Where to buy a propane bottle?

Try emag for the cooker. They give a choice of fuel type and should have something suitable.

I live near Asenovgrad and bought mine  (large size) for 80lev at a local hardware store.  Any small town will have a place that sells them.  I have a wood burner but in this mild weather am only using the gas heater.

You'll see them in racks outside any petrol station that sells them - not all do, of course. You'll need to pay a deposit for the first one, so it will set you back a good few bob for that one; after that it's just an exchange. Watch out for petrol stations that refill bottles themselves - not all of them have the correct equipment and you might get more bang for your buck than you anticipated! 😁

Gas hobs etc are, as Jane suggested, available on-line: Mr Google is helpful with that, as eMag can often be nowhere near the cheapest source - it's always a good idea to check the pazaruvaj price comparison sites.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, I managed to visit praktis, they had the lot, I managed to get a double gas cooker for 79lev, 2m pipe, jubilee clips a regulator and new gas bottle, around 250 Lev.

Turns out the bottles are sold empty 🤣, I managed to find a garage who filled it up for us 30 Lev so now I have a 2ft bottle full with LPG, I connected it all ready to cook something and realised the regulator was not the correct one, so I have popped into VT to stay at the sky hotel (nextdoor to praktis) for a good shower and warm nights sleep 😴, whilst im here im going to exchange the regulator for one with a longer pin in the center, whilst I'm here I'm going to treat the wife to a meal 😉.

I wasn't able to get the well/borehole open either it's locked away under a great manhole and I don't have a key 🗝️, are they all universal?

We have been busy bees fixing things around the house, a few tiles were damaged from the chaps who cut the trees down but I temp fixed them, I might look at getting a whole new roof complete with metal roof.

I also need to replace all the windows and doors as they are so badly weathered the glass has fallen out of them, but I also have wooden lintels and would like to replace them but have yet to see any in the VT area.

To top it off I need to install electric in the whole house and connect it to the grid.

Still it's a long term (10yr) project, we will get there in the end.

Owning an old house is definitely an adventure!

There's supposed to be a Chinese proverb, "Man finish house, man die."

I think we're likely to live forever! Get one job done and then as a direct result something else needs doing!

Lol, 🤣 that's so true, I was doing one job and it ends up making another 4.

I think it's a 5 min job and here I am days later still not finished and sorting out another job before doing the original job.

I was looking at my list and was thinking to myself, perhaps I would be better to knock it down and rebuild it, but even that's a big job lol 😆.

It certainly would be easier but not sure cost wise and definitely won't have the character of the old stone house.

@janemulberry

I was gonna call you out for a made-up proverb alert. :-)

But, sure enough, Google comes up with this:

"When the house is finished, death follows." -- Turkish proverb

I was looking at my list and was thinking to myself, perhaps I would be better to knock it down and rebuild it, but even that's a big job lol 😆.

    -@CarlS1986

I've thought the same thing, Carl! Trying to work with what's already there causes so many problems! But I like the old house, so will keep working with it despite all the impractical issues we have to deal with.

@gwynj

A Turkish proverb is even better! Closer to home!

@CarlS1986

If you have the means, then knocking the old house down and building something warmer, bigger and fancier is the way to go! But construction costs must be heading towards 1k euros/m2, so it will not be cheap. Plus costs of plans/permits and clearing the site.

Our Balkan village is lovely, we were lucky to find it. There are many brand-new houses and some are pretty imposing properties. Even so, maybe 95% of the village houses have been renovated. It's certainly more manageable to do renovations as your time/budget allows... and you have somewhere to live in the meantime. :-)

Even if Bulgarian construction isn't up to Western standards, Bulgarian houses have to be pretty much derelict before they're too far gone. There are two old houses in my village which I often walked past and noticed how neglected they were, having been empty for many years. The one on the main road was completely gutted a couple of years ago, along with the barn alongside it, and it's a fabulous property now (it even has gas central heating with a buried tank). The other was in a great location up the hill and next to the river, but it looked like it was close to falling down. It was one of the few unrenovated properties left here, and even this got a major makeover recently.

