Weeks 24 & 25.

Blimey I have a lot to write for this update - and LOADS of photos! Mum and Dad have been here for just over two weeks and BOY have we been productive! They arrived just before it got dark, at about quarter past seven, on the Monday evening and we ate slow cooked dinner and drank wine all evening. They are staying in our spare room so we got that set up too. A fun arrival night!!

 

Tuesday

 

In the morning we had a nice leisurely breakfast - eggs and coffee - and then we helped unload mum and dad's van. They had driven all the way from England this time because dad wanted to bring tools to work on the roof with as well as loads of goodies for us! Including, amoungst a lot of other things, a fridge, two lawn mowers, a dart board and a TV! :D 

 

The main project and reason for mum and dad to visit (except from seeing us of course) was to do the roof. We were hoping it wasn't in too bad condition, but here in Bulgaria they don't put any damp proof under the tiles so it all needed to come up and be re-done anyway.

 

The first step was to try and make some sort of scaffold. We couldn't afford to buy or rent proper scaffold (it's quite rare they even use it here) so that's what we had bought all those wooden poles for! Dad initially wanted to scaffold the whole house, but after a few hours spent putting up a tower in one corner we realised this would take way too long. Although it looked very scary we did mangage to make a secure tower, which would at least help with lifting things up to the roof as well as a small space to stand and store tiles.

Mad Indian style scaffold going up!

Safe as houses!

 

This actually took most of the day with all four of us helping and when we were done dad and Pete went up to knock down and re-build the bottom of the chimney in preparation for starting proper work on the roof tomorrow. Oh and when they were up there they found a nest of rat babies under one of the ridge tiles - eurgh, glad we got them before they were bigger! Whilst the boys did that me and mum went up to the walnut orchard to do a bit more strimming and raking - we are expecting the walnuts to drop any day now!

Rat baby

Strimming and doing fire!

Re-building the chimney base

 

In the evening we set up the dart board and had a game and after dinner had a pretty early night as we'd stayed up a bit too late the night before!

 

Wednesday

 

Work on the roof commenced! Pete and dad were up there but me and mum were also needed to pass tiles down to and pass up wooden batons and roof felt. As our tiles were looking in pretty good condition dad decided he would only take the tiles down from one end and then move them around the roof until the end. This would also save alot of work passing tiles up and down in a bucket! So the day carried on like that and we were happy to find that so far all rafters and stuff in the roof were looking in good condition.

First side off!

Tiles down

Dad bought the lead trays from England :)



 

In the evening Pete and dad played with the air rifle that had also arrived in the van and after a BBQ dinner we sat up around a bonfire. Also just to mention that the weather has gone surprisingly hot again and we are above thirty degrees by midday. Obviously this is good because we don't want rain this week, but it is also way too hot in the afternoon to be on the roof - so early starts it is!

 

Thursday

 

By now me and mum weren't really needed to help with the roof, except to pass up the odd baton, so we decided to crack on with other work. We decided we would have a go at digging the trench for the soil pipe from the house to the septic tank. One more step towards getting our bathroom up and running! It was a bloody hot day and the digging was hard - we even needed to use the jigger jigger - but we did pretty well and got alot of it done. We just needed to buy the soil pipe now to make sure it was sloping enough away from the house.

 

A long hard days work finished in the evening with yummy pork chop and mash for dinner!

Me and mum digging

Another gift - a chainsaw! It needs sharpening but we can get chopping wood now for winter.

Such good dinner - with BISTO GRAVY (another gift!)

 

Friday

 

Market day today so we all set off early to Chirpan to do some shopping. After stocking up on food we visited the builders merchants to get other things we need - including soil and waste pipe for the bathroom, which dad is going to help us fit! Yay!

Statue in Chirpan

 

Back home in the afternoon it was way too hot to be getting up on the roof so we thought we would get to work in the bathroom. The first job, which me and Pete have been avoiding for ages now, was to dig out the massive rock in the ground that is sitting right where we want our sink! Dad had bought his jigger jigger with him from England so him and Pete set to work on the rock - with two huge hammer drills. It was horrible and dusty and still took at least an hour to get out, but they did it in the end! We then decided where everything was going to go in the bathroom (we knew roughly already) and got the pipes and fixings inside and cemented in place.

 

In the evening I think we went to the Hotel Trendafiloff for dinner. :)

Damn rock

Rock gone

:)

 

Saturday

 

Another early start and hard working day! (I know - when will we rest!!?) Dad and Pete were back on the roof and me and mum finished off the trench - including putting the pipe in at the right angle AND covering it up again. It was pretty exciting (and relieving) when we put a bucket of water down the pipe in the bathroom and it came out into our septic tank! :)

Pipe is in

Securing it with dabs of cement and gravel

What trench?!

