well actually the whole roof needed replacing really!) I quickly mixed some mortar and Pete did a proper job of making the ridge tiles good again and Baba Villay was so thankful! It's nice to be able to do something for her as she has been so nice to us. She thanked us alot and gave us some jars of tomatoes and cherry jam.

 

 

By now it was late-ish (it's getting dark at 5 now so days are feeling much shorter!) so we sacked off doing any more tiling and took the opportunity of the free afternoon to drive to SG and pick up more wood from our other gardening job. This time we could get the good stuff, as we have the chainsaw working, so we fully loaded the van. By the time we were home it was almost dark so we just stacked the wood in the barn and left the chopping for another day.

 

Wednesday

 

We were slightly worried that the adhesive was going to take days to go off as it's so thick and the weather is so cold, so the first job today was to get our heater hung up and plugged in so we could warm the room up. We also thought we might as well fill the boiler up now so we are ready to go once everything was finished! Luckily we did as we found that one end of the one way valve was leaking. This wasn't a complete disaster, but as we hadn't used flexi hoses to connect the pipe to the boiler, it meant we had to cut out our pipe work or we couldn't get the valve off! Annoying. We also had to drain the whole boiler which was a huge waste of water. Anyway, we let the boiler slow drain into buckets whilst we carried on with tiling the floor, with the goal to finish the whole thing today. At first we were both tiling but as we got to the main room there were more and more cuts needed so Pete was outside cutting whilst I was inside laying. This worked well and did get the whole thing done - with half an hour of sun left to celebrate and enjoy a beer in! The only issue is that once I'd stood up when we finished something happened in my back and I had the worst back and upper leg pain and couldn't move around easily at all. :(

 

Heat

Ne Dobre - emptying the boiler

Shower end finished :)

Main room finished

Whole thing finished

 

For dinner we had spaghetti bolognaise and then we got our warm pyjamas on and settled in for an early night. At about 8 we got a knock on the front door from a very tall man with a head torch on - so we couldn't see who it was! He introduced himself as George and said he had heard there was some young English people living in the village and he wanted to meet us! He turned out to be a really lovely guy - Bulgarian, living mostly in Plovdiv but with a family home in the village which he is renovating with his dad. He speaks perfect English and wierdly has actually worked in Brighton! Anyway, he bought us a bottle of (very good) home made wine so we invited him in for a drink and a chat. He stayed for an hour or so and invited us round to his house for dinner tomorrow evening.

Bulgarian folk music and homemade wine 

Thursday

 

As the tiles were going off in the bathroom we left them alone and had a day off from working in there. We started the day by going for a long walk in the glorious Sunshine. We went a new route and ended up walking for a couple of hours. Apart from my back still hurting it was lovely and we collected half a bucket of rose hips to make syrup with.

 

 

Back at home we put the rose hips on to boil and then had a semi-chilled day where I oiled the windows  (Hristo had recommended linseed oil instead of varnish) and Pete was going to cut some wood. Very annoyingly though the chainsaw broke - something to do with the bolt that tightens the chain - and we didn't have what we needed to fix it today. So instead Pete got to work with taking the old window out, which wasn't too difficult a job. Once this was out and the frame of the new window was dry we got it in place and screwed and foamed it in. Annoyingly we ran out of foam, so there are still a few holes, but it looks great and will keep the room even toastier now with the woodburner on!

 

Straining the hips over night 

Oiling the window 

 

The actual window was still drying but we left it out side and nipped around to DW's house, who had leant us her keys so we could have a shower whilst she was out. Hopefully not too long until ours but we did need a good wash now! Back home we got wrapped up, as it was a very icy night and hung the window just before heading out to George's house. George and his dad cooked pork and bread on a small fire outside and gave us lots of home made rakia to drink. Oh yeah and he took us round quickly to another neighbours house who made goats cheese and ordered us some to pick up on Sunday! Well good! After a yummy dinner and really great evening we said our goodbyes until he was next in the village (he was going back to Plovdiv the next day.)

 

 

Friday

 

Market day again and we were in town until after midday, stocking up on food as well as building stuff. Oh we also ordered our lovely bathroom mirror to be picked up tomorrow.

 

Pigs ears for brunch  

 

In the afternoon we fixed the dripping boiler by taking off the pipes and putting flexi hoses in instead - we bought the massive ones so we didn't loose any water pressure for the shower. The job wasn't too painful at all and the problem was solved so we filled the boiler up again and turned it on for the first time! We also grouted the floor tiles and then decided to hang the sink so we would be able to have hot water downstairs too! This was all going well until we turned the hot water on and found two leaks underneath the sink and, worst of all, both our hot isolation valves were leaking and there was no way to fix it without taking it apart. F!!! I managed to sort out one of the leaks under the sink but then we ran out of tape so couldn't fix the other one. Feeling quite down heartened by all the leaking we cleaned the grout off the floor and then decided to call it a day - hoping we could make it all better tomorrow.

 

Grouted

New connections to boiler 

Excited - before we found leaks!

These bloomin' screw in valves (left) are leaking

Saturday

 

We were up early and started the day by putting the toilet together and into the bathroom, as well as checking the shower didn't need any extra bits as we didn't want to run out of something again! After doing that, as well as starting to do some siliconing around all the edges, we set off to Chirpan to pick up our mirror and get more tape for the plumbing. This somehow took a couple of hours - maybe because we stopped in a cafe for a really good ham and cheese pancake, or maybe because we also stopped at S & G's to pick a couple of plastic bags full of green tomatoes so we can make relish! Anyway we got back early afternoon, determined to get the bathroom finished. We started by replacing the isolation valves - we bought the ones that melt together as we haven't had any problems with those connections at all. Although this was very fiddly it wasn't anywhere near as difficult or stressful as we'd expected and it worked a treat - so the boiler was back in action. We then sorted the leak under the sink and connected the shower and toilet. And - can you believe it - nothing went wrong! We had a few small leaks, but nothing more tape couldn't fix and by about 6 o'clock we had a fully functioning bathroom!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! We siliconed the most important bits but there is still alot of tidying up to do - making all the edges look nice etc, but we can have a hot shower and go to the toilet inside and that's what counts!! :D

 

 

2 valves replaced and looking goooood!

YAY

After some dinner we met up with S & G at the bar for celebratry drinks! We ended up having a really funny night and getting invited to a Bulgarian guys house once the bar closed to carry on drinking and eat raw pig skin and cherry jam (the usge!)

 

Sunday

 

Although there was still stuff to do in the bathroom we decided to have a day off today - deserved we think!! But the first thing we did when we got up was HAVE A SHOWER! It was bloody fantastic!!!!

 

We did tidy up the house a bit and we went for a lovely afternoon walk around the village and picked up our fresh goats cheese. The weather for the last few days has been cold but stunningly sunny and beautiful. In the afternoon I did take apart the beaded curtain we'd bought for the shower and remade it to the right length we needed it so it will fit between the wall and beam. Pete also chainsawed (oh yeah he managed to geniously fix the chainsaw as well, so that's great) and split loads of wood and our wood store is slowly getting bigger! The rest of the day has been spent chilling out and now writing the blog in front of the fire.

Curtain up until we make a door

 

Cheeeeeese!

Keeping the beads in order

Wood!

Woo, a long one - thanks for reading :) xxxx