BIG PROBLEM!? First snow at our rural Bulgarian farmhouse

We're a family of five who left the UK and bought an abandoned farmhouse in rural Bulgaria, starting again from scratch. But what we didn't fully understand was just how serious winter here can be. Temperatures can drop as low as minus 25 degrees and when the first snow arrives everything slows down. This was our first snowfall at the farmhouse and it revealed a big problem we didn't even know we had. When we first bought the property it was in a very poor state. The roof had previous damage and over time rainwater had been getting in quietly unnoticed. We stripped the house back and started renovating, living day to day on what feels like a permanent building site. That means constant trips to the hardware store and this particular day just before Christmas we were out getting supplies when it suddenly started snowing. At first it didn't seem too bad but by the time we stepped outside it was coming down fast. We rushed back to the car already worried and then realized we were low on fuel so we had no choice but to stop at the fuel station. It was a close call but thankfully we made it back to the farmhouse without getting stuck. That evening the news was full of scary stories from across Bulgaria. Cars stranded, road blocked, people caught out by sudden snowstorms. Stories from around winter 2024 that really made us realize how quickly things can change here in Bulgaria. We're grateful to be home and safe but inside the house another problem was waiting. Right I need to inspect it, rub it down, have a look see how bad the cracks are. The wood feels a bit soft. I can see some drips where the water was but it's dried so I'm gonna have to just have a look and see if we can repair it. Do you think that it's a big problem? Well it is but we don't know how much damage has been done. Also it's snowing at the moment so we can't go anywhere to even get some bits. I'm just gonna have to use what we got. It is absolutely freezing right now. Minus two three It feels like a freezer. It's colder than a freezer. Someone said to us in Bulgaria you don't need a fridge in the winter. I think they're right. You can just hang your food outside. We've got to look at this leak make sure it's not done major damage. We don't know but it's not good. The problem is that we've painted the walls and done all that work to the windows. If we've got to take this ceiling down then that's going to be a big issue because the work's already been done on the walls. Your roof's important because if it's not fixed then more water maybe has come in. But actually we've done the roof so water shouldn't come in but we don't know how bad or if the wood's damaged above the ceiling. Right should we go and have a look? No come on. We have to do this ceiling. This which is ceiling tape. It's very strong stuff. Electrical tape but a lot stronger. So I'm going to turn it off and you can see there we've filled the gaps with wood filler. I've done that side. You can just about see the tape there. I've got to take off. It's painted. I've just got one left I think. Unless I missed any. I'm just going to start filling these areas there. I've scraped all off. This is probably the worst it gets. A little bit there and it's just not. This is worse. The roof itself is solid. We'll rub it all down and then we should give it a paint. That's some kind of roof tape to repair or seal cracks or floorboards but I much prefer wood filler because even though you've got the tape you paint over it you can still see the tape under the paint lifting up. It's just not a good look at all. I did that and it's a splat green all over the beautiful walls. That's the last bit of tape we've taken off. You can sort of get an idea what I'm doing. I'm just using wood filler. Someone said to use a credit card. It's good for things like this. I prefer to use one of these. Credit card. But yeah a credit card would probably do the job just as good. Everyone's preference. I'm used to this now so I'll stick with it. We did toy with the idea of having plasterboard ceilings up but we're not sure. We might just keep it original as we can. If the roof's good we'll keep it like that. If not then we'll change it somewhere. Those of you who celebrate Christmas let us know what you have for Christmas. If you have turkey or duck, deer. I'll just show you outside. It's currently snowing quite heavily now on and off so it's becoming increasingly more wintery feel. That's a nice view we've got. A lovely view outside the window. A lovely view. Nothing in front of us just nice trees and behind there you can't see now but some nice rolling hills in the distance. I'm gonna carry on with this and I'll come back to you in a minute when I've done a bit more. You said you were gonna you needed to cut a tree. I nearly slipped as well. You said you needed to cut a tree didn't you? Yeah I need to cut that one up there. Yeah well today would have been the best day but see how it goes. When it's snowing it's not that cold at the moment. No yeah. It's when it