 

In the afternoon when it was too hot to be on the roof anymore Pete and dad came down and we fitted the drain inot the bathroom. We have decided to fit a long outdoor drain to separate the toilet and sink from the wet room shower area.

Big drain in

 

It was another glorious, sunny evening and the boys were doing so well on the roof that all the front and sides were re-tiled and only the back left to do (well, and all the cuts and ridges but still they were cracking on!) To celebrate we had gin and tonic in the sunshine and after dinner we headed to our local bar for a drink. After we'd had a drink or two S & G also arrived at the bar with two of teir kids and their partners - we had a huge crew going on! As well as all of us there were also loads of Bulgarians (who had their own gas cooker at the bar and were cooking themselves dinner!), I don't think the bar had ever been so busy! It was a very fun night and somehow it was gone midnight when we eventually left.

All whole tiles on the front - looking good!

Chillin after a hard days work

Kicking off at Izvorovo bar!

 

Sunday

 

Pete and dad were back on the roof again - they finished the back, managing to do it using all our original tiles. There were even enough spare to start on the cut tiles for the valley.

They threw all those tiles like this!

Back of the house is quite nice!

These are the ceiling beams poking out the back of the house :)

Back nearly done now

 

Me and mum helped to pass all the tiles we'd taken down in the beginning back up to the boys on the roof and then we got to work on filling the bathroom with hardcore so it was ready to cement. As there was a load of rubble from the roof (smashed tiles mainly) around the side of the house it made sense to clear that up and take it straight into the bathroom. So we took it in turns to bring the rubble in and sledge hammer it level.

Done!

 

As well as this we have noticed that one of our walnut trees (one in the garden, not in the orchard) is dropping nuts! We collected them up and de-husked them, leaving us with very brown fingers from the dye they have in them. So that is exciting - our first harvest which we will hopefully make some money from!

 

Monday

 

In the morning we finished off putting the old ridge tiles along the front garden wall, which looks fab! The boys were on the roof, using up the last of our original tiles in the valley. This didn't take long and then they worked out how many more we would need to finish everything.

Re-using the ridge tiles

Working on the valley

 

We wanted to get old tiles so that they matched the ones already there. Me and Pete had seen some in Chirpan that were the right style for our roof, but in true Bulgarian fashion that were stacked in huge piles and mixed with a few other styles of tile, and as we need 170 we thought it would be too much of a faff to go through them all. So instead we decided to stop in Spasovo farm (a village a few kilometres from us) as we had heard they had second hand tiles for sale as well. We found them and hooray they were the right style for our roof! We met a very friendly guy who we thought worked at the farm, who told us the tiles would be 40s each (about 15p) so we were quite happy with that and all four of us loaded 170 tiles into the back of the van. As we drove out we went up to pay, only to find a very sour faced lady insisting that there was no way we could have them for that - it was 80s each or we have to unload them. SO ANNOYING! I know it's not much money but that is not the point - we knew we were getting done over! We tried to haggle for a while but she wasn't budging, we even considered unloading the tiles - if we knew somewhere else we could easily buy more we probably would have - but to save the time and effort we just gave in and paid the asking price. Grr!

Getting the tiles from the farm

 

Back at home we unloaded the tiles into the garden and then drove out again to the hotel so we could spend our afternoon off by the pool. We had a delicious, and rather big, lunch in the restaurant and then lazed around by the swimming pool for the rest of the day. It was lovely. And before we left I even managed to use the facilities and have a hot shower!! So good!

Wall looking sexy and tiles in the garden.

 

In the evening M & D popped by with the keys to their tipper van (we wanted to borrow it so get sand) and stayed for a drink or two, which was nice. Once they'd gone we had a small dinner as lunch had been so big and stayed up drinking wine around a big bonfire.

 

Tuesday

 

Having had a relaxing afternoon yesterday we were all rested and it was back to work this morning bright and early! The weather forecast had predicted rain from today so the pressure was on to finish the roof. Although, having said that, there wasn't much sign of rain today.

 

So dad and Pete were on the roof again - with the angle grinder as well - cutting and fitting all the tiles at the hips and ridges. The dust from doing this made them both very orange! Whilst they did this me and mum went out to the road to clear up the front of the house. Whilst Kenneth was here he had strimmed it all and made it look lovely but hadn't had time to burn all the brash. So me and mum got a little fire going and cleared it all up, we even planted some daffodils so our house will look pretty in spring.

