Date: June 14th 2012

Hi!

Well its 8am in the morning and a rather muggy day after a massive storm in the middle of the night. We have been back in Bulgaria around 3 and half weeks now and have managed to get a fair amount done, including the usual of dealing with broken water meters, arguing massive bills with the water company, tackling the jungle like gardens and cleaning all the dead bugs out the houses!

The first two weeks we had to try and nip out in brief respites from the rain and get the gardens under control. We even resorted to lighting a fire and putting the central heating on. But in the last week or so summer has landed and it is now over 30 degrees every day.

We have got all the gardens under control and had a Bulgarian agency around to view the two villas we have for sale and to list them on their site and have had already had a couple of viewings. But as we are hoping to try and sell at least one of the villas this year, we are open to offers on them. Why not come and stay for a few days and see the properties, visit the area -> we have a lovely holiday cottage for rent.

If you recall in my last email update we were considering trying to swap our apartment near Sunny Beach for another on a more 'dog friendly' place, having been told not to bring our dogs. However, after spending a few days at our apartment on the coast we have decided we do not want to swap it and be anywhere else as we love it there and have made some good friends. We had a meeting with our lawyer and a long discussion with management and the lawyer states and the manager confirmed that legally they cannot stop using using our apartment and having dogs there. The only issue (except for the moans from a few Brits who go for a week a year) is that we cannot have dogs on the common areas, so not on the grass outside our apartment - one of the main reasons we bought a ground floor apartment, but at least some positive progress and we are trying to reach a resolution with the committee. But the bottom line is we are no longer looking for any type of exchange for the apartment.

And of course that we still have our lovely studio there for rent over the summer. We have bought some bits and pieces for it to make it more personal and homely place to stay. You can rent the studio with bedding and towels and welcome back (bread, butter, jam, milk, tea, coffee and wine/beer) for 100 Euros a week as a special offer to those on my mailing list.

We may possibly consider an exchange of one or both of our villas for some land/outbuildings somewhere right on the edge of Stara Zagora so we can expand the dog shelter we work with here but think it is unlikely anyone on this contact list owns a few outbuildings in an industrial region of Bulgaria. This summer our charity (http://twitchynoses.org) will hopefully be fostering a number of dogs with the help from a dog sitter coming at the start of July and aiding Animal Help Stara Zagora who do amazing work for stray dogs around the region and all over Bulgaria. The shelter is desperately short of funds so if anyone can spare just a few pounds we have a UK charity account and a paypal account.

You can follow our exploits and read about life in Bulgaria at http://www.thetravelbug.org/blog or see details of the properties for sale and rent on the main site at http://www.thetravelbug.org.

We have a couple of apartments to furnish in the coast and have just found a brilliant little shop to buy everything from and are doing various bits and pieces on our own properties. If you have property at the coast and want it checked, snagging lists doing, furnishings then please get in touch.

Rachel