after about two or three days after it snows. Then the highest then it's proper cold. Yeah I am putting on my hood. The wind is coming up from behind your neck and it is freezing. We're just going to see how today goes plans out really with the snow. Right I've sealed this all up with wood sealer and that should make it stronger. Where the water was? Well the yeah this is um dried water from after the leak has happened. I didn't notice it to be fair until now but yeah there's more there's something outside which is quite worrying. So there's on two sides of that there's obviously been a leak um or water coming in and it's come through the trim and settled there so round about the same place so it will be through the same leak. Once we had the leak we did notice that there was a leak. You don't think that there's any more leaks? Since we've done the roof do you think we would have had another one? And bad rain and now we've got snow so I haven't noticed water coming in. It's got a membrane thing it probably slowed it down and it's not come through but. I know it sounds silly but we've not gone up in the attic yet and I think after that work is done maybe that's what we should have done. Yeah we should go back in the attic and see but even if we did nothing to do it just has to naturally dry out. Let's plant it up in the attic later today just make sure that the actual work that was done on the roof has stopped any further problems that could possibly arise on the ceiling because all this work that we're doing could actually um be for nothing if there is still a problem. I'm confident that the guys have done enough work to be at the top. Hopefully. I did not do the work so we need to go up and have a look and see and in fact I think we need to go to the loft anyway because we've not been up there. If you've not noticed what happened is there is still a problem up in the attic. We go ahead painting it all up which is what we've done already. All the new floors and stuff like that. Exactly. And then we've got to take the ceiling down. Yeah. So let's go up in the attic and see what's good. A roof is no good if old is it? That's why it's not a roof. That's why it's a roof. So let's go in there and have a look. I don't think he's talking to me now. He poffs his things. Send a killer rats up there. Put my gloves on now. All right guys so we're getting ready to go into loft. I have brought a big light with me. There is a light up there but it's not working anymore. We're going to have a look up there but it's not working since we had that power problem. Hello Ratty. Ratatouille. Oh I could have put my ladder in there I just realised. I could put my proper ladder. Oh. Yeah. Oh. That nearly went. What was that? A bottle? Yeah. Nice one as well. I could put my wider ladder up there. I didn't realise this opened all the way up. I thought it was just that one side. Oh. That's right. At least I'll make sure there's no cobwebs. None. I'll make sure it's all gone. First time in a loft. When you come in, lean forward. Don't lean up because you've got the thing there. Once you get in it's quite tall. It's quite hard. Yep. Yeah it's hard. Hang on let me turn this light on. There's a bit of string here so I'll be careful. Oh you'll see I'm going to light up like a Christmas tree. It's like Christmas. Where's the plug? There it is. There's your plug. I can set this light up and you can see when you come up. At the moment it's not pitch dark. Just bits of lighting coming through the roof. Give me the camera. I'm coming in. Our lane's coming up. Oh my gosh. First time up here. That's a not filming studio. Keep your camera straight like it's universal. You can give me your hand and also keep the camera straight. Yeah. There you go. Right. You're the camera and this is camera woman. Right let's start See what goodies are around. Well not in front of the light. That doesn't make sense. I was hoping there's like a milk. There you go. It's a little bit better. Oh there's quite a lot of them vases and stuff. Yeah. I'll go over there in a minute. Right I'm just gonna just. Oh wow. There's loads of stuff up here. We need to get into this. There's loads of stuff up here. Oh the bulb's blown. Right that's why. There's loads of stuff up here. Boxes and crates should not be up here so they'll have to come out in the spring. Right yeah. To stop frost. Right what's in here? Oh soap. Bar of soap. Yeah. Bar of the soap. It's only just got dust on it. Bar of soap though. They obviously mis-make it. That's for cementing. Yeah. They made it I'll leave it there. Um baskets are all good condition. Two of there. Right so on this side. A bit disappointed about the chest. I thought it'd be something worth talking about. There's some old bottles and jars in there. So see they've used like a cement mix with hay on the roof and underneath it looks like it's got a plastic. You can see like a plastic um sheet in. Yeah. A grey sheet in there and that goes all the way along. Right so that stops any water. Yeah and keeps the heat in as well. And then you've got