Countryside Holiday Homes - A Dream Undone

The idea of a holiday home in the Bulgarian countryside paints this lovely picture of living in a beautiful unspoilt part of the world with an abundance of nature around. Wake and get real, it is a major headache for many who fall into this trap of 'The Garden of Eden' waiting for them.

It's not so bad in towns and cities without gardens, perhaps just a yard, but in the villages and rural areas, it can be a nightmare with the land that comes with the property. Nature being nature takes over is left to run free and invade the land turning into a jungle and breaching the property with their wedge affect roots, lifting cement based foundations with ease. The vermin and insect community take residence there and eat their way into every nook and granny. Ants actually enjoy picking up a grain of mortar and storing it elsewhere, so even if you think you property is sealed, think again, eventually, a maze of tunnels will give access to more insects and vermin if left unattended.

My brother has a house in Bulgaria some 15 kilometres from Yambol City, right next to the River Tundzha. To be quite honest you couldn't get a better setting. It is a dream house in a dream position and bought and renovated at a dream price. It is only used for maybe two or three weeks a year.

It is left for up to 6 months without anyone living there and the problems with this are dream shattering and soul destroying. We went there recently to find that apart from all the overgrowth in the one acre of land that surrounds the place, the pathway had been decimated with couch grass roots, a massive outbuilding have collapsed and was in rubble, nicely kept flower beds where shrubs had needed pruning in the autumn were ruined. Quite a few vines had toppled down during the winter; some will no longer produce grapes.

In the house the rats had got into the kitchen and had eaten away at the fridge door, the food and utility cupboards had been breached with big dropping and electric plugs and plastic gnawed everywhere. To the side of the house, a big crack had appeared where a small leak had been left unattended, which had frozen and defrosted. To get the electric connected again you needed to pay a fee on top of the last bill and this would take three days to get switched back on. So when he arrives there would be no electric for that amount of time. Luckily this year we had insulated the water mains garden shaft and drained the system to prevent bust pipes, this is what happened last year and the year before so we knew. The list of problems goes on.

Many holiday homeowners have exactly the same problem and maintenance and a weekly check on the house is essential to keep in check of the problems of absent owners. The biggest problem is finding someone to do this without taking on specialist expatriate companies and paying extortionate prices. Local Bulgarians can usually take care of security in the villages, they are around all the time, but the foreign styled garden and modern house maintenance is a major hurdle and headache for all.

We were away from our village home for six months the year before last, but we knew all the problems that are involved with being away and we made sure our time away was in the winter when the growth in the garden is minimal. When we got back everything was in order. We had our neighbours to pay our electric and water bills throughout so no need pay and wait to reconnect. We even put the Lada car battery on a trickle charge on a sunny windowsill with a solar charger - It was fully charged when we got back.

These problems with countryside residences are not restricted to Bulgaria of course, anywhere where nature can take hold is a headache.
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21 comments:

  1. Martin very interesting and you sum it up nicely at the end. If you leave a property here the effects can be the same. Ants are a major issue and of course you would soon have a jungle from the plants if neglected!

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  2. BTW the first comment was from me-I haven't quite mastered the system yet.

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  3. Martin, like Mike said the same is true here in Thailand as the elements seem to have the edge,what with the warm weather all the time it does not take long till your place can be overrun with vines and bushes and of course the ants . that was the case with the house me nand Ciejay bought to remodel it had been nelected for years and some parts had fallen in and the land was all grown over .but it had a good foundation and the walls and the main roof were good , so we decided we could make it work and work it did, a lot of work too but it was worth it as we love the location and is high and dry during the rainy season and the soil is great and all our plants and flowers grow very easy .
    But like you say, left to it's self for a season and it will not look the same . We always get someone to come stay in our house for that reason , but ,homes that are used only for a couple weeks a year suffer like you say .
    Good post and as always very informative about your part of the world . Malcolm

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  4. HeatherD ("Footsteps")14 April 2009 at 16:17

    Every place seems to have its own unique difficulties -and pleasures. I've just "rediscovered" your site and will be back to read more. Quite interesting!

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  5. Looks like you are prepared if you need to leave your house unattended again.

    Every dream house comes with a set of problems. Reading your post, now I understand why my grandma in the village used to be reluctant to leave her house too long. It wouldn't be much of a problem for us city folks to leave our apartment for an extended amount of time.

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  6. Martin in Bulgaria14 April 2009 at 17:04

    Ants are a problem even if you are here all the time!

