Plastering Course Weekend One

What a weekend!

Shiny and clean

For the past two days over Saturday and Sunday I have been at the first two days of my Plastering Course. It was brilliant.

I have a LOT of pictures for this update so please excuse if they do not marry up to the text they are near (something I always try to achieve as I'm sure you have noticed) but I have took 37 pictures and my mate Alex took another 22 so believe me I have narrowed this down and deleted loads.

Pear Mill - an outstanding building

Anyway, thinking back to Saturday morning I arrived at Pear Mill really early, but with a book (well kindle) (planning you see) and sat in the truck and after a few minutes Alex walked over and we went for a walk around the outside of the amazing building.

Can you imagine having to lay all those bricks, and the effort it must have been to create this amazing space. Imagine when it was at its peak capacity and the hustle, noise and energy when it was full of people and machines.

Such a beautiful industrial building.

Me and Alex

Anyway, it was cold so it was back into Thomas, engine running and heater going until finally the doors for the course were opened and in we went..... to much abuse from the trainers because of our shiny and clean overalls.

Part of the group

There were about 15 people who arrived that morning but only 7 of us doing the Plastering course. The others were doing a Decorating Course or a Basic Home Maintenance Course. We had a brew (with more amusement when one of the students stole our instructors fresh coffee - minus one star on the board next to her name!) and then split up into groups.

The plastering area

The Plastering area was a collection of bays, half of them already plastered (from the previous mid week course, apparently) and the other half wooden shells which were our bays. First of all Len (our instructor) walked us around the completed bays to give us confidence that these people, with only three days of practice, had done them and to be honest this worked. The finish on every wall would be good enough for me.

The tools of the trade

However Saturday was not a plastering day. We were told to pick a bay and then "right, prepare your area; you need to take out all the nails". An hour or so later, and with aching arms and slightly warm, I had managed to remove almost every nail - it's true that no matter how much you search you will always miss some.

Basically at the end of a course the plasterboard is kicked through and the bays opened out again for the next course (us). They do not, however, remove the nails and this as the first task works really well to relax you into working, get your blood moving and put you in the right frame of mind to just get stuck in.

Plaster boarding

We did get time to have a brew break and then it was onwards to put new plasterboard up on the studwork. I have done this before but it does show just how quickly you forget your skills with lack of practice. It took until after lunch to plasterboard the whole area, something once I would have done in an hour, but I did get back into the swing of it over time.

Mmmm hot chocolate

One of the other students, who is actually a builder, did get the complete bay boarded by lunch and so he headed off early.

Acro Prop holding the ceiling up

I managed to finish by about 2pm and so was able to get back home in time to watch England win at Rugby - always a good thing.

Sunday started about the same, arriving slightly early and sitting with Alex in Thomas with the heater on. This time, however, we were actually going to be doing some Plastering.

My first attempt at plastering

First of all Len showed us how to do the mix. Then he went to one of the previously plastered walls and showed us some tricks. Then we were each given half a wall and told "give it a go". I will not go into all the tips that we were given (it would take too long and anyway if you want to learn, you go book on!) but suffice to say I was impressed with the way which Len showed us something, then presumed that we would be competent to give it a go.

First ever full skim

A good example of this was, after our short practice on the other people's wall, we were told "right go and mix up your own plaster and set to on that half of your own wall". I actually did the second lot but by the end of the day everyone had wielded the mixer tool, scraped around the outside with the bucket-trowel and washed out the plaster bucket once the load had been used up (OK I did that last a few times; what can I say I ended up finishing things relatively quickly and hate standing around).

One part of the day which was really awesome was 11am when, at the end of the morning coffee break, we all observed the 2 minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday. It was good that such respect is shown so willingly by a group of people from such a disparate background.

By lunch time on the Sunday I had plastered half of the big wall and learned SO MUCH. I was struggling to put enough thickness on the wall and then, during the smoothing out process my trowel angle was wrong which was scraping plaster off the wall rather than just smoothing it onto the wall.

