Because of the Quantity of photo's involved I decided to split the diary into 2 parts, like part 1 the commentary text is above the photo it relates to



The Roof of the main house after we had modified it


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The new kitchen door in place, we had to make brick pillars as the walls were mud brick

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The entrance from the living room to the kitchen starting to take shape with the thanks of plasterboard

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Bathroom ceiling plastered, my very first attempt, not perfect but good enough to have charcter Lol

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Living Room Ceiling recieving the plasterboard Treatment

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Living Room / kitchen wall Ready for plastering

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The entrance passage into the main house after it was boarded

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Floor Tiles being Laid in bathroom, there is underfloor heating below the tiles

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Living Room floor being prepared for concreting

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Living Room ceiling now fully plasterboarded and ready for plastering

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


I paid the local farmer 40 lev to have the back garden ploughed


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


A Temporary fence up the border of our property to keep the sheep that wander around away from the veg :-)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


I picked this woodburner oven up in the village for 230 Lev

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The Front garden after it had been planted in April

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


This was a cellar with a barn on top of it, we are going to raise the wall a couple of feet, put a flat roof on top then build a patio with sloping roof for shade, the cellar will eventually become a laundry room for the wife.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The Living room floor after it had been concreted

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The entrance hall after concreting

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The shower after tiling was completed

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Under floor heating Thermostat in place and pipes boxed in, in the bathroom

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Tiling completed around the bath

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


A Sigh of relief as I was losing the will to live tiling the bathroom Lol

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


What use to be a kitchen is becoming unrecognisable, the old door and window were bricked up as the bathroom is on the other side of that wall

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The first Kitchen wall to be plastered, I had UK sockets installed for the freezer &
fridge and other appliances coming from the uk with us

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Kitchen starting to take shape

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Tiling being laid on Kitchen floor


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Kitchen Viewed from steps into Living Room

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Kitchen viewed from Entrance Door

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Living Room wall after plastering

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Main entrance door fitted in place

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Stud partitioning wall being erected to make old kitchen into a bedroom

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Small bedroom after floor was concreted

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Living Room floor tiles being laid over the underfloor heating

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Entrance Passage into main house now plastered

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


View from back bedrooms along entrance passage, Living room on left and front bedroom on right of photo

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Tiling of Living Room floor almost completed

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


View of Living Room floor from kitchen

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Electric fire in place just in case

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Small bedroom after plastering

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Bath Tiled, just needing grouted to completely finish it off

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Tiles going up on kitchen wall

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Floor tiles being laid in main entrance

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Floor tiles being laid in small bedroom

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


What once was a kitchen is now a back bedroom, I managed to plaster where the door and window was without leaving a trace Lol

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The small bedroom floor after tiling

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Entrance hall after tiling, viewed from back bedrooms

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The small bedroom before a lick of emulsion

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Front Bedroom floor being tiled

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The small bedroom after the first coat of emulsion

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


At last 11 weeks after starting we had a usable kitchen Lol

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The steps into the living room now tiled and grouted bringing the main renovation to an end


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]




I Hope you have enjoyed this photograph diary, this is the first time I have undertaken a challenge like this although I have always wanted to try my hand at it for many years, there is still a lot to do, mainly tiling the bottom 2 ft of the walls in the 2 back bedrooms where there is a ledge, however, I see this as none urgent and will probably leave it until the winter months to give myself something to do.

Outside needs a lot of work, mainly the plot of land for growing next year, however, the front of the house itself, is fully rendered now and painted with a white exterior emulsion, I dont have photo's of this at present although I will include them in part 3 next year Lol

Any Facebook member who wishes to view the videos of the place as it was when we bought it is welcome to send me a PM for my Facebook details

I Must admit that I have enjoyed much satisfaction from renovating, moreso that we are now living in the property, our total bill for renovation costs was £7,500 but added to the £3,300 we paid including legal fees there is no way on this earth we could of bought a home for under £11,000 in the UK. Admittedly my brother in law did not charge for his services otherwise the cost would of been much higher, but I think I have proved to both myself and my friends that something can be achieved if you put your mind to it.

