Getting to the bottom of the PuP

Today has been a day of no work at all on the house, but plenty of progress in other ways.

It started at about the standard time with me needing a brew desperately to wake me up and prepare myself for a bit of a nerve wracking day, to say the least. As regular readers will know I have had a long and complicated saga attempting to find a good architect who can complete my project through to getting permission to build, including getting an approval called a "PuP" (which stands for something but I'd not be able to tell you what) which comes from Sofia.

Basically, and also so I can clarify my understanding, the building is currently a school. This means that, at any time, the Department of Education can commandeer it for their uses, whether educational, health, social or humanitarian, and this would be without any compensation. So if they needed to house some refugees, and I have renovated my school, they could say "oh that's a good place" and bam I would HAVE to put them up by law.

This is not something that I want to even contemplate.

The process for changing the purpose of a building is legislated in law and requires certain documents to be sent to the central Department for Education in Sofia where they will decide whether to allow or deny the application. This is where my situation gets a little complicated. It turns out (and was detailed in the rejection letter that Lubo showed me the other week) that the Obshtina who sold me the property had already attempted to get a PuP for this building about a year before selling the building to me and had been rejected. The reason for rejection that time was the same as the reason this time; the correct documents had not been filed.

Probably the reason the Obshtina did not continue at that point is because one of the documents is a detailed plan of the building and what you wish to do with the building; as they had no desire to actually DO the development (just sell it for more money with change of use already applied) they just let it lie and sold it to me. This was a little naughty and is a small thing to put influence on them to help me from now on.

Once I have the PuP then the Obshtina can give me full planning permission; to be honest they can do this without the PuP but then I would be at risk of the invasion of my property by the Board of Education as it would continue to be zoned a school and as such within their purview to purloin.

The other complication was this restitution issue. Now my friend had a really close look at the two skitzas (the plans for the property) and compared them very closely and he can see a very very small difference between the original I got when I bought the school, and the new one which I got the other week from Lubo. I am not currently sure what this actually means so I need to do some more digging. The bottom line is the vast majority of the land is mine.

So, to today (sorry if that bored you, but I'm sure you're all even more confused than I am with what is going on here). My friends turned up on time and we headed down to town and found the office straight away; they had someone already in so we had to wait a few minutes. While we were waiting my friend pointed out that the letter wasn't from just any bureaucrat, but actually signed and stamped by the Minister for Education; that Lubo told me this letter was "bullshits" (sic) when it was an elected minister who put her mark on it, is beyond me. Anyway it was pretty much on time when the two ladies showed us in, gave us a chocolate each (for good health and happiness) and brought an extra chair as there were only two guest chairs in the office.

Without too much ado the Buglarian friend started talking through the situation with the Chief Architect and established that the law was different to how the Obshtina understood it. He also showed her the rejection letter (which Lubo said she had been shown) which she had never seen before and which helped her to understand the situation as explained above regarding the previous application.

Once the conversation got going my friend really cleverly guided it so there was no confrontation, just a meeting of minds, and he led it towards the fact they were saying that there was no chance of a PuP being applied. It was at this point that he pulled out his master-stroke; a telephone call to the architect in the ministry in Sofia who was immediately happy to talk to the chief architect in the obshtina and explain that the PuP was COMPLETELY possible and all that was needed was the documents listed in the letter.

Here we have our first few direct issues as Lubo specifically told me that the chief architect had spoken to the person in Sofia three times and it turns out that they had never spoken before at all, and also the fact that the letter had never been shown to the chief architect either. I can't think at the moment of any reason for him to lie about these things as they are so easily verifiable.

The result of all of this was us leaving with a plan; firstly to get the roof plans verified and signed off (Lubo had given them to me but not validated them or got them approved by the Obshtina) and secondly for me to call him so my friend could speak to him directly and get a complete understanding of the situation from his point of view.

Watching the fishermen catching their fish

We headed off to one of my favourite restaurants around here; actually the place I went with Veselka when I arranged her doing this work first of all and also the place I went with my friend straight after winning the auction, and sat ourselves down. The manager came out to serve us and he spoke very good (if slightly profane) english and was quite amusing throughout the meal. We stood for a while looking at the river and admiring as two fishermen standing in the middle had success after success, pulling a fish a minute from the fast flowing water.

I had dialled Lubo and passed the phone to my friend however he first of all didn't answer and then answered saying "five minutes please" and hung up. I decided I didn't want to waste my credit on this call so sent him a text requesting a call back. Pretty quickly he did so and my friend got into an involved conversation where he explained the process slowly and clearly; even though Lubo has been employed and paid to do this process it seems that he doesn't actually know how to complete it.

