Bulgaria 11: Our house :)

I do apologise for the poor camera work and sound. I will get better! Sound is okay with my headphones on, terrible without!

A walk through our little house and thinking “What do we need to do next?” #bulgariavlog #propertyinbulgaria # movingtobulgaria #bulgariahomestead #renovation #diy #bulgarianvillagelife

Hello uh as promised I have decided to put together the couple of videos of my house that I took with my new camcorder uh I had no idea what I was doing the sound quality was shocking I think I’ve tried to fix that to a point where you

Can actually hear it um and and for some reason I seem to have filmed everything on Extreme close up which I had no idea I was doing so I’m going to put together one of them which is the inside and outside of the house the building itself

Um and go through what needs to be done with it um my husband says talk less show them more things they won’t turn off as quick which I get because I’m really annoying but also um I think probably I need to add some explanations if anybody’s interested enough to to

Look so I’ll show you the inside of my house on extreme closeup it’s like this um and um then I’ll talk about it afterwards how’s that sound sound like a deal okay let’s go right there we go I think we’re recording not too sure about the sound

Quality on this but I can always learn to do a voice over over okay inside of the house first so this is like our Bulgarian porch it zoom out no it zooms in uh yeah it’s uh it’s just that little bit too small um I mean I sit in here at this

Little table that I renovated if if you haven’t got 15 of these tables in your barn you’re not even a Bulgarian um and I sit in here in the winter it’s a really nice little Sun trp but it uh isn’t big enough for a couch or anything

Like that so uh one day the dream is to have it extended a little bit over here um and then it’ll be big enough to sit in obviously you know if we don’t extend it we’re going to have to do something with it CU it’s all single glazing and

Steel and stuff um and from there we’ve got the kitchen and it’s brand new so it was put in in 2022 it’s a practica kitchen just came you know standard units but uh it’s uh it’s all right it’s kitchen does a job it’s got uh two fridges uh normal fridge

And Chris’s little beer fridge that he bought last year and then the bathroom is off the kitchen so um here we go it’s uh again all brand new nicely tiled nice shower unit uh sink blue um so that’s that yeah so um I think I assume the kitchen and the

Bathroom go together because they you know it’s easy to plumm it that way then when this was a little Bulgarian house it was two rooms uh but the people who bought it before us they had that knock through into one through room um My Little petka that’s my preg joy and I do

Use that in the winter I cook on it and use the oven on it um another one of these fabulous tables uh and yeah there’s a few bits I want to do in here I painted all the windows the first year we were here we do love these double glazed windows it’s

Like the Gap in between in between the two glasses and they are really effective um if we did have double glazing put in I think the aim is to just replace the actual windows keep the Deep frames cuz they’re lovely um but we we might just try and restore them they

Need some work on the outside but they’re so nice and then you’ve got your other petka space here so if we wanted to we could put one there but we really don’t need it so in here we’ve got the AC unit as well which doubles up as

Heated so we can take our choice if we want to um have a petka or just heat the room super quick with uh with the AC so yeah that’s nice and my door I just opened I want to move this couch back over to where the TV is uh

And put my unit which I’ll show you in a minute in this bit so we go through then and we’ve got a corridor this is unrenovated I’ll show you this in a moment beautiful brand new fuse box all been rewired for us um um and I call

This the back door because it’s where the bedrooms are therefore it must be the back door this is our spare bedroom uh which at the moment is just full of stuff we got some stuff moved at the beginning of the year someone have some space in a van uh chap called da

Another Davey lives near us so this is this hasn’t been touched apart from the wiring um this stuff is not wallpaper it’s like um some kind of roller roll of the pattern on with which is cute um so I haven’t done anything with this one back door there as I call it leads

Out onto the vines probably needs replacing because it’s not in the best condition um again you know I like the old stuff I like trying to keep it um this is our bedroom uh which is kind of like halfway to being packed up ready to roll um I’ve done the door painted the

