something neither of us is very used to after so long on warm beaches wearing a pair of shorts every day for nigh on 30 years...
BEFORE
SOON
We now live in Sweden, expensive beer, meatballs, friendly people and so well organised, all you need is your own 'personnummer' and anything is possible.
Michelle and I are both registered residents with all the benefits of living here - doctors, dentists, car ownership, bank accounts and WORK....something I have been doing quietly for many years even though few people have noticed, but the main thing now is THAT I AM GETTING PAID FOR IT, and so is Michelle who is working just as hard as I am and in fact, is earning more than me right now!!!
We're both working in friends' Staffan and Tommy's styrofoam production facility in South West Sweden, not far from the crossing to Denmark. We work all the hours we can and hope that both of us will continue to work through the long dark winter which is rapidly approaching (12 degrees as I write this!) You never know though, things slow down a lot in the winter and we may have to hibernate for a few months if we're not needed. There is a cunning plan...........
We bought three run down houses with a good bit of land in Bulgaria, two near the Black Sea resort of Varna and one near the lovely old historical city of Veliko Tarnovo in the middle of the country.
The first one is perfectly liveable and needs mostly cosmetic work done and that is where we will spend the months if we cannot work here over the winter, working on the house. Winter is just as bad, if not worse, over there but there are two log burning stoves there and plenty of insulation in the roof, I hope.......
ROSITSA
The other two are basically ruins which need to be completely re-done, but they have a fair bit of land and are well out in the country in peaceful villages, both in good locations for future re-sale or re-furb if we ever get the cash to do these things...
We had a good working week in Bulgaria in July, very hot and with a rented 'black' VW Polo without air-con and with a side window which kept falling out, so not the best transport but we did visit all three houses and had a good night out in Veliko Tarnovo with Damiano and Anna who we dealt with regarding the purchase of that house, very professional people and I will pass on the details of the Company to anyone who wishes to explore new avenues of life in an emerging European Union country. Their ebay shop is called 'bulgariadirect' have a look, they are serious people providing a serious service and are so helpful. The countryside is lovely and is very similar to Portugal in the late 70's early 80's before it was ruined for me by mass tourism and breathalysers/Police stops. It's also very cheap, we ate our last meal in Sofia in one of the best restaurants there, stuffed full of good food and wine and only paid 25 euros, probably the price of chicken and chips at Julia's on the coast of Algarve by now, it's half that price outside the capital.....Here's a piccy of me ole mate Damiano and I proving that real men wear pink and can drink Rakia at the same time....
This is the property we bought near VT, it's also going to be very close to the new International airport servicing the centre of Bulgaria and close to the new motorway going from Sofia to the Black Sea resorts...
There's a couple of thousand metres of land behind that wall and some lovely plum trees but there's a fair bit of work needed masonry/plastering wise to be able to call it liveable.
All in all it's a good country to be thinking of moving to in a few years when my old legs will not be able to support the work that I'm doing now. All three houses have lovely countryside views and are in remote villages where people still move around in horse and cart and cars are few and far between, wonderful...just wait till they hear the roar of my Cherokee Jeep barreling down the country roads...I'm thinking of setting up an asparagus farm on some of the land, can't find much of it in Bulgaria, takes too long to get the first harvest I guess and people can't wait that long for an income, we'll see.
We are also hoping to buy a cottage here in a local village, the bank has agreed to a mortgage and we have found the house, a lovely 100 year old (that's old in Sweden!) wood cottage with a HUGE Bruno wood burner and in excellent condition, ready to move into in a week or ten days depending on contract signing and final payment.
Needs a lick of paint in the Spring on the outside, but the whole house was completely rebuilt 30 years ago and all the wood and internals are great, there's even triple glazing on all the windows and doors! It's so peaceful and quiet inside despite being on the old village road, now seldom used.
Would you believe there's six bedrooms in there right now...finally I'll have my own office to sort out all the rubbish I've amassed over the years, hopefully most of it will go for Bruno fire starting! What's in the past is in the past, no regrets, in fact I'm so happy to be able to earn a decent crust after the years of poverty living on a tropical beach, we'll see the seasons passing again and look forward to the Spring and Summer every year, throw snowballs and build a snowman in our own garden for once.
Weird time of year to be moving into a new house but maybe we can spend the working week in the village where we work and live now and go to the new house at the weekends. We're hoping the owner will leave most of the furniture in the house as he is German and will have to hire a truck to remove everything to Germany, maybe he'll do a deal, who knows ????????
So there you go, a pretty serious life change, we've gone from tropical beaches to down jackets and electric blankets and I've gone from a 'never buy a house' guy to owning 4 within a period of 6 months, liveable or not...I swore I would never buy anything that tied me to any one place, but these houses are cheap enough that I don't really feel tied since I'm sure we will not lose our shirts if we decide on a new 'LIFE CHANGE'
LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES............___ _____ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ fill in the blanks if you've watched the film.