Alex fitting his plug socket

A short lunch break (then a crowd watching Alex cut out and fit his plug the hole for which we will repair next weekend) and onto the next step; plastering the ceiling.

Mixing the plaster

I don't know why, maybe because of the practice from the morning, but I felt much more confident doing this. I still made the same mistakes of scraping too much off because of the trowel angle but my initial load was much more what I should be aiming for.

Just a little dirty....

After a short brew break we were back to our bays to do the final smooth and then cleaning and tidying to leave the unit safe and ready for any midweek courses which are booked.

And me (caught by surprise)

Our overalls were no longer clean by the stage and much amusement again when the course leaders took both our photographs as part of a "before" and "after" montage for their website.

I managed to avoid getting anything in my beard but Alex wasn't quite so lucky.

My bay at the end of the weekend

So now I am really looking forward to next week; we will finish off the plastering in the bay, learning how to join two plastered areas and then on the Sunday do a second skim, where you have to do things much quicker as the plaster goes off fast when it is being put onto other old plaster.

The instructions

I cannot wait.

With thanks to Alex for a few of these pictures :)

Architects / Change of Use... What now?

A lot of people have been asking me what I'm going to do now I have sacked Veselka; presumably, they're saying, I still need to have an architect and soon to get the progress I need so I can start off building as efficiently as possible when I arrive.

The thing is I have a number of options open to me and I am currently weighing these up and the fact of needing an architect is even under question.

1. Engage the other architect who I met when I met Veselka

If you are a regular reader of this blog, and have a good memory, you will remember that when I first met Veselka I arranged to meet another architect who was found via a contact from my friend (nepotism can get SO convoluted!). He wasn't around as much as Veselka and at the time I was pretty impressed with the answers Veselka gave compared to this guy (he's called Lubo). I had to make a decision and I went the way of Veselka.

Ahhh nepotism....

What I put now will probably lead you to ask "why exactly did you make THAT stupid decision?" but at the time I had to fall one way or the other and I made the decision I made.

Lubo is local to the region I'm buying in, though the contact with him now lives up in Sofia and isn't around as much. He used to work for the Obshtina and so said he was ideally placed to get the approvals needed. He also, however, said a few things which made me think he may not have been as straight and honest as I would like.

I have contacted Lubo and he has said he's happy to help and will hopefully be getting back to me today having spoken to the Obshtina to get full facts about what they say the next steps are.

We shall see.

2. Find a different architecture firm

Another option I am currently working through is finding another architecture firm (mainly from Sofia) who may be able to help me. I was kindly recommended a couple of firms in the comments section of an earlier blog post and have contacted them and another friend has given me a further recommendation. I sent basically the same email to each company last week (even before I had sacked Veselka) and waited.

Can it be that hard...?

Every company has now replied which is impressive compared to the communication skills I have been used to so far from Veselka, with two of them agreeing that the price and timeline I am expecting is acceptable, and the third saying that they can't do it for the price I want. This is fair enough and at least they haven't taken it on at one price, and then tried to increase the price over time.

The issue with another remote company is the distance again may become an issue.

3. Use the chief architect at the Obshtina

Now THIS is what I should have done from day one, and I'm kicking myself slightly that I didn't go with my instincts however that is just how it goes.

hmmm.... good idea!

The people who sold me the school have been helpful in the extreme and have spoken to the chief architect at the Obshtina and she has offered to start the process for change of use free of charge just to help out. I was not even aware that this lady was available commercially and thought she was only the contact inside the council that I would need to speak to while I was asking for the change of use.

The issue I have at the moment is I need the original Skitza and this has been requested by Veselka so I'm waiting for this to be forwarded to me before I can do anything. If I can get everything done by the department in the Obshtina who, ultimately, approve the process then that can only be a good idea.

4. Do what we can without Change of Use and wait for March

The final option (and this could combine well with the previous one) is for me to do what I can now (my friend can get the electrical survey done which is apparently all that EVN are waiting for before giving me my temporary electrical connection). If what I have been advised is correct and the Permission to Build may NOT be held up behind the PUP then I would be able to arrive in March and immediately start the process with the aim of having Permission to Build within a month or six weeks.

