Gostilitsa 2008

Until 2008, my visits to the village had been with contractors or estate agents and been fleeting affairs. A chance meeting with an expat turned into a commercial arrangement for him to get the place up to a habitable standard (construction of rooms, plumbing, stairs, septic tank etc.). My eye for detail, or lack thereof and trusting nature led to an ultimately poor deal on my side.
I booked a trip with the expectation of staying in the house for the first time and the standard that greeted me upon arrival disappointed. Stairs installed but constructed of rough timber and wonky, hardboard doors, cheap Chinese plumbing, leaking bathroom tiling, the whole thing had been done in a hurry and with the cheapest materials possible. Not only that, the level expertise shown fell somewhat short of artisan. To this day I don't know if monkeys fall under Bulgarian employment legislation but I have a strong suspicion that a troop of chimpanzees had a fine time hammering and sawing their way through my generous budget in early 2008.

Perching a pair of heavily tinted rose coloured spectacles at the end of my nose, I pushed on with painting over the large cracks and pretending that I'd got a result. A few days of hard graft and many cups of tea later, walls were painted, a bed bought, and a construction site started to look more like a home.
A few days after that, the plumbing blew up spectacularly and the place became soaked and uninhabitable.

The evening sun showed the place off to good effect without seeing the unwanted indoor swimming pools.

King Canute didn't have a blue bucket I don't think, but my challenge proved as futile despite the mop and bucket.

Fortunately, the view changed little.