80.

Our street

 

Woah this week has gone fast! Should be a quick update this week as I don't have much to write about. We've been working everyday upstairs but it's mainly been doing electrics and other fiddly bits - which really takes time and ends up looking like you haven't done a lot, but, of course, is actually very important to get right. So not too many photos and not much to blabber on about!

Weather wise it's been quite overcast but this has meant it's been a lot warmer and we haven't needed the woodburner on as much as last week. The days are noticeably shorter now which has cut our working time down as we have to finish with time to do the washing up, dog walking etc whilst it is still light and warm! Anyway, on with the daily posts... 

 

Tuesday 18th

 

So now we had the ceiling pretty much finished it was time to crack on with the electrics - the lighting in particular. Most of the actual light fittings will go in later but we did want to put in the spot lights that we'd bought for the top of the ceiling whilst it was easily accessible. We had to adapt the fittings we'd bought as we were surface mounting them, so this involved drilling into the metal without ruining the electrics! We then measured it all up and wired the lights in - annoyingly we can't actually test them until everything is connected, so fingers crossed!

 

Making holes in the light fittings

Fancy spot lights for the ceiling

 

The rest of the day was spent putting wires everywhere for every light fitting we want - which is a lot. We also want to have every light on it's own switch so we can isolate them, which means even MORE wires! They all lead back to a junction box, where they will be connected - which is starting to look very full indeed. It was quite a long process as not only did we just have to put the wires in place, but we also had to decide where every light was going - which involved a lot of measuring and discussion!

 

Wires going to the junction box

Wall lighting cables in

 

We worked until about 5 when we had to stop to do the daily chores and make dinner. Pete made sausage with roasted veg, which was delish, and then we got in bed early and watched a film.

 

Chickens on the compost bin

 

Yummy dinner

Ready for a horror film!

Wednesday 19th

 

We had an early start today and were in Chirpan for 9. We stopped at a bakery for brekkie and then spent a couple of hours at the builders merchants buying more electric cable and a whole list of other electrical bits and bobs.

 

Gloomy morning

Breakfast in Chirpan

 

We were home my midday and carried on much the same as yesterday - running more cables and fitting junction boxes etc. We worked until after 6 in the end and when we'd finished it was nearly dark and very cold so we didn't do the washing up and we took a portion of beetroot soup out of the freezer for dinner. We decided to have a night off from watching TV so instead we had an evening playing Scrabble, with a glass of wine, in front of the fire. It was lovely.

 

Insulation over 'the hole' to stop the draft

Testing out some of our lampshades

Holes for more spot lights

Junction box wired in

Dinner on the woodburner

 

Scrabble night

Thursday 20th

 

Now we had the majority of the wires in place - for all the sockets and the lights - there were other bits in the walls to get on with before we can actually put the walls up. These fiddly bits included noggins! So today was spent discussing and measuring exactly where we were having every shelf or cupboard and figuring out how we'd fix it to the wall etc. This included doing things like measuring how tall our tallest jugs and cookbooks are to make sure they would fit on the shelves we want them to! I'm sure for an expert all these things would be very quick and easy, but for us we have to plan it, pretend we're using it and then agree on it before doing anything - which is very time consuming!!

 

Noggin up

 

Keeping the wiring organised

More stud wall

 

Anyway, another whole day spent chipping away at various bits and pieces. In the evening Hristo popped over to ask we'd feed his chickens this weekend whilst he was away and we invited him to stay for a beer. Blue lady also popped by to see if we had an old stick she could use as a walking stick to replace the twig she was currently using. Instead we offered her a proper walking stick that we had in the house and never use. She tried to pay us for it and then refused to take it, but we insisted and in the end I think she was very grateful - Bulgarians are very proud it seems and she just kept saying 'I don't need gifts.'

 

Blue lady and Hristo

 

Once they'd gone I got on with making dinner - an Asian style chicken soup which I'd been wanting to make for ages. It was so good that we both ended up having 4 bowls each over the evening! It was quite chilly this evening so we got the fire going, but we got way too hot and had to open up the doors anyway - even the animals couldn't handle it!

 

Asian chicken soup

Hot pets

Friday 21st

 

The usual market day today and we spent the morning stock up on food etc. By mid morning Pete was feeling unwell and after we'd been to the builders merchants we went straight home - I drove. Pete went to bed to get some rest whilst I unpacked the shopping and then we had left over chicken soup for lunch - the perfect meal if you're coming down with a cold!  

 

Pete stayed in bed for the rest of the day so I decided to use the free afternoon to do a bit of cooking. We had a load of tomatoes from Baba V that were a bit past it for use in salads so I roasted them, and some other veg, to make a soup. I also cooked a tray of potatoes that needed using up so we now have a bag of oven chips, which is always handy! And finally I used up the 6 soft courgettes in the fridge by making onion and courgette bhajis. They were so tasty we ate a few of them whilst they were hot, but the rest I froze and they will be great to eat with curries in the future.

 

Tomatoes for roasting

Soup, chips and bhajis

I also organised the freezer - we have a huge sack of figs!

 

Once I'd done all that Pete got up to help me with making Bulgarian sauerkraut. We'd bought seven cabbages at the market (for the equivalent of £2, by the way!) and, following our neighbours recipe, we put them in a big tub and covered them with salt water. Unlike German sauerkraut they just preserve the cabbages whole here, so it is very easy and a great way to keep veg for winter.

