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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