Returning to Bulgaria, planing and prep...

It's been about a year since my last post and we will soon be heading back over to Bulgaria to pick up where we left off.
Just to re-cap we didn't manage to secure a purchase of the adjoining property but there is still time for that and plenty of other options.
Also we have now dissolved our company so everything is just now in my name, although the "brexit bombshell" may see this reversed unless I can obtain a residency permit before the UK leaves the EU.

Anyway I've been very busy planning our next trip over which will be in our trusty Mondeo estate but this time a simpler route driven over 4 days and taking in 3 overnight stops in Bravaria, Goyr and Craiova also we will be taking the ferry across the Danube and then staying and working in our house in the village before we fly home leaving the car behind.

I'm also building a very large roof rack for the car so i can transport some underground drainage pipe and a few other things including a stainless steel water tank, the roof rack will no doubt be worth its weight in gold when it comes to collecting plasterboards, wood etc. Measuring in at just over 8ft long and 4ft wide. Will post some pics when its finished.

We will be busy for the first few days getting ourselves settled in as we only have a water supply and a limited electricity supply.
We've opted for the portaloo and outdoor shower option until I can build something better as always I will post regular once we are underway and put up plenty of pics.
I'm sure this will be another epic challenging adventure.

Our last day on the build

This will be the last post here now until next year, but if you have any questions feel free to comment and we will reply to you.
It's Tuesday now and we only have one day left on the build, it wasn't planned that way but these things happen.
We where up this morning at 6am and within 30 minutes on our way to Sofia, we had arranged to meet Maria and go through all the paperwork to close down our company and transfer the property in it into our own names.
The property in question is an old village house at the very back of Drenov village in the Lovech region.
It is a regulated plot of land with water, electricity and its own well, upon the 2000sqm of land is a house and a barn which both need rebuilding.
Drenov village is in a nice location and the plot has views of the Balkan Range.
We purchased this in 2006 and have only been back twice to see what condition it is in.
Anyway we arrived in Sofia at about 8.30am and found somewhere to park the car just off the green zone in a side street near Eagles Bridge, our appointment was in fact 10am but its better to arrive in Sofia early and park because the traffic wardens are like vultures within the green and blue zone.
On a positive note it was cool but a nice morning and the coffee shops where calling us.
Arriving dead on 10am we met Maria and waited for our appointment with the solicitor in Sofia.
Its quite a process dissolving a company ( you don't need one now, but used to have one to own land) especially when you haven't got the company stamp or the original title deeds with you.
There are lots of pieces of paper and every one needs signing at least twice which is OK for Sally as she is ultra consistent, whereas I change my signature every time.
Once back at the office we instructed the estate agent to start digging into the possibility of buying our neighbouring property as it is empty now and the porch has cracked and is starting to fall down, but that doesn't scare me and it has about 1000 metres of land.
We will only have to remove the fence to have ourselves a nice little complex that in total will sleep eight people in comfort.

Only a small house needs knocking down

has possibilities

The house is only small and will require to be demolished and the barn if it even has permission for residency will only become bedrooms without any bathrooms in the building, also it has a limited view because it is behind our barn, but if it is combined with ours will makes it a viable plot.
Once we had completed our business we decided to grab another coffee and head back to Lovech with the intention of making a call at Drenov to see what's changed.
We stuck to our plan and when we visited our house in Drenov we were met by the neighbours who are quite inquisitive but also very friendly.
It's hard now to actually see the barn for small trees and the house although still standing is getting slowly reclaimed by mother nature.
I had a chat with Hristo though last night and we will spend one day next year with a chainsaw and rediscover the barn and house. This will still make a nice property with a courtyard style front garden.
Fast forward through a nice meal at the hotel and a good breakfast and you will find us back on site
in our wellies and overalls, its our last day on the build till May 2107.
Sally busies herself tidying the house and doing womany things whilst I start to get the barn floor dug out with Bobby and fill in the holes left by the tree removal process.
Before this I take five minutes out to have a look at my barn find a 1971 chainsaw, proper old school boy toy.