Oh yeah...

Whatever I do I will not be expecting to really start work immediately I arrive; first of all my parents are going to be there for the first week or so and I will want to spend some time showing them around etc and even when I do set my mind to it I will need to ensure my build team is ready and order materials for delivery and all that takes some time.

I could, therefore, on the first day I arrive kick the process off and then just be available to go into the Obshtina any day, while also giving the time to my parents that I want.

---------------------------

So, there are a few options open. I am waiting for contact from Lubo before making my final decision however the problem with the first two options is I gave Veselka my Power of Attorney but no one else and I would need to get that Power of Attorney to whoever is going to do the work. I could go the same route as I did when I bought the school and have the contract sent here, signed and stamped and couriered back so I don't have to get over to do this however that is more cost and more hassle.

The good thing about all this is that I have options and they all have their good points.

Onwards :)

The Rhodope - An introduction

This is a short blog post to introduce a new series which I have been planning for a fair while but not got round to starting.

A map showing different dialects in Bulgaria

I want to talk about the Rhodope (the region of Bulgaria which I am moving to) and its history, culture and what makes it so special and why I love it so much.

This could be a long and ongoing thread through the blog and hopefully, when I am there, I can actually visit some of the historic sites and tell you about this experience as well.

One of the best things about Bulgaria is just how central it has been in the History of Europe and the East; its location has made it central to such climactic changes as the end of the Roman Empire and its position during the World Wars and the ensuring Cold War is also fascinating.

An example of early Russian script

From a cultural point of view Bulgaria also has a lot of influence. For example did you know that the Cyrillic script was actually invented and developed by the Bulgarian Empire. The next time you see Russian remember that the letters originated in Bulgaria.

So as I say, this is a short update, mainly as I'm struggling to write today. Now I have started this series I will hopefully start to write the rest of the entries.

I sacked my architect

After my slightly amusing findings on Friday I asked Dilyana to find out just exactly what Veselka was thinking with the fact her numbers were all over the place, and she had doubled the quote again between our physical meeting and this new contract.

Is it really that confusing?

The reply arrived on Sunday and was basically "uh yeah, Veselka got confused".

Right.

So my architect is admitting to having no grasp whatsoever of the Project, and being unable to grasp or understand the simple requirements which I have? And I am supposed to have any faith in her ability to carry out the processes without making continual mistakes in the future?

No it is not!

I don't think so.

One of the "confusions" was regarding the 290 square metre number which appeared first of all on the first, incorrect, contract. The reason given for this particular number was that Veselka thought I was only converting two of the school rooms into living accommodation; the issue for this is each school room is about 40 square metres and so it would be only about 80 or maximum 90 square metres.

This is only one example of the multitude of mistakes which have happened from the start and, when taken with the delays (which were completely unnecessary and stemmed entirely from bad organisation) I have firmly decided that working with Veselka is a bad idea.

Yup, that's that

So she's gone.

I have sent an email to Dilyana telling her this, asking for her invoice, and requesting that all future correspondence is forwarded on to my friend. Additionally I need the originals of the drawings she has done.

We shall see just how long it takes for this request to be carried out; if I am going to be taking a new architect on immediately then this will be a problem if it is slow however I'm not convinced this will happen.

It seems that the PUP is not necessary and if I get the electrical survey done (not a huge cost) then I can get my electricity connected and have that waiting for me. I also will find out tomorrow how much the municipality will charge me to apply for the change of use and may not need to do all the project as the school is ALREADY in private hands.

It's quite confusing and difficult with lots of people telling me lots of things however I feel like progress is being made.

Continual delays, no MORE!

As of this morning I have not had a reply to my email to Dilyana telling her the news so I think I shall wait another day or so and then ring her; I can't have Veselka causing me delays even after I have sacked her!

Ripping out the fridge

Over the weekend I had a day with Julian for a couple of different reasons.

First of all I was meeting the Camper Van engineer to explain to him what I needed to have done regarding the electrics. This went quite smoothly and he is off to source the parts and will come in the next couple of weeks to do the work.

