Old things!

When we bought the house last year, each room had piles of what looked like rubbish in them! However, I never throw out my rubbish until I have thought hard about if I can still use it!

I told Charlie to not let the builders get rid of anything and actually when Rich and I visited again in Feb, we had a few days free and decided to go through it to decide what to keep and what they could burn!

The main room for piles of bags and clutter was the bathroom! I sat on the floor and carefully went through it all and soon realised that I had some "treasures".

Bathroom pile!

The first "treasure"

I had a strange feeling like I was been watched as I started to clean and make the things come back into the house! I do hope the lady/ladies that made the cloth in this house years ago do approve of what I am doing!

The wooden crates all had a coat of yacht varnis, dirt cheap and as soon as applied it changes the colour and makes a massive difference.

Loo roll holder in bathroom! 

Coffee table on wheels

The loft had a few surprises of loads of old suitcases and bags and bags of clothes! I will do another blog post about all that later as way too much to add to here!

I made the suitcases into a dog bed and a TV cabinet!

Dirty but still lovely! 

Perfect little bed.

Cleaned and a coat of varnish and new life!

One of the latest finds was hidden right down under the eaves outside the house! Almost missed it really! An old musket, someone told us it could be at least 300 years old, it has certainly seen better days and not sure I can restore this so will leave in its old rusty state!

Musket! maybe 300yrs old! 

Check out the metal!

Books in a bundle and old bottles!

Love this old tin! 

Rich should use this! 

Little plastic toys! 

Now the loft also had over 12 bags of old clothes! That will sort through and post later as way too many to show on here!

From nasty basement to super guest room!

The house has 2 rooms downstairs! quite dark and really nasty and horrible when first viewed! One we have turned into a super workshop and will be a gym for Rich and I when we bring over the equipment from Spain.

The other room had the most horrible chip board on the ceiling hiding the massive beams. A fireplace that was just full of bricks and rubble! Broken window and damp mud walls really made this a no go area!

However, we had family and friends due to stay for 2 weeks in the summer and we needed a spare room. I had bought a tent and we had the camper van but the temperatures had risen alot and at least the room below felt nice and cool! Could we do a basic fixup and get it at least livable for the kids!

Tall order but I like a challenge,so I bought a massive tin of white paint and a bag of plaster to fill the gaps made by the new wiring!

Day one and I started to plaster the walls, Radio 2 in the background keeping me happy until the battery died in the ipad! I decided to finish the wall I was working on so carried on. Rich was snoozing in the lounge above me and I then started to hear the running around of tiny feet!

Thinking it was the tiny dogs I ran upstairs to get them away so he could sleep! Hmmm no dogs in the room! So what was the bloody noise then?

Rich pulling and breaking the horrible wood! 

Back down I go and bang my brush on the ceiling! well I nearly pooed my pants as the noise above me was a tad scary and I was sure the little buggers would jump out of the wood and start to eat me! I could tell by the noise this was not little mice and not only one!

First hole made, what a nasty job! 

So down came the wooden ceiling! this job was nasty and dirty and the ceiling was full of maybe 30 years of walnut shells and rat poo! Yuch dropping all over us! Even worse than stripping chip wall paper and that is saying alot!

Ready for the attack of the rat! 

Well as you can see we both worked super hard and if I say so myself the room is lovely! Ivo the bear even brought me some lovely dishes to put in the little alcove next to the old fireplace.

Dirty horrible fireplace before!

Lovely feature of the room now and the old bread tool in place! 

yuch!

Very swish!

Where to start?

What a massive difference?

Lovely view onto the garden!

Ivo and Ani pot gift! 

Not a bed place to rest your head! 

Mums hearts xxx

Mum here is the perfect place for the hearts you have bought me over the years! Next summer I think we will move down here as its the coolest and quietest place in the whole house.

The People! WOW what a surprise!

I am going to sound like a complete snob now and am so very happy to be proved wrong. It was about a preconceived idea I had about the expats I would find living here in Bulgaria!