the obviously the this stuff here. That's that's basically um mud the same stuff in mud brick but it's got hay in it. Right. Keeps it very warm. That's why up here's actually not cold. No it's not too bad. It's not cold at all so. We thought it was going to be freezing. No it's not. If I came in a t-shirt I wouldn't have been too like kind of fazed so yeah. It's snowing outside you just expect it to be cold. I'll go first. I'm not Oh you've got to come. You've got to come. Come on. Yeah it's all right. Okay. Is it okay? Yeah. Actually that paddle I could have used that. No that tool. I'll just get you to get rid of cobwebs. The tiles all look good. I can't see any gaps which are letting water in. No well at least we know then so the ceiling damage down below shouldn't. Yeah and you'll see water now with snow. What's that? Looks like a fake turnip. Yeah. Something that's dried out. Yeah well it looks plastic like it's meant to look. Sorry. We'll show this. I see a lot of strings around. What do you use that for? There's different colors. Pink, blue, black. Carpet. Oh you can use them to tie off you know when you do gardening. It's like the woven bit of the carpet. Yeah. The colored bit. But you also use them to tie different plants off like if we label them blue, red, black, berries, strawberries. Yeah true. And I think they use that as well to tie. I remember that's how I see little bits of string tied to certain branches. Yeah. I like what they are so I don't forget. There's a lot of dust up here. Yeah but it's not too bad. I'm not disturbing too much. When we come up. When we come up to clear it. Nice lampshade there. Yeah. When we come up to clear it it's just got a piece of hair. Oh that's bottles. See these things around. It's like. It's like coal. I've seen a few around. There's obviously something. If any of you guys know what that is. It looks like coal. It feels like wood but it's been processed. It's quite odd but yeah I think it's like coal. So um there's loads of it. Look it chipped off and it's black. I think it's some kind of processed coal. Wow. Oh it's a nice lampshade. It's quite nice. Very retro. Very retro. I'll put them down so I don't break them. At this point they've stayed here so long. Oh loads of bags. This is not good. It's good but not good. These are pesticides or chemicals. So 99% will be gardening. So I'm going to look into it. The powder's good. I'm going to look into it. See what they are. I'm going to scan them. I don't want to be dropping them with um what it says on there. Skull and bones. I'll leave them there. I'll check them out. If they're good I'll use them. If they're really bad for gardens or pesticides I won't use them. Be careful where I step here. Oh there's tons of stuff up here. Really? Piled up in a corner. They probably used to make it up here. Look. Find a nice brush or straw that's tied together but it's not finished yet. Right let's see what's in here. What is that? It's a nice little chest as well. What are these like strainer kind of thing? I've seen them before. Another one there. Probably to strain something through. Could be. There's a few of them. I don't quite remember. If you take a google picture of that on the phone it will tell you. Recognise it. I can't see. There's other stuff in the box. I can't see. Oh real leather straps. Oh is that for horse? Yeah. Oh it is. For horses and stuff I think. Or donkey. Look. Yeah. Oh that's interesting. They used to have a horse or donkey. These drums are good. I've got my torch. You know that bag that. This one? Yeah I've got the black torch in it. I'm going to just grab my phone quickly yeah. I'm hoping I can get my torch. Here he was yeah. Little cobwebs. Just making sure I step. Seems all good. Yeah there's a cable coming into the house. To the meter. But it is insulated. It's not damaged. It's got like a pipe over it. So that's the one cable I think comes into the house. There's boxes and boxes of soap up here. Yeah there's a pile of it down there. Just need to wash up. Yeah a big pile. And I can see a hole where a rat's made a nest. Going into the ceiling. We're into. So I'm trying to put some rat poison there. Because it's a mud brick. Yeah there's a hole there right in the corner. Where the rat's dug in. And that's probably where he's nesting. So I'll get hold of him. We've got a box of electrical stuff here. Switches. It's full of electrical stuff. I'll come for it another day. But yeah cables, wires. All right. There's another massive box full of soap over there. All you've got to do is wash them off that. You wash off the dirty layer and it will be clean there underneath. There's boxes and boxes of it. A massive box full. We've got another one. Right guys I'm just having a look up here. And um yeah it's massive. So so far the roof up here looks good. Obviously there have been a leak at some point. But there's no leaks now. The roof is good. The tiles all look good now. Since we've had them done. Um the bits of light you can see are not coming in. It's going out into a drain. Which is there in front of