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,
. who often used to sit on that wall and watched as the house was slowly transformed.
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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.
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. 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.
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. That evening a barbeque was enjoyed by all.
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. I still see that old cart from time to time.
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. The Mehana to the side of the house.
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. A "Mehana" is very like a Greek "Taverna", a grill bar that also serves alcohol.
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. Above this area was a balcony area.
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. A detached, desirable residence?
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. One of the three outbuildings in the grounds.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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. Although the wall only surrounded the front of the house there was enough stone in the old house
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. to continue this wall all around the plot.
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. The "Mehana".
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. An inside picture of the Mehana as it was back in 2003.
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. 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.
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. 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!