Door here but not painted the windows yet and again they’re these double ones that one’s open which probably explains why it’s a bit cold in here um they’re not they’re not the most efficient and this if I just go backwards this is my unit right Chris hates this thing and

You can find them in most Bulgarian houses and people enjoy up cycling them and that’s exactly what I’m going to do um but uh he he said if he had any choice he would take it outside and smash it up for kindling but I love it I

Think it’s got real character and what I’m going to do is I’m going to paint it I’m going to move it into the front room I’m going to paint it dark gray and then paint the drawers like a shock in pink and somebody’s already painted the

Inside of it blue which is doing me a favor because that’s a great color and you’ve got other people’s stuff in here which I absolutely love so I think this is a milk Dipper and some old glasses and an old tea set and then on this side

There’s the rest of that te- set that’s broken unfortunately and this little set like this this pot Pottery is super popular in Bulgaria everybody’s got it um and and look we’ve got a little set of like little drinking cups um I assume it’s a rakia set it’s just gorgeous so

I’m thinking if I take the glass out clean it all up inside display these beautiful bits of other people’s stuff Chris calls it t I say it’s got character and then just use the rest of it because there’s couple of shelves in there that could be put on and then

There’s all this space down here and use it as a bookcase um because all my books are currently in bags and the rest of the furnish is just horrible mod stuff from em design because you know we needed something to sleep on and somewhere to put our clothes

Uh yeah so that’s that it’s only a small house but we’re only you know just the two of us we don’t need any more than that and then this room hasn’t been touched so this is what the whole place must have looked like uh before it got renovated so mud floor stone

Walls and this ceiling now I like this room and it’s not big enough to be a bedroom it’s just not wide enough um and I was thinking it could be like a seller a store room because you know I’ll make a lot of jam and Chutney and things like that or just

To keep me out of Chris’s way yes it needs some replastering it’s not in any danger of falling down but it does need redoing um I could put my like I could put a desk and a chair in here and and I could just use it as an office to do my

Exam marking uh because there’s a petka hole just there so uh in theory I could put a little heater in here a smaller one and I could just sit here snug as a bug and do my work and I I really like it obviously the cracks need

Fixing I I think this is quite sweet this kind of cracking thing remind me Doctor Who Um this cracking th across the wall here I I don’t mind it I wouldn’t mind keeping it and it will be quite hard to plaster over um and look how thick the window sills are

You can see the thickness of these old houses it’s just absolutely glorious um but yeah there’s a lot of cracks in this room they’re not lifethreatening but uh they do need even with and that’s the inside of the house that’s it that is it that is our home um and uh so we’ve

Still got loads and loads excuse me I’m talking to a BL W loads to do you know the spare bedroom needs fix in the inter doors and everything all need painting may be replacing when it comes to things like this which you know this isn’t character this is just an old plywood

Door um we need light fittings we haven’t got any light fittings yet we just got bare bulbs um but yeah we’ve made a start and these things you find treasure troves in Bulgarian houses all these blankets and throwovers I found in the garage last year gave them a bloody good wash and I

Used them I cover my couches with them at various times a year just not done it this week cuz uh Christmas ear and got sat down straight away so yeah I think if I move this couch where the Telly is the Telly can go over there um and then I’ve got that

Space there next to the dining table where I can put my beautiful beautiful bookcase once I’ve restored it that’s it that’s all I have yes I’ve just watched that back and uh frankly I’m so sorry for the quality of the uh recording I’m just not very good

At it I’ll I’ll learn I’m sure and I’ll get to grips with things like fast forwarding scratch my head again um fast forward in the boring bits and such like so yeah we bought the house in 2022 and I know we’re not like a lot of people on YouTube who bought something

Completely derel that needed totally Reen uh renovate him but you know there is still work to do on it so we paid just under 13,000 in English pounds for it which I don’t think is bad at all given that um the majority of the the big work

Had been done as in the kitchen was in uh the bathroom was in um and uh you know it had all been the electric had been done there was a new septic pit had been dug uh all the plumbing had been updated um and some of