Now, as you know we have lived on the Costa Blanca for nearly 17 yrs. Don't get me wrong it has been a great place to be and we have some amazing friends there, that we miss loads.

The one thing we didn't do was to mix with a certain type of expat. We did in the early days get invited to pool parties where the drinking went on into the wee small hours and we did love our local bar in the village to watch from the outer circle so to speak! But the true friends we can count on one hand, the ones who we had many other things in common with, not just cheap vino!

As Bulgaria is even cheaper to live in than Spain, I really did expect this place to be full of that type of person. I did not expect to actually find so many amazing, educated, artistic, friendly, kind, helpful people, you get the idea!

I am going to change the name of some of the people as they are shy! lol But they will know who they are and I hope they find the funny side!

"Demi Moore"lives a stones throw from me the village, she makes me laugh as she says she also does not mix much with outsiders and was quite upset when I said I wanted to encourage my friends to come and buy houses in the village! She is a petrol head like me and is well traveled! Great friends from the off and rushed straight over the first night with free cutlery as we only had plastic from the van.

Demi's super wheels called Brian! 

We love to swop stuff instead of making exchanges of cash, mountain bike for white wine! Sounds good to me. Really glad she is on the doorstop and I hope she is not too pissed off that we are in "her" village! Her partner in crime is cool too and we have already enjoyed some very chilled evenings on our porch! Oh and they have a dog with a silent bark! just my kind of dog!

Ivo the Bear! Charlie introduced us to this gentle giant as someone to come and help us in the garden. He is like a bloody machine and has done all the horrible heavy duty work getting the garden more livable! One day he did tell Rich off though. He had gone food shopping and I was moving really heavy stones around the place, he has given off telling me to put stuff down as I think he now knows I will not listen to him! No English spoken and our Bulgarian is zero, so drawing on paper works wonders!

Ivo "the bear""

I was going to rename Sue Hagan but she is way too cool to care! I have been following Sue on facebook for years now as she is a Cob guru and Natural Home Builder. What I did not know at the time, was that she is also a Bowen Therapist. I had my first treatment this week and although I was not expecting it to do anything to help my neck and back issues, I am happy to report that I do feel better! Watch this space.

Queen Sue

Next person to mention is Blake, now do I change his name and if I did what would I call him! Steve Mcqueen, yeh I think he will like that! He is the "man who can" and was a super star when it came to the rescue of the horses even though we didn't know him from Adam! He is a really lovely bloke with a facebook persona that is nothing like the gentle soul he really is!

Blake the "man that can"

Without meeting Blake, we would not have met the amazing Evelina, she was so funny dragging me around the village to chat to the locals about the internet! At the moment she lives in the UK but cant wait until she comes here very soon!

Last one to give a special mention to is Audrey who is a genuine angel! Living in the next village she is like a little "ever ready bunny"! I am helping her with the media for her really lovely guest houses that she rents out and she is also a Bowen therapist. So happy to call her a friend and looking forward to spending more time getting to know her!

So, what is the point of this thread,apart from saying a massive thank you to the people that have a special mention!

The point is I don't think, no I know, I have never lived anywhere with such a concentration of interesting people. One of them said you had to be a little mad to come to Bulgaria, that was Barb, who if I didn't have a mum I would ask her to adopt me!

So many creative souls all in one place is a super nice surprise. I am thinking it has something to do with the country itself and why we are here, not because its super cheap and has great weather but because it is a country that to me feels like it is breathing! Sounds daft but who cares! Come and visit us and see what you think!!!!

So many problems with the 3/4 legged animals!

We do love living here and I am sure all the animals do too! BUT we have had a few dramas and my vet Momchil is certainly kept busy since we arrived!

First drama was Luna my mare who I adore above all the others, which I know is stupid but she really is a very special girl!