It turns out the Lubo claims to have all the documents requested by Sofia already collected; if this is the case then our conversation when I see him next will be very simple indeed. I remain to be convinced that he actually has. Anyway, I have my path forwards though it is not for publication here. Watch this space for more.

Tuna and chili pizza

For my lunch I chose to have a pizza as I wasn't that hungry and have been eating pretty much traditional food at home anyway. It was pretty tasty and particularly good once I finished the coffee I ordered initially and bought a cold beer to chase it down with.

Super shiny cup holder for Turkish Coffee

After we had eaten the manager brought us out three Turkish coffees, on the house, which came in the most amazing ornate silver cup holders, but didn't taste all the amazing. Apparently you put all the ingredients (arabica coffee and sugar, in this case) into the cold water and bring it slowly to the boil, stopping just before boiling point is reached. I am glad I tried it but I won't be ordering it again.

And so we headed back home with plans laid and getting advice all the time. I made a brew and we got the skitzas out and the previously mentioned confusion with the exact boundaries was highlighted by the simple expedient of folding the two skitzas and trying to line up each boundary on each sheet. The boundary has changed maybe by a metre or two, but I still need to get this clear as I'm getting the fence put in and I don't really want to have to move my fence in case of a dispute. It is most strange as the changed boundary is with public land, or at least land I thought was public.

After this we had our brews and then decided to have a look for the drainage and cess pit that would have been used when the school was operating. First of all we found a pipe which fed waste water directly onto the track; it turns out this is where the water from my trough is going. When a walk around the property looking for signs of a pit showed nothing my friend decided to head over to my neighbour to ask her, as she used to work here. She happily came over, with the grandchildren in tow, and helped us out. It turns out that the toilet waste used to go down through a long pipe and empty itself into a field on the other side of the track, one which she actually owns. She said she was happy for it to continue like this. I am not giving away my nutrients that easily, however, and Humanure is here to stay.

As my friends were about to leave she offered Ayran and this was accepted; she ran off to collect the glasses and a big bowl and fed it to us until it felt like my stomach would explode. I do like Ayran but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. She is wonderfully generous however and I cannot have asked for a better neighbour.

With my friends heading back to their village a few hours away I had to decide whether I was going to do any more work however with the Ayran sitting so heavily on my stomach I decided that I was in no mood for bending and lifting and I decided to have a look for a small car as a run around. I have found a few options and sent requests for information to them via the website so we'll see what happens.

As a bit of a contrast regarding my two neighbours, the other day my little lady neighbour said that she would give me manure and to help myself from her pile. I have just had a chat with the farmers from below me and they came up with a price of 50EU. I am not sure if they were charging this for shoveling it and digging it in however I am in no mood to be scammed by someone else. I smiled and said no.

I have had multiple visits from the grandchildren next door today, coming to see Sassy a couple of times and once turning up merely to use the standpipe in the garden and have a drink from it. They are charming kids, though, so I'm not too bothered and it'll be more difficult for them to come when the fence is up.

Early in the sunset, a lovely silvery light

My daily ding dong with the sheep and their guardian dog has entered a new stage today. I headed them off once from coming in towards my new trees and they went along the lane and onto my land by the other entrance, which isn't a problem. As I was passing the back window I noticed that the sun was going down in a rather lovely show of colours so I grabbed my camera and snapped a shot.

Just watching, not barking

The sheep were round the back and the dog barked once at me, and then just backed off and watched me before eventually wandering off and ignoring me. He ended up asleep in the middle of the field while the sheep cropped all around him and I snapped a few pictures of other views.

Baby sheep dog

This time the little puppy sheep dog, which previously has just stuck around the farm gate, had joined the big dog and was with the sheep. At first he was barking at me and jumping to make himself look a bit bigger than he was but then, when I held out my hand to him, he came and let me scratch and stroke him and he licked my fingers and now we are good friends. He is a cute little thing and after this attention he ran off to, it seemed, play at being a sheep dog. I suppose why train a dog yourself when you can let an older dog train the youngster for you.

And so my dinner is currently cooking and I'm about to light the petchka and pour a beer and maybe tonight I might watch a film; I haven't even plugged my hard drive with my films on it in since I arrived.

Evening sun on my favourite tree

My first visitor arrives 4 weeks today and my second only a couple of weeks after that and next week I start my 2 days a week contract and also the men while be here doing the fence (ograda) so everything really starts heating up from now on; I'm hoping that after the fence I can arrange the roof to be started pretty much following straight on and, if I have the car bought by then, the librarian's son can have it during the week to do the workmen collection and we'll make plenty of progress before said visitors arrive. I can't wait for them to be here and experience just how awesome it is here.