After this my friend from twitter came over and we set to work to remove the fridge.

Detached the pipework

Contrary to previous advice the pipework was all copper, which makes a lot more sense than steel, and so out came the american size wrench and within thirty seconds the fridge was disconnected from the gas.

Hacksawing

As an aside we also found the isolation valve for the fridge, it's the screw just to the right of where the pipe is no detached. It does make me wonder whether the fridge would have worked but I don't really want one so it's not the end of the world really.

Pinched and bent

With the fridge disconnected and confidence that no gas was going to leak my friend cut off the pipe with a hacksaw and then pinched the end off having stuffed it with petroleum jelly flux to assist the soldering process which was next.

Soldering

My friend brought out his blow torch and a very thick spool of solder; this is not the solder you would use to add a transistor to a circuit board.

More pinching and bending

Another pinching and bending and another blast with blow torch and solder and we had a gas pipe that was sealed off and (according to our noses at least) not leaking anything.

Sealed pipe

So the complicated part of the process was completed, now all we had to do was remove the actual unit from its space. That'd be easy, right.

Wrong.

First we had to remove the bracket attaching it to the floor of the camper and then it did slide out quite easily. However it was too large to go out through the door.

Removing stuff to make it smaller

Oh well, no trouble, I thought, we'll just go out through the front passenger door as I can take the bed apart and drop it down on the seat and out.

Wedged in the front passenger seat

Unfortunately it was about 10mm too wide and this failed also.

Hacksawing the coolant system off

Being blokes we then did the only thing we knew to do; attacked it with a screwdriver and a hack saw, removing any and all bits until it was small enough to fit out of the door. The coolant was VERY nasty and I almost threw up. We literally threw it out of the door and escaped gasping into the fresh air.

And we had won!

The bleeding fridge

And the removed bits

We had defeated the evil fridge which now say, bleeding and in pieces, and ready for scrap.

Thanks to battsby for all your help; you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Now I have to build the rabbit hutch in the space; at the moment the camper is insecure as the access hatch where the fridge used to be does not lock, and is flimsy plastic. I am quite looking forward to sorting this out, though, and looking at it Sassy is going to be a very lucky rabbit, as there is actually quite a lot of room there.

Just when you thought the contract saga was over....

.... reality strikes again.

Of course, putting a double-Carlton was tempting fate and I even felt a little unsure yesterday as I wrote my blog but I didn't want to say anything just in case I jinxed it and it all fell apart again.

Which makes it ironic that when I received the translation of the first contract last night it took me all of about 2 minutes to spot the first mistake. A quick call to Dilyana appeared to clear it up but after further reading I realised that the contract was a pile of rubbish.

Slight exaggeration but yeah :D

I'm not going to go into detail but as a summary the quote had doubled AGAIN, there were new items in it which had never been discussed and, during a marathon 25 minute call to Dilyana going through everything again we both realised that Veselka had calculated the area of the living space incorrectly not just on this new contract, but had picked an apparently random number on the previous one (and then used that to create the quote she gave me hand written when I was over there).

It isn't this complicated

Frankly an architect who can't even add up their own plans correctly does not fill me with confidence that she will be able to add up any of the other numbers she has to do right either.

More like this...

The end game was me telling Dilyana that I was ready to walk away and that she had to call Veselka and tell her this and find out just what she thought she was playing at.

I do have other options however and this is one of the benefits of always thinking and never presuming something will work out. I have received one quote which is very competitive and equivalent to Veselka's first quote (though as with everything you have no idea what the extras will add) and I am waiting for another two quotes.

Additionally I have Sylvia who I have asked to speak to the head architect at the Obshtina to find out direct from her what we need to do. I am also considering paying Bekir to go in this week as well and talk to her face to face to understand the process and potential costs.

You're fired

I'm pretty close to sacking off the whole architect angle for now and waiting until I arrive in March to start this process; particularly if Sylvia and Bekir come back saying "oh it'll only take a month or so because we don't need to wait for the PUP" as Sylvia suggested she would as even when I get there it'll take me about a month or so to arrange workers and order materials etc.