If you need any questions answered for example how did we do this or that please dont be afraid to ask, I'm more than happy to answer questions

wowwwwwwwwww Davey you aint alf worked pal
I have looked at all iout pics with great interest after meeting you on here of course and really admire the work that you have put in .We of course only see the finished article but those that really know realise the hours and hours of preperation it takrs before these finishing touches can be acheived (not forgetting the cost of course .
We (wife and I )had the idea to do this witha few properties that we bought back in 2005 but after I had my heart attack we changed plan to have a brand new bungalow built and sell the old properties (which i still have not put on the market hahahaha.).Never mind the land will still be there even if our romany friends decide to borrow materials from our houses .(bless em [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
By the way congrats on your Pear bottling project .Man of many talents eh ??(i could just eat some with some icecream [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
are you hoping to totally finish the house before wifey gets back ?Dont knock yerself up pal .Lifes about more than work .good while your fit of course watch that heat tho its a killer .
Well sat am eh where did the last week go ?????.
its time for me bacon sarnie an HP sauce now :LMHO:so will sign off for now but not forgetting to thankyou for your very understanding polite email PM
solong bud
Neil

Very well done, as you say you don't know what you can do until you try.

Looks like you have made a small Bulgarian house into a palace

I've just looked at part 1 and its just so lovely to see it moving on the way it has and as Tony says you never know what you can do till you try this looks absolutely lovely and I'm now looking forward even more to seeing it finished

And theres more :Shocked: :Great:this wonderful to see something like this unfold as I've already said in the first post, I'm sure this will be very helpful to others embarking on the same sort of thing please keep us updated

Thanks for sharing. You are doing fantastic!!! Well done!!

Oddy

I've just commented on the first part so can't really add much to this one but its all looking very professional and what a change!! well done to you and all those that were involved you've really shown us all what can be done as they say from small acorns etc

Just looked at both threads and what an insight well done you seem to know what your doing which is half the battle

Anymore on this yet I'm eagerly waiting to see it all finished

I've added the videos that I finally found on my PC, to Part 1 to give an insight to just how the place was before we lifted a finger


At the moment I'm just tidying up the front of the property ready for family visiting next month, and due to the excessive heat I'm not really pushing myself as I think it will be more comfortable during October to undertake the heavier jobs.

Apart from concreting in front of the house for a temporary patio there are not a lot of things worth photographing, however, I do have the gable end of the kitchen to render before winter sets in, as it is bare mud brick outside as I removed the old barn adjoined to the house, the idea is to raise the brickwork on the old cellar under the barn to give head room, put a flat roof on that and a sheltered patio on the roof of the cellar, the cellar will be made into a laundry room with room for 2 of the freezers to go in from the kitchen.

I'm not expecting this property to be fully completed until the middle of next year as I am now taking it a lot easier, the main work in the photographs was to allow us to get over here therefore we did work relentlessly from Mid March until late May.

I too enjoy watching a project from start to finish having been a big fan of Channel 4's Grand Designs in the UK Lol it had not occurred to me to actually make a progress diary, the photo's were only taken to keep my wife informed of progress via Skype each day. I started posting the photo's on facebook for other family members to see and was amazed at the huge following they attracted, so my advice to anyone planning a renovation project is to keep a record of work done by taking photo's daily, it also helps (As I recently realised) in locating things such as precise points where pipes or cables are located.

I will add a part 3 to the saga but honestly think this will be late november at the earliest as it seems silly adding photo's 2 or 3 at a time in separate posts

I didn't realise there was 2 parts :shocked1:and with video thank you again and looking forward to more from you

As We have had some cooler weather I Decided to potter on with the outside of the house

First though a picture of the 3 new additions to the family

From the Left there's Ann, Ella and Sam Lol

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The View now as you look out of the kitchen door

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Looking towards the kitchen from the garden

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The Timber storage shed now roofed using asbestos sheets I removed from the rear of the house and replaced with Tiles off the old barn next door to the kitchen

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The view looking down the drive ( before )

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The view looking up the drive from the gate

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The waste timber all cut and ready for winter, nothing gets wasted here Lol

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This will all be concreted and steps put in.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The front of the house starting to take shape with a lick of paint.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The Entrance gate to our property, the wild trees on the right needed cutting down

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

After the wild trees were cut down only the Fig tree remains

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The View up the drive from the gate, as you can see a car cannot be driven up so my next project is to turn the stone wall to the left so it is parallel with the other wall and backfill it using building rubble from the renovation, to level the drive up so a car can be driven up, as I say, nothing is wasted here Lol watch this space

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The view inside the garden gate to the left after the wild trees were removed

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The gable end of the kitchen where the barn use to be, you can see the cellar of the barn, I'm going to raise the stone wall by 2 foot to make a laundry room for the wife, and a patio area will be built above the laundry room.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Our self propelled lawn mower borrowed off the neighbour

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

You are doing well Timerman great photos :Great:each stage get better and better Well done Onwards and upward eh!!

Oddy