Burst pipe

You are always kind and helpful with everyone here, so you deserved that. 👍

@gwynj

Wow! In France that would have been between 350 and 600 euros for the man with digger, depending on availability, plus the cost of the pipe!

Wow , sounds like a huge problem was solved so well and for fabulous amount of euros 

I will if I can employ Bulgarian workmen but only on recommendations .

So I am again following with Interest .

Buying a 2nd property in another village .

Small house with basement , outbuildings large land

Needs some updating , Shower / plumbing in place but outside toilet ...

May I ask where this Village property is located please GwynJ ?

Many thanks .

@sfriggieri75

He certainly is !

    We haven't been to our village house much over the last year, so it's suffering a bit due to lack of regular TLC. :-) If you do get a village house, I reckon they need constant attention to keep them tip-top.
I last visited at Christmas when I discovered the winter storms had damaged my roof. On that occasion, my wonderful neighbour stepped in with his tools and ladder, and spent a couple of hours on the roof doing an emergency repair. At that time, I'd noticed that the ground was rather wet near the ladder... but I figured it was the winter storms.

But it wasn't, as I discovered today when I went to open the house and give it a good airing. Now the wet spot is a small pond... and there's a stream of water coming back into the basement, next to the water meter! The water meter is not moving, so I think the leak is in the incoming water main before it hits the meter. I guess it might officially be a VIK problem.

So I run over the village shop (the daughter speaks perfect English) and said we'd just opened the house and we had a plumbing emergency. She said her dad would know... and that he'd just arrived back. He called the village plumber... who arrived 10 minutes later. Took him to my house and showed him the damage... and he did a bit of digging with my spade.

He said he needed a proper digger (digger in Bulgarian sounds pretty close), so he drove back to the shop and spoke to the dad, as he's the man with the mini-digger. He loaded it up and drove down. It was too high to fit through my back gate, so he dismantled the cabin. Then drove through my garden (it's a bit torn up now), and then they dug a big trench to find the leak. Big leak with water pouring out,  as I have very strong pressure.

They found it, put a replacement length of pipe in with connectors. All fixed. Filled the trench back in.

It took 90 minutes overall, with immediate emergency attention... from 2 tradesmen, the plumber and the digger driver. 150 leva all-in!

Honestly, I was kinda floored that anyone would fix it that quickly... and for so little money. Neither speaks English, but they were so nice and helpful, they just got on with it.

Oh, and it was 28 degrees today, and it's still March!
   

@gwynj

Actually, in Bulgarian a digger* is, perversely enough, called a "bagger", named, as is often the case here, after a German manufacturer of diggers. 

*Not to be confused with an ANZAC soldier...

Wow, Gwyn! You'd been quiet for a bit and I wondered what was happening.

So glad the leak was repaired quickly and at such a reasonable price. I hope you're not left with too much mess to clear up.

@gwynj Thats what I see out here Gwyn neighbours lending a hand. Hope you got it fixed mate. 

Congratulations

@LoveActually

We are up in the Balkan Mountains between Shipka (famous village with the Shipka and Buzludzha monuments) and Kazanlak (good-sized town with a big annual Rose Festival and their UNESCO-listed Thracian Tomb. Plus, nearby, we have Koprinka Lake, Pavel Banya spa town... and mountains/National Parks with all the walking/biking/dog exercising trails your heart could desire. :-)

It's a lovely area, and I highly recommend it. There are many nice villages on the south side of the Balkan Mountains between, say, Karlovo and Kazanlak, so ours is not the only one. Unfortunately, I think it's getting pretty pricey these days, and properties don't come up often  (at least on Ebay and other popular expat sites). I think most plots are probably around 30k/40k, and most houses (even tatty ones) will be more. However, if you search on a popular local site like OLX you might find a few bargain plots for 15k-20k, and some houses with potential for 30k or so. If you send me a private message I'll happily share a few suggestions for villages.

@janemulberry

Well... you may not have spotted this, but last year I asked the forum about care in Bulgaria for elderly relatives. It's been quite the mission, but we decided to proceed... and I have a live-in carer starting tomorrow. I'll post in a few weeks, when I'll know whether my pappa importation project has been successful (ish). :-)

@gwynj incredible community spirit and friendship!  I can't begin to tell you what my aunt (in Weston Super Mare) and my friends (in North West London) tell me about trying to obtain any services - it's utterly atrocious.   My heart sank yesterday, when I was speaking to my 89 year old aunt on the phone. She got a knock at the door and was asked by the bloke, whether she wanted her hedges trimming (2 hours work). He did the job, but she parted with a cheque for £780!  She admits she wasn't thinking straight (she's very seriously ill). The bank says they can't refund the money.  She's now got a friend from Taunton visiting her twice weekly, to oversee her spending.  This is just one of numerous examples I could give, of how shoddy and rip off the UK has become. 

I feel so dam lucky to live in Bulgaria!

@gwynj

Good luck!

My father was up for relocating here from the UK and came over several times; we were very close to buying him an apartment in the closed complex where we lived for some years. He was living in my house in Lincolnshire and I would go over to see my extremely sprightly Old Man every few weeks. I used to recommend a nice bracing walk beside the two rivers which bordered the property but he was like most of us men and knew how tough he was (he had indeed had a very interesting and active life, including years of counter-insurgency operations in several countries). He preferred to use my exercise room and was particularly taken with the exercise bike but unfortunately his 89 year old heart wasn't that keen on it, so he never did get to make that move ...

I hope yours enjoys his move!

Gwyn, of course I recall the discussion. I hope that your dad adjusts well to the move. I'm glad you were able to arrange care for him.  God willing, he'll enjoy some happy years in Bulgaria.

@JimJ

Thank you, fingers crossed. I'm not sure he's very enthusiastic about a move, but I'm hoping that when we get him to Ryanair he's merely reluctant rather than kicking and screaming. :-)

@gwynj

Give him a tot or three of rakiya and wheel him onboard....

That's alright. In the UK groundswork digger trade people tend to charge £200 per day.

So including piping materials thats a very fair price for 90 minutes X2 work, especially Lucky they were available at such short notice.

That scenario would probably cost at least 3x that in UK.

@gwynj

Wishing you and your brother all the best in "Moving Dad project"

Hope it goes well and is without too many incidents!

When we first bought here in Bulgaria my husband asked his Mum to move here with us , if she had she'd have a nice appartment in Pomorie with maybe a sea view but no she didn't want to move here , that's why I'm living here on my own because husband is an only child and she expects him to look after her.  I'm glad that your Dad isn't like she is and I'm glad that my son's from my first marriage haven't been brought up like my husband.