Week six.

What a week! We have been very busy people!

Tuesday

 

After a rainy Monday the weather cleared up and we were up early Tuesday morning to crack on with work. When dad was here he told us how he would do the floors downstairs and also made us realise we could get on with doing one of the rooms (the easy one) as it was pretty much ready to go. The way dad explained to do it meant we had to dig down about another 12cm, so Tuesday was spent doing this. It started off easy as at one end it is lovely soft soil, and with the use of our new small jack hammer tool we did half the room in no time! However the second half was much harder going as it turned into very hard stone that would only move after alot of disc cutting and chiseling.

Just keep digging.

Rocky floor.

 

We were still working at about 5.30 and almost done - only one more rock to get out - when D arrived with a beer. We thought it was a good excuse to stop working! We were also joined by DW. Everyone stayed for a few hours and then in the evening we made some dinner and went to bed - tired from a hard days work!

 

Wednesday

 

Another early start. Pete went straight down to get that last stone out, whilst I washed up and emptied the toilet! I then went down to help and we knocked a few wooden pegs into the ground, level with where we wanted the cement. We then spent the whole morning filling the room back up with hardcore. We had two huge piles of old bricks and tiles which I threw in through the window/wheel barrowed in whilst Pete sat inside and smashed them up. It wasn't long before the room was full and we had two piles of rubble less in the garden.

Level pegs.

Slightly distracted playing with new tools!

Hardcore in!

We finished doing the hardcore at about lunch time and drove into Chirpan as we needed to buy, amoungst other things, some cement. We went to the builders merchants to get cement and some re-bar etc and we also discovered a really nice bakery, so got some food for lunch in there. By the time we were home it was already 3 o'clock but we got straight back to work - Pete building shuttering along the back wall to leave a trench for our waste pipe, and me finally doing the finishing touches to the cement mixer. So at about 4 we got the mixer going and started laying our first cement floor! Pete was outside mixing whilst I was in the room levelling it out. We worked for a couple of hours and then decided to call it a day, as we needed to shower and it is only enjoyable showering outside when the sun is still shining!

Shuttering for trench.

Cement mixer ready to go.

Levelling..

Done for the day - good start we think!

A very long and productive day followed by dinner, film and an early night.

Thursday

Yesterday we had used all our cement (we'd bought no where near enough) so before starting anything we drove quickly to Chirpan to stock up on more. Once we were home we got off to not a great start. Pete hurt his back trying to lift one of the cement bags so couldn't do the mixing today as it involved too much heavy lifting. We then had the cement mixer on and it fell over!! Thank god it didn't break but we did have to spend some time fixing it (just a bit that fell off.)

Eventually we did get started though and got in to the swing of it. It was 29 degrees outside so I was mixing the cement in my bikini, getting a great tan whilst Pete sat inside the nice cool house laying and levelling. We worked non-stop until about five and the finished floor looks amazing. Feels pretty good to do our first building work in the house. To congratulate ourselves we had a beer or two and a lovely warm shower.

Happy Pete laying the floor.

Mixing and tanning!

WOOO FINISHED!

In the night it rained ALOT with ground shaking thunder and lightning!

Friday

Wild roses and acacia growing on road sides.

Market day again so we spent the morning in Chirpan doing some shopping (the rain had stopped and the sun was back again.) We had a few jobs to do around the house so spent the afternoon doing these. After all chores were done we set to work starting to build our chicken coop! We'd bought wood in the morning so Pete also made a saw horse to make the job easier. We ran out of wood quite quickly but are proud of what we've made so far! I also sprayed one of the old water tubs black - we plan to make a proper solar shower this week as both our camping showers have burst. (Luckily these last few days have been hot enough to just shower out of the hose.) Also M & D popped by with some clients of theirs who are viewing houses so they could have a look at what we've been up to. They were a pretty cool couple from Hastings - hopefully we will see them again!

Working (with nice new saw horse in background.)

The start of our chicken coop!

The start of our solar shower!

Floor update - it is setting fine but annoyingly we didn't have enough cement in the mix so it is a bit crumbly and sandy. Luckily it is just the first layer and we will be covering it with insulation, damp proofing and more cement so it is fine. We have learnt from it anyway!

In the evening we were invited to S & G's for a BBQ. There were a few other people there too and S & G made some great food (burgers with homemade bread were my fave) and we had a lovely night sat around a bonfire drinking alot of beer. They have been here about 7 months so seeing how far they had come with their house was also inspiring.

BBQ at S & G's.

Saturday

Woke up earlyish with the idea to get on with working. But whilst having a coffee I checked my facebook and found a message from our friends in Veliko Tarnovo (VT) asking if they could come and see us for the day. We of course said yes as we hadn't seen them or their 2 amazing kids since we were house hunting last June! They are at least 2 hours drive away though so we managed to fit in a few hours down the road doing some paid work in the garden - can you believe it needed fully mowing and weeding again, it was like it hadn't been done for months! At about midday we drove into Chirpan to get some meat for a BBQ and sat and had a coffee whist waiting for our friends to arrive.

Mowing in the morning.

Coffee in Chirpan.

They arrived and followed us to our house, where we had a really lovely day catching up and eating more delicious BBQ food. In the evening we had a stroll up through and beyond the pine forest st the top of our land. This was really nice as we haven't got around to doing it yet - can't wait until we can do a proper trek up there. The day was finished with Pete having a big water fight with the little boys! So good to see them all again! We also had a brief visit from S & G who bought us tomato plants from their garden and loads of veg that was left over from the party last night - so generous!

BBQ :)

Pics from our evening stroll.

We tidied up a bit after everyone had gone and then had an early night - it's very tiring all this sitting around and eating.

Sunday

So now it is Sunday and (can you believe it!) we have another BBQ this afternoon! This time at the Russian couples who we have been to before, with some of the people we had over when we had our BBQ a few weeks ago - so it will be good to see them all again. We will definitely be back to work tomorrow though - we have been doing far too much relaxing!!!

Haven't done much this morning - planted our new tomato plants, done alot of washing up from yesterday and written the blog.

Try not to kill these ones.