Tuesday
At about 3 o'clock we drove to the hotel to pick up Petes mum - Kathy, Petes step dad - Dave and Petes Brother - John. They followed us in the hire car back to our house and we had a lovely evening showing them around our place and eating yummy BBQ food. Kathy and Dave are staying at the nearby hotel but John is staying here with us in his little 1 man tent, until we move into the house!
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| John in his tent |
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| Yummy chocolate and coconut cakes from S &G |
Wednesday
In the morning the three of us drove to the hotel to have breakfast with Kathy and Dave and then we all drove out to Chirpan. We showed them around a bit and did some shopping for building materials - everyone was very keen to help us get on with working on the house, which was great! Back at home we got straight to it! Me, Dave and John started painting in the bedroom (first coat - cheap white paint and water), whilst Pete and Kathy were in the garden picking mulberries and plums from our trees.
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| What Google thinks 'thank you' is! |
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| Looking like a real farm now |
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| First coat done! |
As the weather was so warm by the time we had finished the first coat it was dry enough to go around and get the second coat on! We had a late lunch break and then back to work getting the third and final coat on. So good - only one day and the whole room is painted! :) It makes it feel much brighter and looks fantastic. We also painted one coat onto the headboard, but are waiting to finish it as we need to get some edging and to fill in all the gaps with caulk (today I also discovered caulk, which is a sealant you can put around edges to make them look all smooth and professional - it is THE BEST thing ever.) Oh yeah - Dave also cut plasterboard to fit around the door frame and fillered it - which also looks great and is another finishing touch.
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| Finished! |
Whilst we were doing all this Pete and Kathy were cleaning out the chicken coop - using straw from our straw bale - and making yummy mulberry jam.
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| Making jam on the fire |
In the evening we got cleaned up and planned to go into Chirpan for dinner. Just as we got to the hotel to pick up Kathy and Dave it started to properly POUR with rain, so we decided to stay there for dinner - which was delicious.
Thursday
Another busy working day today! We drove again to the hotel and then all of us into Chirpan to pick up a few more bits from the builders merchants - including 4 more straw bales as we thought they would make comfy seating! We didn't hang around for long though, we came back home and got on with tiling the floor. This was all going very well, until we'd done about a quarter of the room and realised we had no where near enough tiles - I hadn't quite worked it out properly, oops! We needed about 4 more boxes and were quite keen to get on and try and finish the floor today, so Pete decided to drive all the way to SZ, with his mum, to buy some more tiles. Dave carried on tiling with what we had, with me and John being his helpful assisstants!
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| Fields of sunflowers at the hotel |
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| Tiles :) |
Pete and Kathy came home a couple of hours later with the disasterous news that they were no longer making or selling the tile we were using. So we had half a room done with no more tile to finish it. Pete had somehow managed to explain our problem to the manager of the shop, who said they would order some boxes from their other store in Bourgas (on the coast) for next Friday - another whole week until we can move in (if they even order them and we get there on time.)
Anyway, we stopped working and all chilled in the garden, enjoying the beautiful evening sunshine. Later we went for a stroll around the village with the dog and for dinner we cooked another yummy BBQ - this is the life!
Market day today! We did the usual big veg shop and wandered around Chirpan a bit more with everyone. We drove the long way home and passed huge fields of sunflowers, which we had to stop and take loads of photos in! They are so pretty! Also, on another note, the lavender is now being harvested and it smells gorgeous when driving around.
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| There are a few flies around. |
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| Where's Minty? |
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| Workers in the lavender fields/ |
Back at home we decided to have a bit more of a chilled day. The pool has been slightly neglected so is pretty filthy, but it didn't stop Pete having a dip and drinking his G&T whilst lying on a lilo. I organised the hay bales as seating around the fire pit (not too close - we don't want to start any fires.) We had a lovely, lazy lunch and then in the afternoon did a few worky bits around the house - putting sockets into the bedroom, putting edging onto the headboard, caulking all gaps and making everything look lovely. Later M & D popped by to ask if we could feed their pets tomorrow - they were off to the coast for the day and evening. We told them about the tiles and they offered to pick up the boxes we needed from Bourgas! Yay!!
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| Chillin' |
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| New seats :) |
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| Laying some bricks |
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| Finishing headboard and putting in sockets |
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| CAULK! |
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| Bad photo but we have tomatoes growing! |
For dinner we went out to Chirpan. As we were leaving Kathy and Dave realised they had a flat battery and we had to jump start them from the van. The car started, but didn't sound very healthy, so we all got in the van (me and John in the back) to drive to town. We went to our fave offal restaurant - Flamingoes. We did a tapas style dinner and ordered a ridiculous amount of food and all went home feeling very full! Another lovely evening.
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| Not Drinks |
Saturday
We had a pretty relaxed morning this morning as Kathy and Dave were waiting to hear back from the hire car company about getting the car fixed. At about lunchtime we all got into the van and drove into Chirpan for some more shopping (I don't know what we are buying!!) We came back to the hotel and had a beer by the pool whilst Dave was with the man getting the car fixed. By now it was somehow already about 4 o'clock. We drove back to ours and had an afternoon snack in the sun. After we'd eaten me and Pete drove out to SG to feed M & D's animals.