me. And it's got wooden beams going this way. See this is the main structural wall here. Yeah. You can see the bricks there. That's the main wall where the kitchen is here. The Petsco. You're standing right above the Petsco now. Right. But this is the main wall. This is the wall you shouldn't really touch. Yeah. If you do you've got to do some proper um what do you call it cementing. Don't you? You've got to bring it up properly. You don't want to blame me yeah? Yep. Now I've dropped the plug. That's clever isn't it? Give me my plug back. Ow. Just for the camera it ain't sitting in my head. There you go. We're back. Careful as you walk. Yep. I'm confident. Right so um oh look at that big vase. Call him vase his name. All these bags need to go in the rubbish. Yeah. In the bin. So one day we'll come back and do a bit clear out. Yeah. Um but the roof itself up here looks okay. So far. It's a big roof. Two of them look. Two big enough for like a vase. Three. Yeah. And that's the same one in the wicker. Right. That's the same one in the wicker. The same vase. I wonder if they've done it themselves. Looks like they have. Yeah. Right let me just get this box over here. Caught me talking about it. See have a look. I'll put them leave them here so we know where they are. Yeah look at it guys. Wow this is nice. Perfect condition. And then that's like a bigger version of it. Yeah. So um at some point we'll get these down. Oops. Don't break. After all that. That's nice. Sacks. We can use them. Oh brilliant. Big. The big strong ones. That's good. I think that's the same. Four small ones. Yeah. Some nice hard wood I can use. Sacks again. More sack. That's good. We can use them. That's why I was saying I'll get some of these. And put a kitten and stuff in them. Right. That's what they use. Oh and rugs all hanged up. There's more. The ball game rugs are drying up there look. Some of them are obviously not in good condition anymore. Right. Got a chest here. We'll have a look at it in a minute. I can take this down. I can use this for snow. I can use any bit of snow right now. Yeah look guys. If you know what this is for. It looks like a shovel but I don't think it is. It's made out of wood. It's very old so we can use this as some kind of the display. And it's very old so I don't think I'm going to use it. But I can clean it up. Make it into an outdoor display somewhere. I'll put that here. Out the way. What's in this I wonder? What's in that? Oh it's empty. But I say it looks sealed. What do you think? I think there isn't. It's empty. There's a lot of Yeah I see. Let's see. It's a nice chest though. Empty. Empty. It's a really nice chest. I can store some stuff up here. You can't exactly get it down can you? I don't know. That door opened wider than I thought it did. So maybe you can. It's a proper nice chest. It's a proper chest. I can rub them down and make them feel like a futon. Yeah. Look. Got a nice cushion on there. It's in nice condition. It's in perfect condition. Right. So have a quick glimpse down here and then when you plant your groves they shoot it. Yeah. That's what that's for I reckon. Yeah. In the garden for your raised bed. And um yeah there's a couple of chests up here. One's full of horse stuff. Horse belts. I don't know. I'm not into horses so I'll have to look through that. Um there's loads of soap. They used to make a lot of like hand soap. So I can see a lot of soap up here. And um in boxes. So they used to make their own soaps. We've gathered that. Um the roof itself is clean. It needs. I just want to come here and give it a good over out. I want to come here one day in the summer when it gets too hot. And give it a proper over out. Like the floor. Complete clean. Um just so it's clean to come up here and it's not dusty. And all this junk up here we're going to get rid of. Take it down. Take it out. Clear the complete roof so it's all nice and clear. And we'll just do it in stages until it's clear. Um all the wooden beams look okay. They look quite strong. Sturdy. I can't see any. I'm not a roof expert by the way but I can't see anything what's really a massive concern. Um in terms of like strength wise. They all seem quite strong. Um another vase over here. Yeah nothing exciting to see. Let's find another nice vase. We'll take that down. It's quite retro. I like that. Um hello. Hola como estas. Drasty. Um exploring. Um I found another vase look. Matching another one. We've got two matching ones now. Yeah it's not too bad now. And there's a box full of magazines and newspapers. Um so papers get old to get old on. So when you've got a petrol car they come in handy. Um there's a box probably full of hay. Yeah so I've had a look around. Everything looks good on the roof. Um all the tiles. Nah it looks all right. I'm not a roof expert but the woods I can tell normally if wood looks bad or weak. There's no signs of weakness. Um all the daylight you can see. Often tiles facing downwards so the water's not running back through that light. It's just gaps between the tiles. Um I can't look up directly and