The journey from France to here did not go to plan and the transport people let us down and sent none horse people. We did actually try to cancel, but then get told they had left already (which we then found out was a lie!) They did send one guy that was so scared of horses he refused to get out of the car! Once both her and Baby had been put onto the trailer we know that they did not come out again for 48hrs and had no stops! This means that they more or less walked and stood in horrible conditions and on terrible roads for way too long! Weight loss is normal but I think the whole thing scared Luna and she stayed stressed way after the journey had stopped!

We then had to launch a rescue mission to get them back to me as the transport people demanded more money than agreed and I sent some heavies down with the money I believed to be the correct amount and Luna was loaded again!

Once at my friend Kates house, she then, we have no idea what on, cut a large gash in her bum! Momchil (Vet) to the rescue for the first time and stitches put in! Over to box rest and dont ask how but she then cut her knee! Poor horse in the wars and stuck at Kates house as we cant load her again to get her to my house!

The Unicorn looking skinny and sad!

After a few weeks with Kate looking after her brilliantly we walked her to my house. We thought that was the last of the drama and all scars started to heal nicely until last Saturday! She was put in the large field as we had hay come and she must have jumped into a hole or over a log and she has torn her suspensory ligament on her front leg! Momchil again with a scan machine to check her over and put her on rest for 6 months!

All I want is to have my little girl healthy and go ride with her through the fields but that is not going to happen yet!

Ok dog drama! Kate was about to look after all dogs whilst I head to Spain for a week, bless her she came around and Oreo got over excited and fell through the steps onto the concrete underneath! Momchil visit at his home and he thinks its ok as she is running around like a loony apart from holding it in the air! Home we go and the next day it looks swollen so we head back again, xray machine away for repair so he looks again and thinks maybe she does have a problem so asked Kate to bring her back in a few days!

I will get a photo of the xray as its awesome (well not really for her) but she has a clean break through both bones! He spends hrs doing an op on her tiny little leg and inserts a pin! Strong pin he told me! Well I treated her like it was all normal and she was allowed some time to go and play with the big dogs and you guessed it she broke the pin! He has no idea how as its super tough! But another vet visit and next Tuesday she heads under the knife again to try and remove the broken pin and do something else instead!

Damage after op and broken pin!

Pig next, while we are away, as Kate finds her hiding behind a box shivering and in pain! Vet visit, another xray, no brake but in pain and pees all over everyone! She is healing well and just been a bit slower. Maybe a larger dog playing too rough!

Then of course we have little Button the wonder dog with 3 legs! Jenny my best friend in Spain noticed that when she ran she lifted up her back leg on the opposite side from the missing one! I had someone say it was due to the weight shift and that she did it so she didnt fall over! I wanted this to be true but guessed otherwise. So now we are spending soooo much time at the vets I thought it best to have an xray and check!

Well the poor little baby has her knee caps in the wrong place! I will also get the xray as how she walks at the moment is a wonder, she is certainly not slow! Button goes in for surgery on Tuesday with Oreo so keep your fingers crossed all is well!

sleeping after her swim in the river today and long walk! 

The dog number also grew this week and I blame Kate for this one as she picked up a dog in the middle of nowhere, probably dumped as she is quite old and is super skinny and a few issues with back legs as she is an Alsatian! I will talk about Emma the lady who then had her spayed and looked after her for a week, She needs funding for the work she does out here and I need to see if she has a website! the link is her facebook for the neutering!

We cant believe how well she has settled in and loves all the others, sleeps at my feet and is super soft and gentle. Momchil thinks she is maybe 10 but when possibly a street dog that eats rubbish you cant tell!

We have called her Ali (the Alsatian)

Ali

To end on a happy note! The 3 other horses have found the tiny barn and spend all day hiding inside from the heat and the flies! its like the smallest space ever but I guess they love it!

Yes Dooley is hiding at the back! 

Rich is out there as I type building new steps into the new outdoor dining room! He is super brilliant with timber, watch this space for more photos soon.....