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  7. Martin in Bulgaria14 April 2009 at 17:05

    I think the system might be putting people off commenting, so I'm rethinking again !

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  8. Martin in Bulgaria14 April 2009 at 17:10

    Hi Malcom and CieJay,
    Problems indeed, you did well to overcome them. Buiklding here are not set on good foundations and that causes even more problem that are not easily solved. Nature is a big force to contend with. ~Gettgin a caretaker is difficult here, not too many expatriates do it let alone owners wanting to pay them to do it and then there is the Bulgarians who just don't do that sort of thing.
    Thanks for the piccies again.

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  9. Martin in Bulgaria14 April 2009 at 17:11

    Hi Heather. Good to hear from you again.

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  10. Martin in Bulgaria14 April 2009 at 17:16

    Hi Lina,
    Good to hear from you.
    I learnt from looking at what happened to other people properties that were left unattended for extended periods. Their summer holidays ended up as a restoration and maintenance vacation not to mention the stress alongside. Townies like you say, don't have that problem.

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  11. Just as in Turkey..))

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  12. Mark @ TravelWonders15 April 2009 at 01:14

    A dash of realism always spoils the idealistic view. I think the same issue must happen nearly everywhere.

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  13. *lynne* @ amalaysianabroad15 April 2009 at 08:40

    I can totally relate to checking up on unlived-in houses to make sure things remain in good shape. My parents have a white elephant "weekend house" about 1.5 hours away, close to the beach, in Malaysia. They go once month, perhaps. Once, I accompanied my father there and boy was it freaky! It looked like someone had totally trashed the place! The only explanation we could think of was that a monkey had somehow gotten in, then panicked and wreaked havoc before finding a way back out.

    Then there was the house I bought, and when I got the keys I went to check it out... The previous owners had engaged people to paint the house before handing it over, but probably hadn't gone to check things out one last time before handing the keys over... a window in the kitchen had been left open, and stray cats had decided to make the kitchen sink their toilet. OMG it was not a pretty aroma or sight! Thankfully the kitchen doors were closed so the "damage" was restricted to just the kitchen!

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  14. Hi Martin I'm back!

    Ohh I know about nature being nature too;)We have plenty of agricultural lots too that really requires regular maintenance...we have hired caretakers for that to keep the trees from being strangled.

    We also still have a property in Holland that's waiting to be sold...I dunno when will taht happen with the economic crisis going on.

    I see you are now using JS... is it better than the normal commenting system?

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  15. Martin in Bulgaria15 April 2009 at 13:38

    A good way of putting it Mark. thanks for stopping my and telling us.

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  16. Martin in Bulgaria15 April 2009 at 13:40

    Hi Lynne, thanks for the story, I thoght rats were bad enough, but monkeys!! Only one worse visitor who calls when you are away - Human Thieves!

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  17. Martin in Bulgaria15 April 2009 at 13:43

    Hi Jade, I'm sure you had a good time away, thansk for calling in. JS-Kit slows things up and I think that might put a few peopel off alongwith getting confused with the proceedure. However I really like working with it So much better than blogger's default comment system (YAWN!) Take care.

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  18. I have to agree that this is a dose of realism that many don't take into consideration when getting a vacation home. It's true it happens to an extent in different countries, but hardest in places that have the extremes of climates....cold winters, hot summers..and that grass that keeps on growing. Oddly, my grass kept growing in wintertime. It was always knee high by springtime because I was a wimp and didn't go out in our mild California winter weather to cut it.

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  19. Myself and Wilai have talked about her perhaps coming over to England but our Thai home is always a big deciding factor in the equation. Wilai has worked hard over the past few years to landscape a very beautiful garden and also to keep our house in perfect shape. If left to her mother to take care off we both think that after one year away the garden would be a jungle and the house in need of repair. That may sound bad towards Wilai's mother but it is a matter of fact. We both whole heartedly agreed that there's no place like home and Wilai should stay.

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  20. Martin in Bulgaria16 April 2009 at 12:03

    Hi Bev, yes extremes of climate are not always realised from those who come from more moderate climates. Here it is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter for many. Cutting grass in the winter sound quite strange like you say!

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  21. Martin in Bulgaria16 April 2009 at 12:06

    Hi Martyn, I certainly feel quite nervy leaving my farmhouse just for a few days let alone an extended time. I can see exactly where you are coming from and like you say, who can you trust ot look after a place other then yourself - Not being nasty just truthful.

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