You also have flexibility in terms of how traditional/rustic you want to keep the property. Your house might look great with repaired wooden windows, some exposed stonework/beams, and fresh paint... with a couple of pechkas to keep you warm. Our village house has sucked up quite a lot of money, but it has new wiring, new plumbing, fully-tiled bathrooms, larger uPVC windows and external shutters, external insulation and rendering, a big pellet stove and several AC units. The inside walls and ceilings (with recessed lights) have been plasterboarded and painted, rather than left original. And all the floors have been redone with concrete and ceramic. Mostly, it looks fairly modern, but the eccentric layout (spread over 5 slightly different levels with 6 separate internal/external stairs gives it away. :-)

There's still a healthy market in renovated properties being sold by foreigners who decided pretty much on a whim that Bulgaria was "their" Shangri-la. They bought a property at what they believed was a bargain price and proceeded to spend a lot of money than they anticipated doing it up, only for Life, or Reality, to show them that they'd not thought their decisions through properly.

With a bit of research effort and an open mind you  can probably find a renovated place that will cost you less than buying a wreck and getting the work done yourself, especially if you factor in how much time you're going to waste making mistakes, changing your mind, getting ripped off by cowboys etc. If you are working on a really tiny budget and can't afford a renovated place at a knock-down price then you really should be asking yourself if your dreams of moving here are realistic: life is cheaper than in many other countries but it's by no means free and you have to make compromises that you may find difficult or onerous, including getting to grips with the language - especially when dealing with officialdom. I've met too many incomers who've ended up, for a variety of reasons, throwing in the towel and heading back "home", where there's a functioning welfare state and bennies on offer.

Relying on friendly neighbours will only get you so far if it's always a one-way street and they'll lose their patience sooner or later. Never forget the old  Chinese (or is it Turkish? ) adage: "A friend in need is a pain in the butt"...

@JimJ

LOL on your proverb. So true! Neighbours definitely need to be a two way street. I'm very blessed with mine, and have every intention of continuing to ensure they know just how deeply I value their help and friendship!

And realistic expectations of life in Bulgaria are essential. Head in the clouds to see the possibilities, feet firmly planted on the ground to deal with the practicalities?

@gwyn

Yes, it's amazing what can be renovated. There are a couple of houses in my village that were near derelict but have been completely renovated by Bulgarian owners over the past two years and look excellent.

It's not a cheap endeavor. In the past year I've spent the equivalent of 22,000 GBP on mine (including purchase price and legals), and would guess I need to spend at least the same again over the next couple of years getting the place truly comfortable to live in.

I'm fully aware that I'm going to need to spend around £30k ontop of the £22k I paid for my place, but it's been a calculated approach with this property (in my eyes), you may think different.

I spent many years looking at where and what I wanted in Bulgaria and Portugal, I almost certain I got what I was after.

Like I have said previously I am renovating this property over a 10 year period and I will be using it as a holiday home in the mean time.

I have 1 neighbour who I was chatting to, he works away in Mallorca during the summer months (from what I could make out) and we have some awesome guardian dogs from one of the neighbouring farm that patrol our house and land (I was weary of them at first but now they are like part of the family, and I'm happy for them to continue to roam around our 9k M2).

I was over this week temp fixing, cleaning and measuring stuff and making plans.

I will be returning in August, I'm not sure whether to spend 2 or 4 weeks there, but I need to get the well open to give me access to water on tap, and either get a generator or connect to the grid. Once I have these two I will be able to do a lot more quicker.

Working with just hand tools alone was time consuming and a lot of effort.

I have a spent the last 14 years moving about with the Army so won't be wanting to return home too soon (not that I call anywhere home). I definitely won't be wanting any benefits, I can't think of anything worse, unless I end up on my ass.

I have a plan for 10 years time, if it works they way I have planned I should be sorted financially, but I still plan to be working but 3 months away then 3 months off.

The house once finished will be an incentive for family and friends to come visit and enjoy a week away.

I am looking forward to our new journey and what we (my wife and me) are in for.

The kids have almost flown the nest, time for us to make the most of it.

