I have just purchased my first Bulgarian house in the Pleven region and will be needing a good builder soon.
Does anyone know about planning permission or where I would find out about it?
I also will need some form of heating.....wood burners? Dos anyone know a reliable supplier and installer of these?
Many thanks
Debbs

Hi Debbss

I have sent you a couple of PM messages and will be contacting the builder to arrange for him to come up to you if you wish.

Hi Debss

No problems at all for the builder to come up to you in the Pleven area, plus he would be easily able to check the chimney and install a wood burner while he is working there.

There are a few different models which come down in the end to personal preference of what it will look like and if you wanted to cook on it as well, as many double as a small cooker. I favour the ones with the glass fronts as they are also nice to look at in the lounge. One just has to decide if it is going to burn just wood, in which case any will be fine, or if you want to burn coal as well you have to make sure it has the correct glass in the front for this, which some do of course.

Are you actually in Bulgaria now or coming over later?

Either way it would be lovely to meet up with you at some stage and any help I can offer, you will be welcome.

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Hello again Angla
Many thanks for your advice, much appreciated.
We are still in the UK at the moment, I'll let you know when we are coming as all advice and friendship will be greatly appreciated!
I doubt we will be relocating on a full-time basis for a couple of years, the youngest is still in school, but we intend to use the house as much as possible in that time, get all the work done so its ready to have permanent residents by that time!
Speak soon
Debbs

Hi Debss

Ok it will be lovely to hear from you as and when you are coming over.

I have some photos of the last work this chap has done for one of my friends, so if you would like to see them, just let me know. We called it project June (that being her name), as it seems it might turn into a drawn out project. They also are using their house here as a holiday home at the moment and happy to leave things for us to sort out while they are away and see the photos as it goes along.

I have just managed to get her 6 metres of lovely worktop in exactly the colour she wanted for her new kitchen, so she is very excoyed about that one.

Plus I have photos of the inside of my own house, all done by Kiero and his merry men and, having lived in this house now for over 18 months and no problems occurring with any of the renovations, I am happy also.

Speak later when you have sorted out your travelling times etc.

Hi Debbs,

Planning permission: There are legally only about 6 or 7 things you can build without planning permission. Change of use from a barn to a dwelling requires the relevent permissions, extending beyond the house foot print requires permission, renovationg inside is not normally a problem unless you are in a protected area such a Bojentsi or Kotel. The best place to go to check is the local municipality office. Don't take peoples word that there is no problem to do this or that. Recently some friends of ours near Sofia had to tear down thier barn conversion because it was not planned correctly.

Heating system: There are several ways to achieve a nice warm house in the winter. As Anglachancka said a glass fronted fire in the front room, from this you can run several radiators and feed the hot water tank, it is limited though to how many rads you can have and how effective it will be. The maximum KWs I believe for this type of fire is 21KWs. Another option is to have a Kotel (furnace) fitted, this can be installed in a room outside the living area where it will feed, from a 30KW furnace, up to 15 rads and a 200 Lt hot water tank. The beauty of this system is that it is contained in a seperate area so when the fire is being loaded with coal or logs, or it is being cleaned the dust, smoke and soot do not make the house look like it has not been cleaned for a month

Hope this helps

B

Thanks Bill, it helps a lot!
Debbs