Would it all go through before we returned as planned in May?
Would we be staying in our own place in Bulgaria?'
Well....NO.
After having agreed a price and placed our deposit at Easter, the owner/builder of the house sadly passed away.
Having done so without a Will in place, ownership of the house fell into a Bulgarian legal minefield.
Rather being claimed by his spouse or nearest next of kin, we were told that ownership fell in percentages to his family meaning everyone from his sons, grandchildren, dog and budgie now got involved. Some wanted to sell. some wanted to up the price for the English, some wanted to seemingly, just be awkward as part of a family feud.
The estate agent and solicitor felt they could get the family to honour the agreement and were making progress so, we arrived in Bulgaria in May still hopeful of the deal going through.
Because we had a deposit in place, this visit was done with holiday heads on. We had booked into a hotel in Arbannassi just outside Veliko Tarnovo and had a hire car so, drove out to the house and met the agent as my wife had never seen the place in the flesh.
She loved the house but hated the village.
The whole thing turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it gave the chance to pull out of the purchase without losing our deposit. I got the cash back and the wife was happy rather than disappointed. If she's happy, I'm happy. If she's not happy, I'm tongue bashed into misery. Outwardly I had to show the disappointed face, inwardly I was doing cartwheels at my lucky escape.
As we were only there for a week it gave the chance, between calls and visits to the agent, to get out and about and do some real exploring.
One of the places we were told about and managed to get to was Hotnitsa Gorge and waterfalls.
More Photos here >>
Our next visit to Bulgaria was planned for August, during a conversation with Ogi, the estate agent, he said a few new properties were coming on the market and we returned home checking the website every few days seeing new houses pop up. So, we put any disappointment behind us and started ticking off the days until August.
Some Bulgarian villages seem to be bucking the trend and thriving, others are seemingly dying a slow death or being overrun by foreign buyers which also has the effect of pushing up prices as Bulgarians hope to land the golden ticket of a rich foreign buyer.
Foreign to Bulgaria I may be but certainly not rich so, I had a budget to stick to.
It had to buy a house with enough left over for essential furniture, any decorating and hopefully a few small improvements which could be done by me. There were certain villages and areas we were already 'priced out of'.
August finally arrived and we set off to Bulgaria with yet another list of places to see.
Just to go back to Easter for a moment, while I was over with my son, we had just been out to the village house we had decided to put a deposit on. On the drive back, agent Ogi said he wanted to call into another village to pick up some veg from his mates Granny. It would be interesting for us to go in with him as she had a fantastic garden. Most, if not all, Bulgarian villagers grow their own veg out of necessity through lack of money, every spare inch of ground is given over to every vegetable imaginable plus some I've never even heard of.
Sure enough, this garden was a credit to the old lady. Not only veg but also lots of colourful flowers dotted around, not a single weed in sight. ( at some point I will have to do a blog on Bulgarian weeds )
Anyway, the reason for bringing this up is that this village was called RADANOVO.
Back to August and going through our list with Ogi, some were crossed off through his honesty in telling us of problems, villages renowned for being without power when it rained or mains water at the height of the summer etc.
We jumped in his car and headed north out of Veliko Tarnovo towards a house we had selected, on the way he said a house had just come on the market if we wanted to call in, a village called Radanovo. It was English owned, renovated and due to a divorce was open to offers. A quick call and the owner was in so we pulled into the village.
As said, some villages are gradually dying a death, Radanovo looked clean and tidy, with evidence of new build village shops and bars. Always a good sign.
As soon as we pulled up the wife ( I should have introduced her by now ) Sharon, had a smile on her face. It was the best looking house on the street, 2 storey, well kept garden, big barn and an orchard at the back. We spent a couple of hours drinking tea, chatting with the owner, looking around ( behind stuff for damp this time ) and I took over a hundred photos while the wife, sorry, Sharon, was off playing with the owners dogs.
We went off by ourselves into the garden for a chat, she was exited, told me this was the house, nice village, nice scenery, flat for cycling, the village shops and bars looked clean and well stocked, what did I think.
"Well..........it's nice but I still want to see the house to the south of Veliko Turnovo in the mountains" I said.
Now, any man with an ounce of sense would know that at this point you may as well give up. Sharon would hate the mountain house before we even got there, Whether I loved it or not would be beside the point. It could turn out to be the best house in Bulgaria but barriers had gone up. She had made up her mind. She had found her piece of heaven. I could save a lot of hassle by backing down but, no.
Back in the car and off to the mountains we went.
To cut a long journey short. 'Best house in Bulgaria' it was not. To this day I am reminded how those 3 hours of her life getting there and back are gone forever.
Like a scolded puppy it was back to Radanovo to start negotiating.
I had to admit later that I too loved this house, which didn't help with the lost 3 hours.
Why do men never learn, the only thing worse than being beaten with a stick is knowing you handed them the stick yourself.
Anyway, offer accepted and by the time we returned to Bulgaria in October, agents ( thanks Ogi ) and solicitors, notaries and everyone else with fingers in the purchase pie had done their jobs, we actually owned a house in a foreign country.
No mortgage, cheap yearly bills, masses of land and a beautiful area.
And more change than we would have got from a caravan in Skegness.
That was back in 2010, many holidays later we still love it.
What felt like the end of a journey at the time was really only the beginning of an ongoing journey.
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