We start digging and take the floor level down as much as we can in the time allowed and its hard work. The holes slowly get filled in and the first fire pit is raked away.

fire pit gone tree holes filled in 

We have saved any nice barrels or whatever and secured them in our barn, all of the tools have been removed from sight and safely stored with our friend Hristo.

Goodies we want to keep but have no real value

We receive news that the owner of our neighbouring property has now been located but the paperwork is a problem. Discussions are now underway and time will tell what happens next, the estate agents contact turned out to be one of our good friends in the village.
You can't leave without saying goodbye and we had some small thank you gifts for our neighbours for the help they had given us but this only resulted in  us receiving gifts from our neighbours none of which we can take home in hand luggage.

How the animal store used to look

How it looks now

Ready for its new floor this will be a bedroom.

Bobby and I finish the "dig dig dig"

 This is how we leave our project, I have made loose plans to get a JCB for next time and our friend Hristo is going to locate a firm for ready mix concrete.
We spent some time today to visit Aprilitsi in the mountains and now we are sat on a balcony in the old capital Veliko Tarnovo with a bottle of wine.
We have had a rather liquid lunch and are planning on a meal in our favourite cliff-top restaurant.
We will spend all day tomorrow here in Tarnovo and be up bright and early on Saturday to return to the UK.
Leaving just our wellies and a little piece of our hearts here in Bulgaria.

Ciao for now.

Another day building

We left Sofia late Sunday morning and stopped for lunch at one of the many roadside restaurants at Bulgarski Izvor. We decided that we should maybe try and get the whole dynamite thing put to bed once and for all, so we called to our house and took a photograph and went to the Lovech police station.

Dynamite?


When we arrived Sally went and sat in the park opposite it was quite a nice afternoon whilst I went in to explain.
It caused quite a bit of activity, many policemen looked at the photo and lots of questions where asked, at any one time there was two policemen constantly on the phone. anyway they decided that I should meet up with some specialists from Ugarchin.
They told us to "go now and meet three policemen at the Shell petrol station Mikre" so we got in the car and went to meet them.


They where waiting for us when we got there and after introducing themselves they said "ok we follow you" and then "there is a problem" the police car wouldn't start so plan b. Two police guys got in with us and we go and investigate.
They picked up the package very carefully and both peeked inside, again one of them got on the phone asking advice.
They carefully took it into the garden and took it out of its parcel.
As he did this his phone vibrated in his pocket and he nearly had heart failure it was so funny we all just burst out laughing.
Turned out to be some kind of flare, so not as dangerous, but the police took it away for disposal and after a short statement all was good

Sure looks like explosive

This had taken up quite a lot of time so we ended up doing no work at the house but instead going shopping at Sevlievo about half an hour away.
We returned then to our new digs at Staro Stefanovo a nice hotel and restaurant up in the hills.
The next morning we had planned to have all the rubbish removed from site so it was up early and on site to meet Bobby and Nicolai.
Bobby spent most of the day clearing out all the garage which was heaving with rubbish and Nicolai took it to the dump in his tractor.

this was full to bursting

Nice empty garage

Nicolai's trusty tractor

Sally had started clearing they hey from the top of the barn whilst I had started taking down some of the brickwork on the barn which is not needed anymore, basically where the patio doors are going to eventually go

Sally working hard

Bricks out woodwork started going in

This will be our entrance stairs and extended out onto a patio

Part of our view

We managed to get a start on the woodwork in the barn today where the windows and doors will go, we have to put in new wood before removing the old wood because this holds up the roof!

Local views

Like anything in Bulgaria things take time and this is as much woodwork as we get done for now as tomorrow we have to go back to Sofia to get the power of attorney papers sorted out for closing our old company and having the property in Drenov put into our name. This also make any future buying process much simpler
We finish around 6pm and head back to our hotel for a shower before a nice meal and a well deserved rest..