The walls have been renovated so we paid for that including we bought tiling for uh the corridor and the two back bedrooms um and we we paid Stefan the local plaster Tyler chap who’s very very good to uh to do that um so when we arrived in 2022 it was August and we

Were just there for like two weeks and uh it was in the 30s every single day and we we were we were like painting and decorating and sanding down Windows and frankly it was an absolutely insane thing to do the times we’ve been there since then I’ve either been on my own

And you know I am very very quick to go oh my um this work is beyond me I I will go for a day out instead um or we’ve been at Easter when we got quite a lot done but as soon as the Sun’s shining

And it’s not too hot we tend to dive outside so inside jobs are things that we still need to do um the petka was really important to us and we you know as soon as I saw that one with the oven and the hot plate on the top I thought

Yeah I know that’s the one that Chris is going to want Davey took me to Ley to buy that to choose one and actually having two methods of heat and uh Power is really important the power doesn’t go out very often in our village we we it’s a very well-maintained Village but it

Can go out especially after a big storm um and having the petka is invaluable if that happens because a we’re not going to freeze to death we can sleep in there if we need to if the power’s out for a while and B we’ve got somewhere we can

Cook um but by the same token we’ve also got the two AC units we’ve got one in the front room and one in our bedroom which means that if we don’t want to you know get a fire going and keep it going all day we just need a quick blast of

Heat we can use the AC to do that so I think I think having the best of the modern and the traditional is a really good idea there um and and you know just always keep a few bottles of water around because on if your water goes off you really are

Stuffed um so the smallest room that little spare room with the Doctor Who style cracking time in it that that’s the biggest thing that we’ve still got to do because that’s completely unrenovated but me being me I think it’s got a certain charm to it um and I I

Want it renovating minimally rather than completely modernizing and I think we’ve tried to keep um some of the traditional aspects of the house even though it is modernized to a big extent and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with living in a modern house with modern amenities

To be honest um you know you don’t have to live like it’s the early 20th century just cuz you bought a house in Bulgaria area um mostly apart from that we uh we just need to do a bit of decorating and such like um we we found some treasure

But we did get the house the house had been largely cleared by the previous owners and we got the last bit of clearing stuff out so we didn’t get enough treasure now for me I would have been um quite happy to spend hours sifting through the piles of stuff that

Was still there but Chris really wanted some where he was like I just want to go on holiday darling I don’t want to spend my time you know trolling through someone else’s junk um trolling through someone else’s junk is my idea of a really good time and I had to fight to

Keep that unit he he wanted that junk in as well but I think I think it’s beautiful I think it’s fabulous and I think it’ll make a really quirky little book um bookshelf um we found those um rugs and some quilts and and covers and things like that which I love

Um all the tables there are so many tables in the average Bulgarian house and and B um and when we bought the house and we said to Davey yeah just clear it just save these few bits and Bobs I got home and about three weeks later I messaged Davey and said Davey I

Didn’t tell you to save the coat stand uh and he laughed and he said oh I knew you’d want it uh I’ve kept it for you and we do hang our coats and bags on it so it’s really useful so yeah I think those are jobs that we’ll do a bit at a

Time time you know our instinct is to try and do it all at once but it’s not going to work you’ve got to take time with it and you’ve got to accept that if if it’s 37 degrees outside maybe you should just hunker down um I don’t put

The TV on very often but that would be a good occasion to do so or just float around in a giant paddling pull don’t do what we did the first year and try and work really hard so the inside of the house is fairly straightforward the outside does uh need

Some more actual tension in terms of making sure that it’s sound and it stays sound so I’ll show you the outside now oh it actually started first time that time that makes a nice change so if we come outside around the house I don’t

Know what this is um in my brain says it wants to be somewhere where one puts a goat uh I very much dare it is my well one puts a goat but I have visions of like you know you can lift this bit you could Once Upon Time It’s bit broken