That sounds like an excellent plan, Carl. You know what's needed, what the costs are likely to be, and have a system in mind for how to do it. The joys of making the move is that there are so many ways to do it that almost anyone with the will and the common sense and a just enough money to make it work should be able to.

Moving country is not only for those who can afford to buy an already renovated place. I wouldn't have been able to pay out 45k upfront. I can afford to pay a couple of k here and a couple of k there to get my house renovated over the few years we still have to go before we move, as well as doing as much as I can of the things that I'm capable of doing like painting, laying laminate flooring, etc.

I think there is a proportion of dreamers visiting the site who've seen the cheap prices on ebay or watched a YouTube video or two and decide they'll move, not aware of the work, the costs, and some of the bureaucratic and financial complications they'll face. You clearly aren't one of them, and I hope I'm not, either!

Let me share my current situation and your comments and suggestions are very welcome. Is true that as a foreigner I thought I could have a decently old house to live at, I bought this property in installments. I went for the very first time to see the property, I got scared, not only because I felt a heavy loneliness there, furthermore is not safe at all. Is collapsing! then is not sound/my sanity to live there, me senior lady all by myself. Would be much better to demolish it than renovating it. And start from "scratch".  The storage had disappeared, the shed as well. The front stone fence wall half of it is gone....

Can anyone tell me if I can place this property on sale while i am still paying monthly?

Buying online wasn't a good experience for me, pretty pictures, an excellent description of it, but is 180 grades opposite.

Thank you

If you're still paying monthly, then there is probably a legal charge on the property; it's also likely that you don't yet have a notary act showing that the property belongs to you.  Either of those factors is enough to preclude your selling it, as it still isn't yours to sell.  The first thing you need to do is look at whatever contract you have to see exactly what it says will happen if you don't complete the payments; my guess is that you'd simply lose all your money and the property will revert to the seller.  Depending on how much you've paid, it may well be best for you to simply walk away and accept that the money you've paid so far is lost.

Alternatively, it may be better to complete the deal and in the meantime start getting an idea of what it would cost to demolish the building and rebuild from scratch.  It's likely to be a fairly expensive business, but you'd end up with somewhere you can live in or which might bring you a profit in the long run.  Only you know your own circumstances and how much you can afford to spend, but clearly, living in an unsafe house isn't really a sensible option.

I'm so sorry you had this bad experience, Friatela. Unfortunately many properties seem to be worse than the estate agent's photos and description made them appear. And unoccupied properties deteriorate fast too. Even the most honest agent's description may not match the house condition after a year or two standing empty, as the house will surely have worsened since they wrote the description and took the photos.

I cried the first night in my village house, as it was so much worse than I had been told. I thought I had realistic expectations, but I'd been told the roof was okay, so wasn't prepared for water pouring through the ceiling! I'm glad now that I stuck it out, as I love the house, for all it's faults. It did however need a lot more spent on it urgently than I expected. But I feel it's worth it, because I have lovely neighbours and its a good village.

Jim is correct. You can't sell a property you don't own. You don't own the pay-monthly property until after it's fully paid off and the ownership is legally transferred by the notary.  I also bought on pay monthly, and the contract with my seller was more like rent-to-buy. The contract was clear - if I stopped paying, I lost the rights to the property and lost all the money that I had already paid them.

Your next steps really depend on what the main problem is here.

If the problem is the condition of the house itself but the village and the people are nice, finding out what it would cost to make it a house you feel comfortable living in might be a good next step. That's the route I took.

But I get the impression from what you say its more than that, that the village and the people give you a bad feeling. When you say things have disappeared, do you mean they have collapsed, or that they are literally gone, that the building materials have been stolen? If things have been stolen and you get a bad feeling there, not only because the house is in bad shape but because the people there don't feel welcoming or safe to be around, then spending more money probably isn't wise.

You did sign a legally binding contract, and the sellers can enforce it. But if you talk to them, they might be willing to make some arrangement, like transferring at least some of what you already paid to a different house. It's important to consider that any house in the same price range will be in much the same condition and need the same amount of work. But more important to feel safe and like it's a place you could make a home.