Its a Mini Adventure

by Jane2 Comments
You plan and plan and it all seems very...well...under control! You know what you're doing, when you're doing it, you have it organised down to the last detail - especially when, like me, planning is what you do for a living. We were planning on buying a truck and doing two journey's from the UK to BG with various stuff (or crap as most people see it), then out of the blue we got a call "can you fill half my truck" this week so I don't make the journey half empty...well it would be rude not to in our position, so a radical re-plan was in order. So we packed like we'd never packed before, filled my mini with as many boxes as we could (all three of them) and stacked the rest around it in the garage in preparation for the truck's arrival, which of course was in the dark on the only day this winter that it has actually snowed.   Undeterred...
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Calm Down and Open the Parcel…

by JaneNo Comments
How excited can one woman get about a large package! :-) Well let me stop you right there...I had not one but THREE large packages arrive at my door last month containing no less than 50 flexible solar panels - close your eyes and imagine me doing a little victory dance in our garden (actually you may want to skip that image)! I had spent many months researching good old 'google' trying to understand solar technology and despite this, the only thing I'm pretty sure of is that I need a 5kw system to power our life so that is what I have bought...how I go about putting this all together, what inverter I need, how many batteries I need, which kind of charge controller I need is all going to be part of the growing pains. Or I could just ask Andy & Marie...or if there are any solar experts out there please don't hesitate to get in touch -...
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Why Bulgaria?

by JaneNo Comments
After everything that has happened you may be asking yourselves why the hell do we want to go back to the country that has vandalised our property and stolen from us.... well the answer is simple! There are good and bad wherever you go (the UK is no exception), but what we have found in Bulgaria is a kindness and a welcome from people that have very little but are content with their lot. Take our first house, when we arrived our garden was overgrown, we had no tools, we didn't speak the language... yet in walked Nidelka. This wonderful angel from next door, not only carrying tools but armed and ready to use them. Together we cleared the garden and had the cleanest outside loo that every existed and with a great view too.   This lady enlisted help from others in the village and soon we had a wonderful front garden, our grape vines were all tied up with ribbon ready for...
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Don’t let the B*stards grind you down!

by Jane2 Comments
As you know we ended up with four houses in Bulgaria  - this is a little about how that happened! Like our friends Andy & Marie who run The Good Life Bulgaria blog we bought our first house off ebay, basically because it was cheap and I fell in love with it (see pic above). We flew out to bulgaria for our first visit and when we saw it in real life we were even more smitten - right on the edge of the village and our neighbour 'Nidelka' and others in the village made us feel so welcome. There was plenty of work to do but our dream was taking shape! During our visit we heard of another house in the same village for next to nothing...it would have been rude not to and it would have given Dan somewhere to put his cars (we have lots of cars) - so we bought that too (see pic below) - not the...
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The Planning

by Jane2 Comments
The last five years have all been about planning - getting the right house, in the right location, for the right price, deciding what we'll need to: 1. Renovate the house 2. Survive without income for a period of time 3. Integrate into the village life 4. Create an income for when we do need it And of course building a pot of gold to take to the end of our rainbow - easier said than done sometimes! I've read lots of forums and blogs and facebook posts about if you are a capitalist and work in the city then the only way you think is "how much things cost", well this may be true to an extent but there is a limit to what you can do these day without a little bit of paper in your pocket. We intend to do most things ourselves so we have been reading up on "how to rewire a house", "installing solar power", "building a natural pool", plumbing, building,...
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TSD – The Idea

by JaneNo Comments
"I want a house in France" - this had been my mantra for many years, but I never seemed to have enough money to make it happen...it felt like the French were deliberately moving house prices just out of my reach on purpose, I can almost hear them saying "L'ordinateur dit NON" :-) During one of my many internet house searches I drifted a little outside of France and found myself in Sicily (virtually you understand) and stumbled on a wonderful little mountain village called Cianciana and bought a house there, since this day I have never looked back! I now own this house and four houses in Bulgaria...FOUR I hear you say, well yes this was not my intention, it just kind of happened and I guess it is a lesson to those thinking of buying abroad. Curb your enthusiasm, visit the country first and research your area before you buy. I have no regrets I love all of my four houses...
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