Now Goats Head through it uh we’ve got the outside sink yesterday we were at Cen and Susan and they’ve used their outside sink as a gigantic planter which is a lovely idea but we do actually use ours as a sink all the time so it’s not

Going to work out for us um and then you’ve got our grape Vines here we do have rather a lot of grapes but we like that um still got seed potatoes I’ve got to put in and yeah the outside so like I said we really like these windows we love the

Double skinned like double glazed Bulgarian windows but you can see they’re absolutely knackered so I mean the wood is still fairly solid it’s not got damp or wood rot or anything like that but to fix it I think it’s a bigger job than Chris imagines CU

All that paint is going to have to be scraped off and some some of it stuck quite fast um and then it’s going to need to be you know treated primed undercoated and replaced uh and the same this one where Davey helped us put a fly screen on a

Couple of them there some of we were here just so we could open them in the in the night time and get some air through the house um but yeah it needs rendering and it needs painting um some of the renders been done but there still

Bits that need doing it’s just like an endless list of jobs so up there the Sops are fairly sound most part of the house but they definitely need replace in there these holes in the wall in the walls to go up to the loft they’re like

A natural cooling system so they get the air through in the summer but they are supposed to have Plass or P specs in them so you can close them in the winter to keep your insulation in and hours just don’t have that um so yeah that

That window like that um Fly screen is from the previous occupants absolutely boogered um and that’s uh that’s the hallway and then you’ve got I broke the boot scraper yesterday scraping my boots um as you come around here again the windows are knackered the door I decided

To learn to sand a couple of years ago it didn’t go well uh I lost my temper Chris could hear me having a hissy fit from like 2,000 miles away um but look the house was built in 1941 isn’t that lovely it’s priet um and we have got nice modern

Security lights outside as well which is good uh then again here you can see where it’s been patched up here um you got you know you’re not going to get a palace few grand are you that’s our bedroom AC unit in the bedroom as well um and a telegraph Pole right in the

Middle of where I want my uh my veg Garden so yeah the outside of the house still needs a bit of work still needs some stuff do into it that’s the spare bedroom I’ve just shown you um and that’s the old electric unit you know the old electric meter that’s been taken

Out um and as always there was Lads of bricks and things and slates hanging around but you know that that bit needs rendering and fixing um where the bathroom is but you know it’s it’s not gone anywhere since 1941 this house it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon we did

Get new chimneys all plastered and put on and new cows put on so the roof is sound and you know people say to you you need a good roof always get your roof done first so yeah that’s the house loads of jobs to do loads of stuff still to do render in

Painting uh Plastering flooring in that spare bedroom um it doesn’t really interest me that much because I prefer the Great Outdoors but their jobs for autumn and winter when it’s too cold to be out here and then uh I’ll get back to where I started I’ll take you from my plans for

The garden and show you Chris’s Workshop I’m believeing when we come back in July this will all be so green and’ll be grapes everywhere this is just the start of the year it’s nice and peaceful at the moment because Chris has gone to PL with George to replace uh replace a tire

On the higher car trying to work out how on Earth I’m supposed to look like a human being instead of John Major with this camera um yeah so I think I’ll leave the workshop and the garden till next week cuz it’ll give me something to keep my

Sunday busy um so you can probably see the outside it needs more care because you know outsides of buildings need more maintenance um there are some cracks uh there’s one that I really notic in that little tiny spare bedroom um or spare room there’s a crack running right down

From the window sill and you can see it outside as well that it’s not going to fall down the house is not you know going to suddenly collapse because of a few cracks like that but it is something you always need to be aware of um

Bulgaria is on um AA a fault line uh for earthquakes um and they don’t often do massive damage but I think in the 1970s there was one that brought a few apartment blocks down in fisht so you know the house will have felt those I know last I think it was last February

February 23 um I was there and uh isn’t it weird what stupid things you do I was in the kitchen and I thought why is the porch shaking um and I went out to the porch and this this gigantic dog we call him mournful dog um I’ve not