 

Sauerkraut

 

Pete was still not feeling great so we had tomato soup for dinner and an early night.

 

Saturday 22nd

 

Today was the day of guests! We often get friends and neighbours dropping by, but the weekends are much busier, especially at the moment as people are coming to the village for weekends for hunting or to make wine/rakia Although it can feel like a distraction it is actually very nice to see our friends and we appreciate them coming to say hello! 

 

We had an expat friend, C, coming by at 11 today so we got up early to get some work done before she arrived. We got up and quickly tidied the house before going upstairs and starting work on connecting some wore wires and junction boxes. We'd been working for less than an hour when our friend George popped over, who we hadn't seen for a while so we stopped and had a cuppa and a catch up with him. When he left it was nearly 11, so we ate some breakfast before C arrived and then we had another cuppa and spent an hour or so with her.

 

In the afternoon we were cracking on with more of the same work - wiring and nog-ing - when we got another knock on the gate. This time is was a guy we knew who had picked us up when we were hitchhiking and he had come with two friends. They had been hunting this morning so were dressed in camo, had a beer in hand and each had a big gun with them! One of the friends had a weekend house in the village which he invited us to come and have a look, so we went down the road for a while and had a beer with them. They all spoke varying degrees of English and with our small amount of Bulgarian we were able to spend a really nice hour or so with them. They are all in their early thirties and it is nice to spend time with people nearer our age - not that we don't love all the Baba's in the village!

 

We could have spent the whole afternoon with them, but we decided to be good and went back home to get on with work. We didn't get loads done today but we did manage to sort out the wall mounted wiring that will be behind the oven and wire in a socket, so we have one power source that actually works up there now. We also organised all the cables and fitted the junction box in place.

 

More wiring

Our DIY trendy wire casing - there will be sockets on top of here

Junction box in place and 'organised'

 

In the evening we finished at about 6.30 so decided to go out to Chirpan for dinner. We went to the cheap and cheerful restaurant that we like but Pete started to feel unwell again so we didn't have a late night.

 

Stray cats in the restaurant

Sunday 23rd

 

Having spent a whole week working on little things we were feeling bored and impatient, so decided to start the bigger job of cutting out the beams we don't want. Before doing that we got up on the beams for one last time and did a quick second coat of linseed oil on the purlin.

 

Oiling the beams again

 

We wanted to keep the beams in one piece so we'd be able to reuse them, so we had to work out a way to get them down without any injuries, as they are 4 metres long and very, very heavy. We figured out a good system - this was to cut one end, then temporarily secure it with a bracket. We then cut the other end and propped that end up with the ladder against the wall. Pete then cut the nails that were holding up the centre, so the whole thing was detached. We then unscrewed the bracket and were able to slowly lower the whole beam without any accidents! Clever eh!? Once we were on a roll it didn't take too long to do, and the difference it made was amazing. It looks so good.

 

OPEN!

 

Also, during the morning, our friend D came over as we'd asked if he would come and give our wiring a quick look over before we hide it all within the walls. Luckily we'd done everything right and we got the thumbs up, so we're good to go.

 

By the time we'd cut all the beams out it was only early afternoon so we thought we'd make a start on putting the across beams around the room. This is very hard to explain, but we'd been given advice on how to prevent roof spread after taking out all the ceiling beams - which are obviously helping to stop the roof pulling apart and collapsing. This involved fixing wood across the 'stumps' of the beams we'd just cut out and, therefore. preventing the wall plates from moving. As I said - it is difficult to explain!!! Anyway, we used the old beams to do this job and have ended up framing the entire room with beautiful oak beams, which is not only practical but also looks fab! Maybe this photo will explain it better...

 

The cut off beams with large brackets attached to the top...

...and the old beam recycled and strapped on to the brackets.

And one more on the other side

 

We got two of these beams fitted before it got too late and we called it a day. I washed up and took Lucy out for a walk whilst Pete made dinner and then in the evening we skyped my brother (in Bolivia) and watched TV.

 

Cheers!

Blue hills

Walkies

Oh also, just to mention, we have been invaded by ladybirds this weekend! I can't get a good photo but they are everywhere and they keep flying into our food/drinks/faces! I remember it happening last year and it doesn't last long. Plus they are harmless so we've just left them to it.

 

Monday 24th

 

We had an accidental lie in today as we didn't set an alarm and didn't wake up until 10 - we must have needed it! Once we were up we got on upstairs and fitted the other two beams in place. This ended up taking over 3 hours as both beams were completely warped and very difficult to put it and make look good. We got there eventually though and we're very pleased with the end result.

 

Looking good

 

The afternoon was spent writing out a long, long list of the rest of the little jobs that needed ding before putting up the walls, and then getting on with them. I went back to work on putting in extra sockets (we keep thinking of things we want to plug in - like fairy lights everywhere!) and more electrical bits. I also started to look at the plumbing and we spent some time figuring out how under the sink will work. We need to buy some more fittings to get the water ready, but I did get the wastage pipe finished. Whilst I did that Pete was working in the bricks that we're going to have exposed - he got all the old mortar scraped out and then re-pointed them.

 

Working hard (or hardly working?!)

Bricks re-pointed

More wiring business

Bit of plumbing

 

We finished at about 6.30 and Pete went upstairs to make dinner whilst I have written the blog. We skyped my parents and then spent the rest of the night watching telly and chilling out. Another evening without the woodburner going.

 

Chao for now everyone! Until next time xx