It's painful to write the next step in our journey, after a winter of anticipation and excitement waiting to see the house with new windows, ceilings, electrics instead I received an email from my good friend Molly warning me that all wasn't right. The builder had run out of money and was unable to pay his workers. The work we expected to have been done was not completed.
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| the Coach journey |
With heavy hearts we arrived at the house in May 2009.
The shock of seeing the house was heart wrenching, the first thing I saw was the kitchen window, new but had no glass. The kitchen had been left open to all the elements, for how long I don't know.
The other windows had been replaced and had glass in but the old windows had been ripped out leaving brickwork and broken cement all around the frames. The walls had been re plastered and ceilings replaced but with gaps where the ceiling joined the walls.
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| Colin in the Kitchen - no electricity or water |
The shock looking round seemed to go on and on, the electrics had been partly rewired, nowhere near the standard expected.
We were devastated, trying to be cheerful and positive for the boys.
There was no electric and no water. It felt like I had received a hard physical blow. My stomach was in knots and my head in a vice.
We decided to stay the night at my sister Cath’s whilst we assessed the situation. So suitcases loaded into the car we head to Cath’s. After a couple of nights it was time to get back to the house and be proactive.
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| Baba Gina |
Within an hour Ivan had been round, gifts of food in hand, he then rang the electric board and got the electric turned back on, (the builders had used the electric and no bill paid as we were in England) he had also gone back to the main water tap in the village and turned that on. We had water and electric. We covered the kitchen windows with some spare plastic fixing it with drawing pins. Baba Gina arrived with more gifts of bread and fruit.
My neighbours were devastated. I didn't need to speak Bulgarian to understand the sadness that they felt.
In my blog, Meeting the Neighbours, I described how welcoming everybody was; now it was as if they
wanted to embrace us and make everything right.
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| Aerol the handyman |
Walking down the village street people would come up and pat us and shake our hands, after a day at the house with everybody we felt being so welcome. We started to feel better.
The next day the Mayor of the village called with an interpreter. He was very sad at what had happened and advised us of reliable people who could put in the glass. He also advised us to go through him if we needed anymore work doing and he would make sure we had good workmanship.
We arrange for the glass to be put in, this was through a shop in Tutrakan, they heard our story. A fine job and even stained the window frames. The Mayor also advised us we need to pay our taxes for last year and this year, which we promptly did. 2008 was 27 lev (£12) 2009 28 lev, for this we had our bins emptied, streets swept and street lighting.
It turned out that the builder P, owed money all round the town and that he had expanded too quickly. It town and his workers had not been paid. The next couple of days we spent cleaning the house .
wasn't that we were British and an easy target because he had done the same to his Bulgarian
clients, he owed money all around the
The garden was filled with building debris, the wood we burned much to the approval of Al and Chris - a fire in high summer 40 degrees - why not, they loved it. (we did have a big barrel of water close by just in case). The bricks and cement was moved by Aerol, who just appeared and offered his services and removed everything with his horse and cart. In no time we were back on track.
Time to enjoy our holiday - we did have three weeks left
lessons learned :-
Don't pay upfront - even a deposit
Be there when the works being done
find a reputable builder
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| Al Chris and Yasen at the pool |
This was the year we first met Yasen, who has become a very good friend of the boys and me and Colin, and the first time I met Dora who is now my very good friend. The first time we met Dora we had been to the new swimming pool, which is now complete with restaurant, cafe and --- sunbeds , she made the most delicious Moussaka I have ever tasted.
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| Al Chris and Yasen at the pool |
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| Molly me and Stefan, Colin Chris and Al |
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| Sheep finding shade |
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| Sunflower |
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| Tank Silistra |
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| Silistra Al Colin and Chris |
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| me and Molly cooling off in the Danube |
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| me by the Danube |
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| Stork in flight |
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| Col on the banks of the Danube |
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| View of the Danube |
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| Fishing boats and cruisers on the Danube |
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| Traditional fishing on the Danube |
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| Grasshoper on the kitchen window |
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| frog on the banks of the Danube |
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| Fishing nets |
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| Travel by cart |