A relaxing day in Sofia

We didn't get up till nearly ten o'clock today, and that was a very welcome lie in.
Our plan for today is just to chill because Sally's got sore feet as we did lots of walking yesterday.
We head out for a more relaxing tour of the city and settle for a nice little bar on Vitosha Boulevard.
After a little while we hear lots of car horns and a wedding party turns up, followed about 40mins later by another bride
Well we love to see a wedding on holiday and it looks like we are sat by a registry office so three weddings later and a few beers we head off in search of a new viewpoint, this time its coffee and cocktails.
We did seem to spend most of the day drinking and people watching but Sofia is just so interesting.Somewhere during the day we must have had something to eat and more to drink on the whole a great day, apart from when our host for the next stop called me on my mobile and said " there is a problem I have double booked your room" we know Polina and her Mum anyway so this was a genuine mistake and we left it to Polina to book us alternative accommodation for the next four days.
Sofia is fun with great architecture lots of culture and fabulous statues, everywhere is very clean, even though there are street dogs in Sofia the is no dog mess anywhere. We love it clean...

A tiny excerpt from something I wrote last year in Sofia.

First of all you've got to get a grasp on the whole vibe of Sofia.
It's busy and the boulevards are alive with busy people walking home to feed cats and children others chill and casually stroll making the most of the warm summer breeze
The sounds are hard to describe, i can hear Spanish acoustic guitar mixed with conversation and the click clack of heels strutting past attached to well dressed thirty something's legs
The sweet scents of perfume waft by my table and a golden retriever obediently trots along side it's owner
There is so much going on at street level that you don't even think to look up toward the dominating high rise apartments and the people on the balconies looking down upon the ever changing scenes of urban movement.

Chess in the park

Naitional Theater

A busy day in Sofia

We had planned in our holiday to come to Sofia for two days, one of which would be spent sorting out any remaining paperwork.
We had rented an apartment from a young man called Vladi that is only 5mins walk from Eagles Bridge so very well located and probably one of the best equipped city center apartments we've ever rented.
If you need the link message me...
Any way we arrived here mid morning and our first appointment was at the ICB Properties estate agents in Sofia.
I had to pick up my bulstat card and pay the property taxes for the year so only a quick visit but I always have other things on my list.
I must say that Maria in ICB is a star and properly on the ball, combine her with Manyol a retired military officer and you are onto a winner.
We bought a property 10 years ago through Bulgarian Properties and they say they will pay the taxes and file your company returns etc..
In reality, yes they file the company returns which we pay 410bgn a year for so not exactly cheap but they are hopeless at replying to email, they tell you "there is nothing to pay" "don't worry"  but in reality the property taxes have not been paid, the electricity has been cut off etc...
So I said to Maria how do I set up my direct debit for the electricity company and she says "no problem" a couple of hours later she has chased up all the details and that will all happen quite smoothly now just a few forms to sign.
So I say to Maria I have another property that I bought ten years ago and the taxes haven't been paid, again she replies no problem all of the paperwork will now be ready to sign on Tueasday and the company will be dissolved and the property put into our names. So in future we will not have to pay 410bgn a year for tax returns
Also she has contacted the people about the taxes and this matter will also be resolved on Tuesday we will just back pay the tax and a few lev interest no fines no hassle
So I say to Maria i haven't got the company stamp, youve guessed it "no problem I can order a new one"
We had contemplated dissolving the company in the past but when you read online the charges seem to be a couple of thousand, in reality we are looking about 600 so well worth it
Seriously if you are looking for property in Bulgaria www.icbproperties.com use the Sofia office and ask for Manyol or Maria.
Anyway we took Manyol and Maria for lunch in a quality restaurant and generally had a great time in Sofia, we had to walk back and forth a bit because we had left some paperwork in the apartment but also we hadn't stopped last week so we where both tired. We did go to a couple of bars and have some drinks before returning home.
We'd also had to call into the British Embassy here in Sofia because I had found "a serious" amount of dynamite in the old barn last week. We had been clearing it out and throwing anything that could burn onto the fire, but upon picking up this one package I gave it a squeeze and it flet a bit like plasticene, yes it was dynamite. This was later confirmed by our host who was a policeman for forty years, now retired .
He says or should I say mimes take it into the woods and bury it. I didn't think this very responsible but at the same time didn't want to walk into a Bulgarian poilce station given that I can't speak the language with dynamite in case they maybe got the wrong impression.
I called into the embassy and spoke to the consulate he has given me his phone number and told me to leave the explosive where it is go to the police and report it and get them to phone him so he can explain so, problem solved..
Sorry no pics for today I'll get some for the next post

