First topic message reminder :

We have spent many days scrubbing and cleaing this hall floor, as well as covering the chairs and making tables. What started out to be a quick make over is turning out to be much more.  Here are some photos of what has been done so far

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Don't want this to sound churlish, but in all my years here I have learned a few things about the locals. Three things that Bulgarian men really love, apart from the obvious physical things...

1. Fire burning

2. Water running

3. Other people working.

That's not to say that they can't, or won't work hard when needs be...they just need a little kickstart to get them motivated and when they decide to get involved, you can't stop them (well maybe the promise of a beer or a feed).

That's what makes this country unique!

Things get done.........................................................................................................eventually!!

Today Dougie, Ginka, Yvanka. Dotcho and myself all went to the hall to cover the 13 chairs and two benches the mayor donated to us.  All sorted now and they look lovely.  Tomorrow Dougie and I will go down and varnish the hall, I bought the yatch varnish which is the best one and will last years.  Will post a photo when it is finished.

It is amazing what a few old pairs of curtains and odd bits of material will do

Here are the last of the chairs and 2 benches covered. Hall is a ray of color now wonderful!!

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The workers Dougie, Ginka, Yvanka and Dotcho and me taking the photos  
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The chairs look so pretty and cheerful and the floor is fabulous. Well done for all your hard work and so nice to be appreciated by the mayor with a certificate. I'm sure the hall and the activities in it will bring happiness to a lot of people.

oddball wrote:

It is amazing what a few old pairs of curtains and odd bits of material will do

Actually I was biting my tongue when I saw the chairs in the first picture, because the material looks identical to both my Duvet and also my living room curtains, unfortunately they being my winter curtains and duvet so have been put away for the summer, otherwise I would have taken a picture for you.

Ah thanks Guys for you lovely comments, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] yes you are right there, it has brought a lot of pleasure to the local community they are so very proud of the hall now and all because of a some old curtains and scraps of material.  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I assume the material you refer to is the blue and green/yellow. Love it  

Today Dougie and I went to varnish half the floor we did the stage and about 3/4 of the hall and even thought the floor is very old and bits of paint everywhere we are more than pleased with the result so far, will check it tomorrow and see how it is.

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The Blue & Green stripe is my Duvet cover and the Purple stripped are my curtains.

Phil-H wrote:

The Blue & Green stripe is my Duvet cover and the Purple stripped are my curtains.

I got good taste than

 We have now completed the project we started in the community hall. Everything was stripped out and washed.  All the chairs were padded and covered. The floor was scrubbed, oiled than a few coats of wood stain and finally two coats of varnish. Dougie made 3 large table tops and fixed them to the old table legs that were there.  It now looks lovely everyone of our friends all came and helped us with everything, even the Mayor donated some old chairs and two benches that we covered. It was a joint effort and now they are all so very proud of the hall.

We will be doing Santa's work shop there and holding our Christmas party there this year for all the children. Also our we will be doing the Christmas dinner and it appears the Mayor holds a Christmas party for the villagers on 27th of Dec so he will be holding it in our hall.....

The hall with all the new covered chairs and the newly made tables
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The stage
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The floor looks great, it is very shiny but not in the least slippery
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And there is himself by the door
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Not meaning to be 'overly nasty' but may:

>> it appears the Mayor holds a Christmas party for the villagers on 27th of Dec so he will be holding it in our hall.....

maybe he will now appreciate what a bit (or in this instance a lot) of good old elbow grease can be achieved, considering the disgusting state it was in before you started.

Phil-H wrote:

Not meaning to be 'overly nasty' but may:

>> it appears the Mayor holds a Christmas party for the villagers on 27th of Dec so he will be holding it in our hall.....

maybe he will now appreciate what a bit (or in this instance a lot) of good old elbow grease can be achieved, considering the disgusting state it was in before you started.

You are right there [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I can see now see with our help that alot of our centres/orphanages/homes have a much better life and that they are more independant and also the communities are taking more of an active role too, which is brilliant.  We appear to have brought awareness to every organisation/village/ our municipality and now it has inspired our Mayor to get their own community hall in the second part of our village cleaned at least....  Our village is split into two parts the Mayor's office is in the newer part and our village is mostly elderly people.

The Mayor is a nice chap really, he has come to our aid a few times now, first was when we needed storage for our lorry load of goods from the UK. He said we could use the hall for as long as we need it. Second was when we needed help for unloading the lorry that came on a bank holiday he organised 6 helpers for us. Third he supplied and donated some extra chairs and stools for the hall. Forth he did all the cooking in his restrurant for the festival and brought it out to the hall. So now we will try to involve him when we can....

Slowly we are making a difference and that's the main purpose,

Quote :

Slowly we are making a difference and that's the main purpose,

You and your supporters certainly have done wonders. Take a bow!

hoseman wrote:

Slowly we are making a difference and that's the main purpose,

You and your supporters certainly have done wonders. Take a bow!

[/quote]

so much Hoseman appreciate your comments