see outside. Yeah so that means the water's not coming in from there. Um there's a light up here but the wiring up here is so sketchy. I don't know. To be fair it's light. I don't think any more worse can happen with it. You've got all these things. These hang a lot of things up here. Probably to dry. Um maybe and these rugs I can see. Um it's a shame a lot of them have gone a bit too too past to be used for anything now. Um yeah it's actually it's actually quite warm and the ceiling's solid. Yeah I can see. Solid. I've walked right down to the end. Yeah. And it's solid so I can sleep better now knowing what we can do in the future though. Yeah. Is clean it all out. Yeah. And get plastic sheeting and just cover the whole thing. Yeah because it looks like they've done bits and bobs. Yeah and yeah and they've put these rugs down I think at some point to keep the insulated. Yeah. On top of this. It has got like layer lino there but if we buy the thick plastic and just do the whole place. Yeah. It'll keep even more heating but it has got straw. Yeah yeah see a mouse has tried to dig a hole there. Right. That's the problem mice. Um yeah but they they obviously there's a big box full of soap there. Wow. It's full of soap. Um. What's that there? What's that? Um. Looks like some sort of um ash. Yeah it looks like it yeah. I think they used to work up here. It just seems like a place they used to do stuff. All this a fair stuff is not good. That's perfect for a mouse or rat to create some kind of tool. Uh this looks like a tool that's to enter the the coal from the ash from the um petchgar. That kind of thing. I can reuse that and make something of it. Look big massive box of soap. Oh wow. It's got more dirt on it. The dust that's more dust what's on there. Right. Yeah it's dust like the one last ones we found. If you wash them off they'll be clean underneath. So it's preserved it to be fair. We're not being chewed on it by rats. Just you know it's all natural soap. But yeah all this needs to go. But yeah later on if we get plastic and cover this whole thing. If I can have a talk to it. Yeah so if we get um a plastic and probably do that with the roof. Yeah. Give it that extra um protection. I won't say insulation. I think it's well insulated as it is. Yeah. And then just for more water coming in. Yeah. And then this roof is solid. I'm walking. Is there anything that you can actually do the roof with the actual roof itself? No. No. Apart from the plastic sheeting membrane. Right. Under the towels. Yeah. Which that means taking all the roof off. Right. You can do it in stages. Like do one part and do the next I'm sure. That's the way to do it. But I understand it's in good order. Yeah. I can't see directly through any towels and see daylight where before I could. Yeah. Um and that's the thing. If you see directly straight up through tiles that means water's coming in. I'm looking down through the daylight. You guys can see in the camera. It's just what I can see down looking down the tiles which water goes downwards and upwards. So um and obviously they are not in a position even that one there. It's great. That's going to a metal run off there. So it's not coming in. Is there ways of sheeting off this um room with um like OSB and creating a room with from it? Yeah. Raise a roof. No. No. Without even doing that. I mean just using the space. Yeah. Put the plastic membrane insulation and then. Oh yeah. It's quite a tight space. Right. And then you've got these poles here where if you do a proper roof they'll move the poles and put a proper square structure up. Right. And make it into a big room. Got you. Because these poles gonna be the way. Right. So they'll take the roof off, move these poles and make into a big and make a proper square frame out of it. Gosh. My nose is running. It's actually warm over here. Oh outside it's freezing. Okay. So we're gonna uh end this video here. Yeah. Downstairs looks it seems like up in the roof is good. Uh we've come up into the attic to just check that whether there's any damage up here or any more leakage because as you guys saw in the lounge there was uh damage to the actual ceiling wood and what we didn't want to do is start painting and doing the floor and everything which we have already started to do but we didn't think to come up here and just check everything first because we just assumed that the guys that did the roof would have done a good job which they have obviously and uh there is just no more no more leak which there isn't. No. So might have been just the old um thing a bit of water come through I don't know. Yeah. But before they did it it was bad. There was daylight everywhere. Um there was possibly 99% there's a chance of water coming through. So we will come up here at some point um soon and clear the space out. Throw away rubbish uh completely just clear it out just so it is clean and not so dusty. Yeah. And then uh we can think about what we're gonna do with the space afterwards. Thanks guys for watching this episode and we'll see you again next time. Bye. Bye.