Seen him this year uh he he was in my garden and this totally illogical part of my brain went oh the porch is shaking cuz mournful dog is in the garden and a few minutes later I thought dogs don’t make porches Shake anyway I happened to log into trusty Facebook and half the

Bulgaria was going did everyone else feel that um but I was probably the only person in the village who I spoke to actually felt it but um you know they do happen um obviously the house it needs there’s some plaster it needs doing this it needs to be rendered and we need to

Paint it I’m thinking if we paint it a nice shiny white with GRE Bulgarian green Windows it’ll look great with the windows it’s very much finding a compromise I think because we we do like I said in the first video we do really love the oldfashioned bulgar and double

Glazing but you can see from those windows you know the on the inside they really just needed a quick sand down and repainting on the outside there’s a lot to do if we want to save them um and I did try sanding down the door last year and it was an

Absolute disaster it so you know there’s layers and layers of paint going about 60 years on there so I know Chris loves them I love them too um but if we can’t get them back to the wood because oh obviously some of the paint’s completely

Off but some is is glued fast um we might look at the kind of half and half CU When you have double glazing put in in Bulgaria they just rip your windows out slam the double glazing in um and then they just squirt that horrible fill

In foam around it and it looks bloody awful but you can have them done so that you keep the frame of your window um inside and out and you just have the actual window itself put in uh and they all do come with fly screen uh which is

Great cuz fly screen is absolutely essential you are not going to get to open your windows between April and October without it because you’re going to get bitten to death um you can see we’ve got trees growing in really random places like there is literally a tree um

Invading the back doorstep which is going to have to come down um and we still need to smooth all those paths out James and Tina have been treating them with weed killer so we can actually see them these days but they they still probably need smoothing out so that

We’re not walking wonky all the time um the porch you could probably see from the outside you know we just uh Nikki botch job um just slap some paint on it instead of actually dealing with the fact it was peeling same with the the front Gates Magda came by the other day

And um she said you know she was telling us um what a good job we’ve done on the fence and she just said yeah paint paint your gate next um which I think is a wise idea cuz it it makes it look like somebody owns it and I I don’t see any

Point in replacing them we can just paint them uh but we need to sand them down first same with the outdoor sink same with the posts of the uh grape Vines uh all sorts of things just need sanding down and paintting um and I did

Say in the video my roof is sound so that is something you know I used to watch this guy called VES uh he has a an estate agents called ideal homes I think in VT and he always used to say good roof good roof um and the the roof is

Really important so in the first year we were there we noticed the chimneys were wonky and we we said to Davey have a look at those he went oh God yeah um and we got Stefan round and you know he’s he’s absolutely beautiful the way he’s plastered them over and put the new

Cowls on them so now they’re really really secure so yeah I mean there’s a lot more to do outside than inside um I’ll show you my garden again I’m so proud I love my garden so much um I’ll show you my garden again next week and

What we’re planning to do with that um I hope you weren’t too bored I’m going to stick at the end of this if I can every single time I’ve shut this video off and and sworn profusely um and a photo just to prove that I don’t look like John

Major it’s just the video camera but in the meantime enjoy your Sunday have a great week um peace out hello um as promised I have um decided to oh it okay this is attempt number three speaking to this camera sometimes makes me feel like such a fool um I have put

Together why do I always scratch my head as soon as I start you know I bloody hate this video camera I hate it honestly I take a selfie I’m like yeah looking all right turn the video camera on it’s like hi I’m your paes we we we’d

Really like to make op prence felt uh I don’t know I don’t know why these things happen anyway like I say I am sorry for the quality of the of the uh camera work I think you know I’m just not very good at this uh I’m going to spend this next

Few weeks when my ankle’s healed from its uh overwork in Bulgaria just wandering around Baku with a video camera working out how to do it best and working out how to use this editing software that I found online and all the rest of it um but yeah so that’s our

House like I’ve said before it’s what sniff cough B yeah so I think I’ll leave the workshop and the um oh why don’t you just um go like this with the camera nickola