This post is actually post-dated, as it contains pictures of progress before our visit to Alekovo between 12th and 20th of the month. Me (Nick) and our youngest son Toby are going over to do some planting and for Toby to get a “feel” for the place before he moves out there in August.

Obviously the big job that has carried on since the last post has been the insulation and rendering of the outside of the house.  The colour really looks spectacular in the photos and we hope that it is not too loud or out of place in the village – we have been told it’s fine and traditional!

Outside the team have been securing the two final boundaries – about 25m on each side.  We ummed and aahhed about whether or not to cull more trees to make space for the fence, and after a bit of argument with a neighbour (who claimed the trees were his for some reason) we did harvest about 10 mature trees for firewood and fencing. The main reason for getting this done is to make sure that we have a dog-proof boundary all around to keep our dogs and livestock in and the local feral dogs – and above mentioned neighbour’s chickens – out.

Inside there’s been a lot of initial finishing work; beams and supporting timbers have been getting their first coat of varnish, as has the stone cladding in the barn (living area) and office.  The utility room has been tiled and the shower cubicle built (and nicely decorated with some left over feature tiles from the guest bedroom). We’re disappointed that the back door hasn’t been completed by the carpenter yet, but hopefully by the end of the month it will be.

Well that’s all for this post. As I said at the beginning this has been post-dated.  We are back from BG now and Toby has over 5,000 photographs to process and select from so hopefully there will be some other topics in the next few posts, other than building work!