Back to work

Sorry I couldn’t post any earlier but I have had no internet access at all, but there is a lot to tell we’re having such a great time. It’ s currently 6am Friday13th May, and I’m on the balcony here in Mikre while Sally is in bed getting some well deserved rest, but I’ll pick up where I left off..


Gabrovo

When we eventually turned up in Gabrovo we stayed at a 2 star guest house in the old town which had its own private parking and an immaculate hotel quality double suite.
By this time its 2pm on Sunday so most places are shut but there is a very nice restaurant next door and we go there for lunch.
You just can’t go wrong with the food in Bulgaria, no matter where you seem to go from a truck stop diner to an upmarket restaurant the food is always consistently fantastic.
Even though Bulgaria is a heavily wooded country it is difficult to find a good timber merchant, literally because it will be hidden behind a village down a little track nestled somewhere so unless you know where they are...you’re stuffed.
Anyway I’d stumbled across a stack of heavy timber on my travels to Plovdiv and took a photograph of it for the purpose of being able to show somebody as part of a charades type mission.
Getting back to Gabrovo, we awoke and showered in time for an 8am breakfast.
The owner’s mother who speaks little or no English had been up and cooked us some fresh Banitsa, this was apart from the cheese, ham, fruit, yoghurt and coffee. shortly afterwards her son who is the owner of the guest house turned up to see us and he speaks very good English, we talked for a while and he told us that he had built the guest house himself over a period of nine years.
The quality of the finish is excellent especially in the detail which is where it matters.
I mentioned to him in conversation that I couldn’t find a timber merchant for larger timbers and he replied  “stay here, I take my Son to school we go I show you”
Gabrovo is about an hour and a half from our village and on the northern face of the Balkan mountains, there are two main roads in Bulgaria that run from Sofia to the coast one in the North and one in the South, we will live just off the northern route.
Anyway we met a man in a small wood yard and I bought about 120ft of structural timber for joists and about 100ft of 3/4” floorboards both 5” and 8” wide.
I was in luck because the guy goes to Sofia about once a month and to do this he has to pass our village, we where lucky because he was due to go that week, it was just a case of meeting him at the Shell petrol station and having him follow me to our house.
All in with delivery this cost me only 200 bgn which is about £80.
We returned and Nicky the owner would not take anything for his time so we agreed that next time we are at Gabrovo we will go for a beer, as I keep saying the people are genuinely friendly.
I had spotted a DIY shop close to the woodyard, so this was our first stop and once we had purchased a few supplies and a wheelbarrow we made our way to Mikre.