Moved in & real home very quickly!

This week was mostly shopping at our B&Q, credit card took a massive hammering, but when you change over into pounds for the Leva it is always a shock at how low the prices are. Also at this stage we didn't have the stupid vote which made the rate drop through the floor! Don't get me started on that!

We bought the whole bathroom fittings and kitchen for under £300! crazy!

We lived with 2 young builders for the first week, they did the final plastering in the kitchen and fitted the bathroom fittings and then moved onto the floor which we bought from the local timber yard! I want a modern look in this house mixed in with the really old style! Not sure if I will manage it and did tell a few people that this house would be minimalist, hmm can I do that?

One very happy Rich that he is building by proxy as he calls it!

Floor down, toilet fitted and all plaster on the walls, so in we move and spend our first night sleeping on the floor on the new mattress we bought!

Within a few days we meet some local Brits (didn't know we had so many) from the village and found a great chica called Jane, she will hate having a mention in this blog, but tough shit babes you are a great find! Kate was a star and supplied hay for the boys and Baby was ridden over by Rich and her, so nearly got my herd back together. Luna has cut her bum on something, so she will have to stay at Kate's for a bit longer until she heals! Kate plays nurse and keeps her as still as she can as we don't want her stitches to come undone!

The builders did a great job and even though I get the impression most people thought I was a complete idiot for just handing money over to Charlie, I knew it was the right thing and trusted him 100%!

A few things we will finish when we get the time, however 95% of what the team did for the small amount we paid is quite amazing. Rich keeps going on about all this hard work been done by someone else, makes such a nice change after 4 years of very hands on in Spain! Building work over here is certainly more stress free!

Lounge on day one! 

Lounge today! 

Old bathroom with rubbish and horrible window

Wet room floor, rain water shower and nice new window! 

Look mum a real loo, no more bucket with sawdust!

See the cooker and fridge had a place and old window was horrible!

Adore my new kitchen, window gone and fridge in place! 

My kitchen has electric, I mean real electric, not solar power! I have a coffee machine, a microwave, a bread machine, a juicer, a fryer, a grill and on and on, do you get the idea and you have no idea how bloody happy using each device makes me! Living off grid is all well and good but its another thing to have it so easy now!

Ms Willet it is not a fancy as yours, for now but I get excited each morning when I make my expresso and use the frothy milk bit on the side!

I had planned on the house been modern and no clutter, however I have found so many amazing items and they will be in the next post that I had to change my ideas for the decor!

The long drive over.....

We had driven to the UK 2 weeks before we made the move over to BG. On the way we had arranged to drive the mares Luna and Baby and leave them in France to be collected by a Bulgarian Team. That in itself would make a blog entry, but in the end the girls arrived and not too many issues apart from very, very tired!

Not like me at all but I decided to not make a date to leave by! This seemed to remove any stress and we would leave when we had done everything at The Orange House that we needed to! Rich constantly saying "when we leaving" bless him he just wanted to get on the road.

3,559 km or 2200 miles! 7 countries! 

Now, we normally row like cat and dog before a long trip, but this time no drama at all, I do think the lack of date helped! Rich was very busy getting the horse box ready and I was busy packing as much as I could into the campervan! It is like a bloody tardis and the more bags I bring out the more they disappear and the more I can fit in!

My home from home becomes a Tardis!

Rich also fitted 2 large roof boxes on the new roof rack we found at a bargain price in the UK. Great place to put the large saddles that we need to move over! Rich moaning about me taking coat hangers, but you cant do without them and they are light and I have 1000s so in they go!

The start of June rolls around and looks like we are ready to set off, we decided on the Sat afternoon when the heat has gone from the day, we know Dooley will be a star but not so sure about Indio. Rich had been doing work with him, but on the day you know they can do whatever they decide!

He WAS a tit as we expected, he broke a head collar and Rich hurt his hands when the rope ran through too quick! I passed the lunge line behind his arse once we caught him again and this time in he went!