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| Around Chirpan |
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| Stretched face, hanging in the back of the van |
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| Lucy! |
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| Dave finished all our sockets |
In the evening we went out to eat in Chirpan again. This time we went to a new restaurant that we hadn't been to before. It was really nice - in a small courtyard and very busy. Annoyingly though the menu was only in Bulgarian so we had some trouble translating it to everyone! But we are learning and we managed to get everyone a good meal! :)
Back to work today. For the first time this week we didn't go to Chirpan and Kathy and Dave came to ours in the morning. Kathy was out in the garden looking after Bilko and painting the trees with lime as they were fading. By the way Bilko is getting on very well - we have been keeping him with us around the tent and he is such a little explorer! We were also feeling bad locking him in the house so we have had him in our bedroom over night. Lucy is being great as well and they are almost friends now - we can have Bilko just running free, which is amazing.
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| New lime |
John got going with a massive bonfire, which we'd been meaning to do for ages. Pete started to put plasterboard up between the beams on the ceiling, whilst Dave fixed in our lights properly so we can finish the ceiling completely. All very productive!
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| Fire |
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| Lights in! |
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| Kathy and a chicken lending a hand |
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| Half the ceiling done |
Disapointingly though a few of our new tiles have cracked. It seems there wasn't quite enough adhesive underneath them in certain areas, which means we have to take up quite a few tiles and replace them. We have our four boxes from Bourgas now and we hope to get some more on Friday - I just hope we can get them or we won't have enough! Also it has set us back again to get in the house. A bit of a pain in the ass but at least we can get the ceiling done before we move in - something we would have probably not got around to doing for ages!
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| :( |
In the evening we made the most of the glorious weather and went for a long walk through the graveyard and up to the lavender fields. For dinner we went to the hotel again and had a great evening drinking wine and chatting about the world!
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| Walkies |
Monday
Our last day with Kathy and Dave so we thought we'd let them have one day off from working and take them to Plovdiv!
What can I say really - Plovdiv is a very cool, beautiful city and we had a lovely day meandering through the old town, eating actually good food in a trendy restaurant and sitting on the roman ruins.
For our last night Pete cooked a BBQ platter which was bloody delicious and I made fruit and wine punch. We stayed up around a bonfire looking at the fireflies and stars. We said our goodbyes to Kathy and Dave as they were leaving early the next morning. We had a fantastic week with them and got lots of work done as well :) John is staying for another three weeks - Pete is very happy about this as he has someone stronger than me to help him work!
Tuesday
We started back into our usual routine and were up early to start working. Pete and John nipped into Chirpan as we needed some more food for animals and a few more things from the builders merchants. I stayed at home and cleaned up the tent, washed up and emptied the loo. I also got the headboard painted, so it is now finished (except for tiling the shelves.)
When they were back Pete and John carried on with getting the plasterboard on the ceiling and I finish the pointing and painted the exposed stone wall in watered down PVA to stop it from crumbling. This has worked a treat and has made our pointing look even better!
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| Shades on inside |
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| PVAing |
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| Bilks :) |
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| Ceiling boarded |
We stopped earlyish and had a beer on the balcony in the sun. Pete and John then went down the road to do a bit of paid work, as we hadn't done it for a while, whilst I cooked some dinner and cleaned around the house - what a good house wife I am. After dinner we watched some telly on the laptop and went to bed.
Wednesday
Another early start - I was straight to work filling all the gaps and screw holes in the ceiling with filler. Pete and John were in the horrible room covering the entire back wall with damp proof and building a stud wall over it. We are finally saying goodbye to the damp old fireplace! We also cemented in the flume for the woodburner in this room.
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| Filled |
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| Damp proof up, stud wall built, electric cables in. |
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| Pipe for chimney in |
After a lovely lunch in the sun - it's got really hot again now, at least 30 degrees - we went back inside to carry on working. Pete began to plaster the ceiling - we are just going to do one coat to give it a bit of texture - whilst me and John started cutting and screwing in plasterboard in the horrible room. This is so exciting as we now have a wall between the bedroom and what-will-be bathroom! Fantastic!!!
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| Plaster master |
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| ROOM! |
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| Other side (not so nice) |
We had no beers at home so we decided to hit the village bar for a drink in the evening. We ended up staying a while and trying some of the local drinks - cheap white wine and some kind of vermouth thing - each of them the equivilent of 15p a glass, how could we refuse!
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| Local tipple at the local bar |
Thursday
Last night we had a call from M & D asking us to look after their pets for a couple of days as well as did we want 2 more chickens and a duck as someone was looking to get rid of them. Of course we said yes - hopefully these ones will lay some eggs (did I mention our chickens have stopped laying :( ) So this morning we got up early (with slightly sore heads) and drove out to SG to pick them up. They are handsome birds - especially the duck, who we have named Sydney. We have put them in with the other chickens and they are keeping away from the rest of the pack. Hopefully they will all be friends eventually. Whilst in SG we also picked up Robbie dog, who will be staying with us for a couple of days, as well as pop over to K & D - a couple who have just bought a house and are over here for a week or so starting to empty it and clean it up (they plan to move out here full time eventually.)
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| 2 more chickens |
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| Sydney the duck! |
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| Robbie is back with us! |
Back at home Pete carried on plastering the ceiling whilst me and John got the last bit of plasterboard up in the horrible room - what a transformation! In the afternoon Pete made a delicious traditional Bulgarian meal of fried courgettes in yoghurt (our neighbour and just given us 4 huge courgettes from her garden) and pottered around tidying up the camp and finally getting the pool clean enough to swim in. I stayed in the house painting the first coat of white paint onto the sections of ceiling that were dry and the bedroom door.
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| Room is horrible no more! |
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| Last bit of cement in the floor |
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| White ceiling, white door. |
We finished working at about 5 and spent the evening chilling and writing the blog. Me and Pete went over to M & D's to feed the cats whilst John cooked us a lovely dinner. Now time for bed! :)
Dovejdanay xx
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