Orange man

Mum is strimming

Front of house looking lovely

 

Once we'd all finished we had lunch and then headed out to Chirpan. We actually needed 60 more tiles (NOT going to Spasovo farm again) as well as new tiles for the ridges. So we got all this in Chirpan and took the tipper so we could get a load of sand. Annoyingly the sand place was closed so we couldn't get any and then in the evening M & D came to pick up their tipper as their car had broken down! Thankfully they very kindly offered to deliver us two tonnes of sand tomorrow morning, so it all worked out fine! :)

 

Oh yeah - this morning mum went to collect eggs and found one of our chickens dead in the coop. It hadn't been attacked or anything, just died whilst laying we think. Pete wanted to give it to Lucy to eat, so he skinned it and gutted it and found about 15 eggs inside it! Poor chicken :(

Amazing flower!

 

Wednesday

 

The boys were on the roof once again, the cement mixer came out and Pete was mixing whilst dad was laying the hip and ridge tiles. Today me and mum were on food duty. We started the day by preparing a chicken stew in the slow cooker and leaving it for later. We then got to work on making fig chutney - there are still so many figs! This time we made a massive load! Whilst this was doing its thing we picked the pears from our tree as we think they are ready and we won't want them to rot on the tree. We also took Lucy out for a walk and foraged for sloe berries and rose hips (they are ready much earlier here than they are in England.)

Tasted better than it looks!

Huge pot of chutney on the go

Our pears

Picking sloes

We've got about 20 jars of chutney now!

Hips going on

Valley and hips done

 

In the evening we collected more walnuts from our tree in the garden (they seem to be way ahead of the trees in the orchard) and ate our delicious slow cooked dinner. Yum yum yum.

Shaking the nuts out the tree

 

Thursday

 

So today the rain did come - not too bad though, just a drizzly start to the morning. As it was a bit too wet to go on the roof first thing we instead all set to work on starting to cement the bathroom floor. We did the back end behind the drain fairly quickly and then the rain cleared up a bit so Pete and dad went back on the roof. Me and mum didn't think we could finish the cementing ourselves so we got on with some other jobs. We finally dragged that old wood burner out again and mum did a fantastic job clearing all the rust off it (again!) and painting it silver. It looks SO NICE now and once she was done we took it straight inside so it wouldn't rust again in the rain. Whilst everyone was doing their stuff I made myself useful by going around the back and side of the house and clearing up all the rubble thrown down from the roof. Not the most exciting job but someone had to do it!

Cloudy morning dog walk

Dad starting the bathroom floor

Back on the roof!

Mum cleaning up the woodburner, protected from the drizzle

Gorgeous!!

 

By the afternoon the sun was shining again and the roof was very close to being FINISHED! Only one chimney to build! So good!!!! Not satisfied with this achievement though, we cracked on and spent the afternoon finishing concreting the floor in the bathroom! Phew - long day! In the evening we went out to Flamingoes for dinner and got a feast of food to celebrate!

Cleaning it up

Roof is finished!! :D

First layer of concrete in

 

Friday

 

Market day! Mum and dad stayed at home this time whilst me and Pete went out to do the shopping. Whilst we were out dad connected all our spot lights in the bathroom AND finished building the chimney - he is non stop! And that is our roof COMPLETE! Dad and Pete have worked so hard and it looks amazing - well done everyone, we are so happy!!! Also we are pretty pleased we used all our old tiles and only replaced 3 rafters. :D :D :D

YAY!

New chimney :)

Doesn't it look great!?

Lights in the bathroom

 

To mark the occasion we took down the scaffolding - which was almost as tricky as putting it up. Then in the afternoon we put damp proof over the bathroom floor and did another thin layer of cement over the top (we had to do this as we couldn't damp proof with all the pipes and hardcore in the way!) With all four of us doing this it took no time at all and in the evening we had 'finishing roof celebration drinks' around the fire!

Scaffolding gone

Damp proof down

Screed layer in! Ready to tile (nearly!)

Fire started early to warm us after cold showers

Lucy and Bilko sharing the left overs

Oh! This photo has just reminded me - Bilko is a GIRL! We were wondering why he didn't have anothing growing down there yet and now we have checked with two people and she is definitely a little girl. We feel bad about calling her a boy all this time!!
 

Saturday

 

Today we had a whole day off! We had a bit of a lie in and a long, relaxed breakfast, before setting off for a day out in Plovdiv. As usual Plovdiv was great, and actually there was a street art and crafts festival on so it was busy and the streets in the old town were lined with little stalls. We also went to a new restaurant for lunch which was really nice. A lovely day out. :)

Brekkie

Craft fair in the old town

Lunch time

Street art in the new town

McDonalds in Cyrillic

Mad singer and dancing lady outside the post office

Sunday

 

Mum and dad were quite keen to help us out with the bathroom as much as possible before they left so we were up early this morning to drive to SZ so we could buy our bathroom suite and our boiler! Exciting stuff! It took a few hours to pick out what we wanted and find all the right fittings in the shop, and after a quick stop for lunch at the burger van we headed back home to start work in the bathroom.