OK, back up to the house with the jeep and we are all ready to leave! NO we are not the bloody van would not start. Rich back up the hill, unlock house, get the key to the jeep, drive the jeep back down the hill, jump start the van and start all over again! Van starts easy and after a false beginning, we leave the Eco House.

And we are off! NOT!

Strange moment and I have massive doubts that we are not doing the right thing! Normally my gut just makes me do things without any worries. This time feels different and I am really surprised at my thought! I keep most of that hidden, but I do feel something!

I am the first to start and the van does feel very bouncy, boys moving around the back and the roof boxes must make a difference, once on the motorway it settles down and my sick feeling has gone slightly! I drive for 5 hours after stopping after the first hour just to check the boys, we decided to take the motorway the whole way there, more expense we know but worth it when the small roads would be a pain in the arse and make the journey way too slow! As I pull over I realise I am in the same spot we stopped when taking the girls to France. We check the boys, give them water, open the door for fresh air and fill up the hay nets. We then get our heads down for some sleep.

5 am wake up and all is good and quiet in the back, hay gone so boys are eating and they both drink. Trying to get 6 dogs to pee not easy, but after a few running under the van we manage!

My turn to drive again and Rich stays asleep whilst I get 4 hours under our belts! I like the morning sessions and am happy listening to Radio 2 on the ipad using free roaming! This will stop when we leave Spain and France so I downloaded hours of podcasts to keep us busy when we leave the free zones!

Lunch time in France now and time to do the big afternoon stop and we talk about letting the boys out. Slight concern as Indio could be a tit reloading and this time we would have an audience! We find a nice service area with just picnic tables and decide to try it as the boys do need to get out!

Easy out and we rig up a rope system so they can move around, eat grass and lie down if they like, which they do!

Happy boys in France munching grass!

We stay around 3 hours and when heat gone again we set off to try to get out of France and into Italy.

I put two headcollers on Indio this time and we tie one lead line to the outside of the van, so if he backs out he cant go too far! This worked perfectly as he did back out, Rich did let go, but he stood still very fast! Second time hardly any pressure on his bum with my lead rope and in he popped, big relief!

Had we known how bad the road would be getting into Italy we really would have stopped whilst in France, however we didnt and what a mistake! The roads are like bloody race tracks and it was a complete nightmare. Rich was tired and we had to travel maybe 2 hrs along the most horrendous 2 lane motorway, tunnels, very narrow, everyone driving like nutters and each service station perched on a hillside so no way we could stop! Poor boys in the back!

Eventually the land opens out and we find a quiet service station and stop, water the boys and fill nets again and this time crash out!

5am. Me up early again and Rich stays sleeping, this becomes the pattern for the whole trip and worked well. Slight headache and the one and only fallout as I scream at him that I am leaving him at the service station, Coffee at 10am and breakfast and we are talking again! We are nearly through Italy and head into a new country for us both as we cross the border into Slovenia great motorways lovely skies and we stop when it gets hot and the boys are unloaded again!

Rich watching a movie whilst boys munch and I sleep! 

Off we head when it cools down and we head over another border into Hungary which has the straightest motorways ever and super quiet! The whole podcast thing goes well, although Rich moans abit when I want to listen to Womens Hour! The only other drama is when we try again to find a place to sleep on the last night before we arrive at Bucharest. Rich says it is the worst driving he has ever done in his whole life!

We drive through this very long windy valley, and I have to agree is was very dangerous. The truck drivers seem to have a death wish and they over take on blind bends at high speed and beep their horns and flash their lights at you, as if they expect you to just stop and let them get past! I offer to drive but I am rubbish at night and am glad when he says no he can manage! He did amazing actually and I could see he was scared! Never again will be come that route at night, and boy are we happy when we leave the valley and find a service station near Bucharest. Last night in the van!