Love to all and FTW
Michelle and I are both registered residents with all the benefits of living here - doctors, dentists, car ownership, bank accounts and WORK....something I have been doing quietly for many years even though few people have noticed, but the main thing now is THAT I AM GETTING PAID FOR IT, and so is Michelle who is working just as hard as I am and in fact, is earning more than me right now!!!
We're both working in friends' Staffan and Tommy's styrofoam production facility in South West Sweden, not far from the crossing to Denmark. We work all the hours we can and hope that both of us will continue to work through the long dark winter which is rapidly approaching (12 degrees as I write this!) You never know though, things slow down a lot in the winter and we may have to hibernate for a few months if we're not needed. There is a cunning plan...........
We bought three run down houses with a good bit of land in Bulgaria, two near the Black Sea resort of Varna and one near the lovely old historical city of Veliko Tarnovo in the middle of the country.
The first one is perfectly liveable and needs mostly cosmetic work done and that is where we will spend the months if we cannot work here over the winter, working on the house. Winter is just as bad, if not worse, over there but there are two log burning stoves there and plenty of insulation in the roof, I hope.......
ROSITSA
The other two are basically ruins which need to be completely re-done, but they have a fair bit of land and are well out in the country in peaceful villages, both in good locations for future re-sale or re-furb if we ever get the cash to do these things...
We had a good working week in Bulgaria in July, very hot and with a rented 'black' VW Polo without air-con and with a side window which kept falling out, so not the best transport but we did visit all three houses and had a good night out in Veliko Tarnovo with Damiano and Anna who we dealt with regarding the purchase of that house, very professional people and I will pass on the details of the Company to anyone who wishes to explore new avenues of life in an emerging European Union country. Their ebay shop is called 'bulgariadirect' have a look, they are serious people providing a serious service and are so helpful. The countryside is lovely and is very similar to Portugal in the late 70's early 80's before it was ruined for me by mass tourism and breathalysers/Police stops. It's also very cheap, we ate our last meal in Sofia in one of the best restaurants there, stuffed full of good food and wine and only paid 25 euros, probably the price of chicken and chips at Julia's on the coast of Algarve by now, it's half that price outside the capital.....Here's a piccy of me ole mate Damiano and I proving that real men wear pink and can drink Rakia at the same time....
This is the property we bought near VT, it's also going to be very close to the new International airport servicing the centre of Bulgaria and close to the new motorway going from Sofia to the Black Sea resorts...
There's a couple of thousand metres of land behind that wall and some lovely plum trees but there's a fair bit of work needed masonry/plastering wise to be able to call it liveable.
All in all it's a good country to be thinking of moving to in a few years when my old legs will not be able to support the work that I'm doing now. All three houses have lovely countryside views and are in remote villages where people still move around in horse and cart and cars are few and far between, wonderful...just wait till they hear the roar of my Cherokee Jeep barreling down the country roads...I'm thinking of setting up an asparagus farm on some of the land, can't find much of it in Bulgaria, takes too long to get the first harvest I guess and people can't wait that long for an income, we'll see.
We are also hoping to buy a cottage here in a local village, the bank has agreed to a mortgage and we have found the house, a lovely 100 year old (that's old in Sweden!) wood cottage with a HUGE Bruno wood burner and in excellent condition, ready to move into in a week or ten days depending on contract signing and final payment.
HALLAND
Needs a lick of paint in the Spring on the outside, but the whole house was completely rebuilt 30 years ago and all the wood and internals are great, there's even triple glazing on all the windows and doors! It's so peaceful and quiet inside despite being on the old village road, now seldom used.
Would you believe there's six bedrooms in there right now...finally I'll have my own office to sort out all the rubbish I've amassed over the years, hopefully most of it will go for Bruno fire starting! What's in the past is in the past, no regrets, in fact I'm so happy to be able to earn a decent crust after the years of poverty living on a tropical beach, we'll see the seasons passing again and look forward to the Spring and Summer every year, throw snowballs and build a snowman in our own garden for once.
Weird time of year to be moving into a new house but maybe we can spend the working week in the village where we work and live now and go to the new house at the weekends. We're hoping the owner will leave most of the furniture in the house as he is German and will have to hire a truck to remove everything to Germany, maybe he'll do a deal, who knows ????????
So there you go, a pretty serious life change, we've gone from tropical beaches to down jackets and electric blankets and I've gone from a 'never buy a house' guy to owning 4 within a period of 6 months, liveable or not...I swore I would never buy anything that tied me to any one place, but these houses are cheap enough that I don't really feel tied since I'm sure we will not lose our shirts if we decide on a new 'LIFE CHANGE'
LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES............___ _____ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ fill in the blanks if you've watched the film.
Love to all and FTW
