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