The following morning up early again, everyone seems ok, horses now look a little fed up and Indio has a sore on his bum, we take a cushion from the van and tape it to the back door so he can rest his bum, we think he is doing that to stop him moving around too much. Not long now guys!

Bucharest ring road is exciting and we then get the first major border issue as the border is a bridge over the Danube and it is single file, its 10 am but still too much traffic. On the bridge we see other cars overtaking and after 20 mins Rich shouts " go, go" what the heck, so I do go and overtake the trucks, they do leave spaces for the cars and we are lucky that one guys saw the horse box and also let me get back in! It takes an hour in total and I suppose its not that bad!

Into Bulgaria after Rich has to run back over the border to take some cash out as we don't have any cash to pay the taxes on the bridge! Credit card has paid for the whole trip so far!

Afternoon and we arrive at final destination our new home! Parked under the barn and relax!

And stop driving!!!!!!

Spring Visit and change of life plan!

I really wanted to show Jenny my best friend what all the fuss was about, and I needed to check the jobs that we had left Charlie with during my last visit with Rich in February!

We choose to go at the end of March and we booked a coach from Sofia to VT and Charlie would pick us up in the car that we had said we would buy from him! Great seven seater which will be useful when people come go visit!

I also allowed Jen to arrange all the accommodation so we had an exciting week ahead of us!

Coach journey went well, we had a bit of trouble getting to the city coach station as we got on the wrong bus, however saying loudly "does anyone speak English" worked well and 3 ladies came forward and even took us off the bus and stood us in the right place for another bus and told us which number we needed! Friendly and helpful, I really do love the Bulgarians!

Charlie was waiting as we arrived and we heading into VT town and found our first place to stay which is Hostel Mostel! Here is a link as this place is great and amazing value!

We headed to the house but stopped to buy some spray cans so that we can make some drawings on the walls to help to explain to Charlie what we want the builders to do!

Shower, sink and new window!

New layout and the kitchen decided on! 

Charlie in action in the basement room.

We can see the front of the house for the first time as the jungle has gone!

Seeing the house at this time of year kicks into action the changing moment in our life! I said to Jenny that I wanted this to be my main home and not Spain, possibly not what she wants to hear but I also want to go with my gut. What will Rich say though, lets see when I get home!

We have a road trip over to Plovdiv which is over the mountains in the South of BG. We stop off at an old momument called Buzludzha, it was built in the 80's by the communist party, it now lies falling apart! We battled with the remaining snow to walk to the high point and it was certainly worth the visit! Loved it!

Jen in the snow in March!

Ceiling now!

Ceiling before!

Out walk way before!

Walk way now, such a shame but should be left just like this!

Plovdiv is a great city/town to head over and visit, the main high street could be anywhere in Europe with all the same shops, yet the old town is like stepping back in time and the street art could be a whole blog in itself!

Such great street art! 

Roman stuff all over town! 

Heading back to VT Jen and I spent one night spoiling ourselves in a posh hotel that Rich and I like called the The Studio, follow link to see how nice it is. We had bought tea in a box from the supermarket and settled down for the night! I then saw a flash of green light through the curtains, I shouted "Jen, move quick!" she jumped up without asking why, grabbed her camera and rushed up to the roof of the hotel to take photos and enjoy the light show over on the castle. This only happens every now and again so I guess as Jen was with me out luck was in!

Amazing light show on the castle ruins! Jen luck as I call it!

Jen finds a chair that just fits her long legs!

Looking out across my new town! 

Last day in Sofia before we fly home, a great trip but crap photo! lol

We have a stupid early flight back to Alicante and as I did not sleep too well the night before I arrive with a terrible migraine. We drive home and I head straight to bed and sleep. Later that afternoon I wake and Rich comes to check I am ok. I turn to him and without any warning I say to him "how would you feel if we made BG the base and moved over there lock stock and barrel?".

In normal Rich style he looks at me and without giving it any thought he says "yeh, cool why not!" Now that is my amazing, crazy, husband who I love more than anything, just going with the flow!