So it's kinda back to square one, but also just trucking onwards and this demonstrates just what an exciting (!) adventure emigrating can be. As any of you who have done this before will agree, it's never plain sailing and there are always bumps in the road.

No need to get put off though.

So, on to the other subject I promised I'd blog about today.

Awwww isn't he CUTE!

Rambo.

The guard dog at my studio is going to have to be rehomed as we have opened a cafe and also have more and more young people coming in and there is a risk which our insurers are complaining about. When this became apparent on Friday my immediate reaction was "well I'll take him with me" and so now I am putting my mind into gear to work out just how this could be possible.

There are a number of issues with this. The first one is transport as every square inch of my vehicles was earmarked for taking my stuff over. If I take Rambo I'm going to need to put his cage in the back of Thomas (it fits, just, but only if I take the removable back off, put it on the truck, and then replace the back over the top... hmm...) and then pack things around him to maximise the space. He's a BIG dog and so his cage is pretty huge too.

The next thing is while we're travelling, we'd have to stop regularly to water, walk and allow him to do his toilet and while this isn't going to put us out very much (we were going to be stopping regularly anyway to swap drivers around) it is another thing to consider.

Another thing is the over-nighting. Will he be OK in the cage in the back of Thomas (additional security for the trailer which will be hitched there) considering he will be cooped up in there all day also. I suppose a long-ish walk of an evening and morning is a possibility but that just distracts us from the main business which is putting miles behind us.

Finally I have not got fenced land for when I get there and so I'll either need to get that fenced prior to my arrival or have him chained up until this can be completed. I'm no fan of chaining animals at all so this isn't ideal, though I've had a good suggestion involving a running chain to give him loads of slack.

And with all of that there is also the vets costs and animal passport which will be required to take him out of the country; an unknown cost.

Anyway it's another thing for me to think about.

I HAVE CONTRACT!!!

Oh yeah!!!

It's time for this old fella; no error today....

Do that HAPPY DANCE!

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself because of my excitement so rewind, go back to yesterday and imagine that you don't know that they'll arrive today.... Feeling frustrated, confused and uncertain? Good, you are there.

I spent most of yesterday waiting; I did send a chase email to Dilyana but she was also still waiting; her story was not changing either - Veselka had promised to send the contract to her that day.

In the middle of the afternoon I had a couple of missed calls from a Bulgarian number and when I rang it back it was Sylvia, the partner of the agent who I bought the school through. I had emailed her last week with a few questions about the state of the paperwork (mainly concerned about the cadastre - the official plan of the village which the Obshtina maintains and which didn't include my school, apparently) and she had been doing some research for me.

More information, less understanding

This is where my confusion started.

First of all she cleared up about the cadastre, that it wasn't a problem as most of the village wasn't mapped and it would be easily done as part of the work which Veselka is doing. Indeed I think that one of the documents which was sent through (the plan) is indeed the school being added to the cadastre.

It was when she started talking about the PUP that I got really confused. She said she had spoken to the head architect at the Obshtina who had told her the following things.

• I don't need the PUP before receiving Change of Use from the Obshtina
• The head architect will be available to do this for me next Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday
• I will need to apply for the PUP after I have completed the build

This directly contradicts everything I have been told up to this point and, when I rang Dilyana to try and get an understanding of what exactly is going on, she was almost as confused as I was about it. 

Her point was, if you do the Change of Use and complete the Project without the PUP, why would you bother getting the PUP at all. This makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, I get to this morning and an email first thing to Chaz and an hour later, Dilyana emailing me the Bulgarian versions of my contracts.

Yep, gonna get him out again.

are you feeling it...?

So now I'm waiting for the translations to be done; that should be today. I'll then print, sign and email the contracts, and also put them in the post.

So, at the end of the week, and a few days later than my original deadline, I have a contract.

Celebration

I'm going to wrap this up here, though there are another few things I need to write about regarding totally different issues which occurred yesterday. You'll just have to wait for tomorrow to find out about them.

Looking sharp, I think you'll agree

Happy Movember.