 

We started with putting the thick damp proof around the outside walls and then built stud work over it. With dads nail gun and laser level this was a quick job compared to when we do it! We then bought the shower, sink and toilet into the room and fitted noggins in the right places so they are ready when we eventually fit everything properly.

Genius way to use laser level!

Stud wall in

Sink on the wall!

Whilst we'd been doing this mum had been preparing a delicious ratatouille for dinner, which was just what we needed as a big storm looked like it was rolling in. We set up a big tarp over our table and got a big fire going just next to it to keep us warm. After we'd had our yummy dinner the rain really started to come down hard, and with it huge cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning. We stayed out, under the tarp, for quite a long time, enjoying the storm. But eventually the fire got too wet and the rain started coming under the tarp so we retreated inside and went to bed!

Crocuses popping up in the garden

Tarp to stay dry

Warming dinner in the rain

Monday

In the morning the rain was still coming down so we all stayed in bed a bit longer than normal! But it was our last day working with mum and dad here so once it had eased off a bit we got up and went straight to work finishing off the last bit of stud wall in the bathroom. This was slightly more difficult than yesterday as it was too wet to work outside, so we were cutting long bits of wood all cramped up in the hallway and getting sawdust over everything! Mum went up to the orchard and found that the storm had bought down hundreds of walnuts over night, and the wind today was bringing down more and more - it was literally raining walnuts!! AND because they were so ripe the husks had opened, so they are falling down already de-husked - the storm has done our job for us! Mum was amazing and went out in the rain to start collecting them. She was up there all morning and they are still everywhere - it's just ridiculous!

Love the clouds on the hills

Mum is raking the walnuts in

Just a couple of hours collecting!

Once we'd done the wall in the bathroom me, dad and Pete nipped into Chirpan to buy the pipes and fittings for our water. We weren't long and once we were back we got straight to fitting everything in. They use a different type of pipes here in Bulgaria than in England so it took dad a few goes to get the hang of it (they are PVC pipes which you heat up and they melt together) but it wasn't long before we had a hot and cold feed going to all the right places. We even temporarly connected it to the mains to test for leaks and it was all okay! :)

Testing - all good!

Then in the afternoon we even managed to build a wooden wall, which will be the back of our airing cupboard, and hang our boiler in place. It is really starting to feel like a bathroom in there now! By the time we'd done all this it was about 6 o'clock and that was all work finished. The rain was still coming down, so we sat inside to eat dinner and played a game of Scrabble afterwards. A great way to spend a rainy evening!

Tuesday

Our last day with mum and dad! :( In the morning me and Pete went up to the orchard for an hour or so of walnut collecting whilst mum and dad packed their van. In the afternoon we went into Chirpan so mum and dad could get some food and stuff to go home with. This took up most of the day and it was already about 3 o'clock by the time we were home.

A mornings collection 

Whilst in Chirpan me and Pete had also bought the flue for our woodburner so we wanted to get that connected. We thought this would be an easy job but whilst dad and Pete were doing the roof they dropped a brick down the chimney, which, it turns out, is way too big to come out the hole in the bedroom! So instead we to the outside of the house, worked out where the chimney was and took out a stone so we could access the chimney! What a palava! Anyway we did get the brick out and after replacing and cementing in the stone back in again we were able to connect our pipes together and get the fire going! This was so nice on a fairly chilly day and we had gin and tonics to celebrate! :)

Getting the brick out!

Yay!!!

Although it was a cold day it wasn't raining so we got a big fire going outside and started up the BBQ. We made a huge feast of food and a lovely last evening with the parents.

Maybe the last BBQ of the year!?

Wednesday

Mum and dad were up early and set off after we'd all had a cuppa. It has been great fun having them here and we can't believe how much work we've done!! Thanks mum and dad for all your help! :D :D We've got to keep the momentum going now - we are determined to get the bathroom finished asap!!

Today we have done a huge tidy up in the house and garden, including unpacking all our CDs (which also involved re-organising them into the right boxes!) and I have written the blog - which has taken a few hours. The weather is okay, but it's definitely getting chilly now, so we are very happy to be sitting warm and cosy in our bedroom with our burner going - we are even drying our clothes by it and we cooked dinner on it this evening!

Found some mud wasp pupae in Pete's jumper

New entertainment area with organised CDs!

Bilko enjoying the warmth as dinner cooks on the burner.

Sorry the post is so long! Until next time xxx