Easter

Well we are having Easter this weekend in Bulgaria. Sally went into Veliko Tarnovo to visit our good friend Veselina, who sugested that Sally might like to help paint some eggs! This is a Bulgarian custom we came accross last year, you boil eggs and whilst they are still hot you paint them. They dry and look lovely. Over the Easter weekend you may get visitors, ie. your neighbours and friends, they also bring eggs, the idea is to hold yours above the visitors and bash them together, the one that is still whole is the winner, the other egg gets eaten!
You must watch out for the pratical jokers though, some of the eggs are wooden, or worse still, raw!
Sally has made 12 eggs, so keep an eye on my diary page to see if we get any visitors.

Bulgarian Builders

I had a question asked me today, could I recommend a builder? The simple answer is no! mainly because if I recommend someone and they mess up, the person comes back and says, well you said they were good.
I would say the way forward is to select a few builders and ask them to give you a quote, ask to see some of thier work at other properties, speak to the owners to see if they were satisfied. Get a contract signed between you and the builder and have it checked and signed by a notary.
Do what you would have done in the UK. Look around and check, ask other people who you know, maybe they have heard about the company you are considering.
Be aware, some companies say they are English builders, then employ Bulgarian labour! I am not saying Bulgarian builders are bad, but they do not know the kind of standards we are used to.
Be very watchful of your chosen builders, if your not here in Bulgaria, get a project manager to keep them on track.
I hope this saves some other people the heartache we and others like us have suffered.

Renovated Properties

Here in Bulgaria, many estate agents offer thier properties as "renovated", please be aware that this often means that it has been emptied and painted white inside and out. If you purchase this kind of house, you will still need to install kitchen units, a bathroom suite, new windows and maybe internal stairs.
Read the details very carefully as often downstairs rooms are often described as bedrooms, when we from the UK, would use the downstairs rooms as a lounge and maybe a dining room. Unless the details state there is a particular item there, assume that there is not. Always ask before you go to visit.
Traditionally Bulgarians use an outside kitchen during the summer, long hot days and evenings encourage you to eat outside, maybe under your own grape vines, and only sleep inside at night. During the cold winter months, it is common that only one room would be used for cooking, eating, watching TV, and sleeping. This is because it is expensive for the people to heat the whole house.
If the details say three rooms upstairs, there is usually enough room to put a set of internal stairs up into the hallway. The rooms will be two bedrooms and a small one suitable for a shower room, it may be possible to have a bath.
Most British people have a wood burner installed, attached to radiators around the house, so you burn wood which costs 40 Leva per cubic metre, the avarage usage for a winter is about 12 - 15 cubic metres. Also coal brickettes are good to burn, they cost 5 Leva per 20 kilo bags. We use this method as the electric is more expensive in the winter months. It is nice to see a living flame.
However, with the summer approaching fast now, we are looking forward to sitting outside in the evenings and having some BBQ's.