Our first house
in Bulgaria!

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. We bought our first house in the village of Nickolaevka, Bulgaria in October 2003 for 25,000 Euros.
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. Towards the front of the ground was the new house, behind the new house was an old stone house.
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. To the right of the new house was a "Mehana", in the grounds were many outbuildings and a barn.
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. The plot that the house sat on was about 1,000 square meters (around a quarter of an acre).
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. The picture shows the front of our house in the village of Nickolaevka, Bulgaria, and our neighbour,
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This was the view of the side of the house. It was hard to get a good photo as there were many tree's growing in the garden. The grounds had a walnut tree, apple trees, plum trees and a vineyard.
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This picture shows the rear of the house. In the foreground to the left you can just see the remains of an old, stone built house. We demolished the old house and used the stone to build a wall all around the house.
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This picture shows the main road leading into Nickolaevka. That is what this tarmac road used to look like in 2003, nowadays it is much better.
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This picture shows the track that led up to my house from the main road in the last picture. There is a much better tarmac road that leads to the front of the house.
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A view of the barn. Our plan was to convert the old barn into accommodation for friends and family. The barn was very low though and it would mean raising the roof by at least half a meter. .
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In the front of the garden was a vineyard. When we first bought the house we were undecided, do we keep the vineyard and produce our own wine, or take the vineyard out and plant grass for a traditional English garden?
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In amongst the vines strawberries were growing.
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In one of the rooms we found these machines. They are used for making honey. We gave them to one of the local villagers. Another villager called to visit us and asked if he could swap a bottle of his home made Rykia for an old cart that was sitting in the garden. That evening a barbeque was enjoyed by all. I still see that old cart from time to time.
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The Mehana to the side of the house. A "Mehana" is very like a Greek "Taverna", a grill bar that also serves alcohol. Above this area was a balcony area.
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A detached, desirable residence? One of the three outbuildings in the grounds. Our plan was to knock it down and reuse as many of the materials as we could.
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The land to the side of the house The trees that border this plot were all fruit bearing, Apples, Cherries, Plums and even a Walnut tree. .
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The stone wall around the house. Although the wall only surrounded the front of the house there was enough stone in the old house to continue this wall all around the plot.
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The "Mehana". An inside picture of the Mehana as it was back in 2003. To the rear you can see the barbeque oven, above the oven is the mask of "The God of Wine and Parties".
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Chris inspects the Mehana. Have a look above Chris's head, the old TV set there must have dated backed to the sixties!
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Our first house in Bulgaria!

Our first house
in Bulgaria!