Mikre our village.
We arrive back in Mikre just in time to meet our hosts in the main square within two minutes of parking up a guy comes over and greets us, his name is Plamen he is the brother of Boryana our host.
The house we are staying in is not far away and when we turn up we are then greeted by his Grandmother, Mother and Father.
We are shown the house and told “My mother has prepared food, come you should eat with us” of course we accept and spend an hour or so chatting outside in the garden before going to our house to start work at about 2pm
We are here now for four nights and for the next two days we don’t really see them
because we are up and on site for about 7am
There is quite a lot to do, we need to clear the land around the barn before we can even think about starting to empty it.
About 7pm on the first day a man turns up at our gate with a axe,  we say hello he comes into the garden and starts to help us clear the nettles, after about 5 or 10 minutes he goes away and then returns with some gardening tools and once more carries on clearing our land with us. We decide then to call him “Rakeman”  but after about half an hour showing us how to use the tools he goes away again and a little later he returns with a tractor and trailer to take away the garden waste, we now call him “Tractorman” he must be about 60yrs old and his name is Nicolai in fact he is the local shepherd  but everyday he visits with his tractor and takes away any waste. He is such a nice guy if you met him you’d love him. We keep trying to pay him but he wont take any money from us, we separate any metals and glass for him as he weighs these in.
We think Bulgaria has a deposit system on glass bottles because when you buy beer at Kaufland there seemed to be a 10stonki charge against all the beer bottles less than half a pence.
Tuesday is our first full day back on site and I inspect the woodwork in the timber floors and as suspected it is quite rotten, so these will have to be replaced.
I knock a good size hole through kitchen floor in the corner and then I proceed to take down the kitchen ceiling. This is made of heavy timbers the the underside of which is covered in bamboo and then rendered.
I remove all the bamboo and this will later be used to start a fire, and then brush all the old render down through the hole in the corner of the kitchen into the basement for removal at a later stage.
Whilst I have been doing this Sally had been busy clearing nettles etc from around the barn and exposing the existing stone base.
Now its time to make a fire we find an old cabinet and place it on its back in the garden it is filled with some dry twigs and bamboo, one match later and we have a fire that will burn for almost four days

kitchen ceiling gone

Old joists exposed

small fire started

The first victim for the fire was the hen house although it was large and heavy it was rotten and no match for the crowbar and sledge hammer but by the time we finished that night again it was gone 8pm.
Wednesday morning and I’m meeting the woodguy at the shell station just before 6-30 so yet again another early start.
We have coffee and decide to knock down the old toilet and “house for pigs” but we only work till about one because the temperature had risen considerably and it’s just too hot to work especially when combined with the heat of our roaring fire.

old outbuildings still standing

hen house and toilet now gone

All outbuildings now gone

middle barn full of rubbish

Nearly there

middle barn empty 

left barn full of waste for the fire and dynamite

left hand barn empty

Site cleared just as the heavens opened

Babba Penkas chickens

TractorMan

Sally Relieved at the end of a busy day

So we took ourselves off for supplies of beer, juice, food and also to buy a big brush.
We come back to site for about 5pm and clear out our first barn this is now a store room again “Tractorman”  turns up and takes away the metal and garden waste.
We have done that much clearing up and burning that it all just blends into a blur, but we haven’t stopped for almost three days
During this time we have met lots of our neighbours  who have just turned up at the gate to say hello and welcome us to the village, they cant quite grasp that we are going home in about a weeks time.
We have taken wooden logs and kindling to the neighbours on our right hand side who are 85yrs old “Nico and Suilanka”, we where given a tour of there house by the old woman who then took out the family album to show us on the covered porch, Sally showed them pics of our family on her tablet and we where given some pickled chillies in jars as a gift.
Babba Penka, lives only a short distance away and has been back and forth with her cart for bits of wood etc for her cooker.
One day both Penka and her friend Vradka turned up and escorted us back to Vradka’s house for coffee.
The house is just fabulous, totally immaculate with gorgeous views and a lovely courtyard and summer kitchen. She is very proud of it and made a point of showing us her Zanussi washing machine and fridge freezer.
After coffee we are taken to Penka’s again it was spotless and tidy, but too our surprise she also keeps about 20 chickens plus baby chickens she has a gorgeous flower garden and a full size veg plot that is a total credit to her.

Thursday was our wedding anniversary but despite this we still worked right through till about 6pm and now all of the barns are cleared.
Hristo and Zdravka our hosts parents came to see how we are getting on, they tell us that it must have been owned rich people because it has lots of rooms and is a big house.

Thats about it for now today we are going to Sofia for a couple of days to see the estate agents and do some paperwork, we also want to find the British Embassy to get some advice on just how to dispose of a large amount of Dynamite that I found in the barn..
There is never a dull day in Bulgaria.