Krasen, Dobrich

Hi Jane, nice to see you are still around....I live not that far away from Krasen, its in lovely countryside, has a working post office and a small cafe/bar..............its got a school, and is a long village. There are some historical sites around as well, but ive yet to find them... Theres a lake a little way away. It depends on which way you come into the village, one way the road isnt too good, but if you enter from the main road from Dobrich through Dabovik village the road is new and good. General Toshevo is the nearest place for markets, shops, hotels, restaurants in fact most things that you would need.........builders merchants, wood yards things like that.

Thank you, yes, I'm still around! Hubby thinks I am mad, as not only have I bought a shack in Krasen, but also an old fully furnished house online without seeing it, and that's where I'll be staying. Should be interesting! I gather it hasn't been empty long, so should be basically liveable, to Bulgarian village standards. I am fine with that, as long as not too many spiders and rodents have moved in before me!

Only a week there this visit, but all being well I hope to stay longer next time. Hubby stays here in the UK to look after the cats, plus he hasn't been well so isn't up to travel at present. That's dented our Bulgarian plans a little, but we will see how things go.

Hi, I hope that you find the house "livable", some peoples ideas of it being so are not to everyones taste. If you find that its not, in the little town of General Toshevo there are a couple of places to stay.... Peters Motel on the main road is fine, cheap and cheerful...and there is another one called the Uzanov Palace, and one more at the other end of the little town, but I cant remember its name, I think its called Tassos  ....

Hi, I hope that you find the house "livable", some peoples ideas of it being so are not to everyones taste. If you find that its not, in the little town of General Toshevo there are a couple of places to stay.... Peters Motel on the main road is fine, cheap and cheerful...and there is another one called the Uzanov Palace, and one more at the other end of the little town, but I cant remember its name, I think its called Tassos ..

website for the motel........

[link moderated]

-@bullador

Thanks! I checked what other accommodation there was nearby, just in case! Hoping I won't need it, but you never know.

  I put a link on with the details of the Motel in General Toshevo, but for some reason its not been allowed. I am assuming that the Krasen you mean is the one in the Dobrich region, because I do know there are other villages with the same name...........This can make life a bit difficult, ive known people turn up at the wrong village looking for property. We had a lady call at our house asking if we knew where a house was, unfortunately she was in the wrong area.......the one she was looking for was down near Yambol.

Pat, I saw the same thing - even the estate agent when I asked about accommodation nearby sent me a link for a place in the Krasen near Ruse! This is definitely the one in Dobrich province, near General Toshevo.

Links get blocked, unfortunately. Thanks for trying to share it.

I fly out today. Three days in VT doing the company set up and bank account opening paperwork with the estate agent, then later in the week off to discover just how "liveable" the so-called liveable house is. My expectations are low, so chances are it will be good enough for a week's stay while I assess what needs doing.

My main concern is practicalities like knowing where the main power on-off is and the water stopcock! Apparently water and electricity are connected, but before leaving I will need to turn the water off and winterise the plumbing, such as there is, ready for winter.

It sounds as if you are all prepared,  that's good. We are in the next village to Krasen until Saturday. We are house sitting for friends. 

Nice! I will arrive in Krasen on Friday. The estate agent has arranged for someone local to collect me in General Toshevo and take me to the house.

Of the three hotels in General Toshevo, which would you recommend?

@janemulberry

Hi Jane, sorry ive just seen this message, to be honest ive never used the hotels, the Uzanov Palace looks nice but I dont know if its still open. I know the restaurant hasnt been open for a while. Its central though, so better placed for everything.  Peters motel is also not too far from everything, well within walking distance.... Booking information

phone for booking - Family hotel Peters, General Toshevo0885 782394   

address of Family hotel Peters, General ToshevoGeneral Toshevo, 63, D. Blagoev Str.

I cant seem to get any information on uzanov palace...sorry.

I hope everything is ok for you when you get to your house....

@bullador

Sorry for the slow reply, I missed seeing this post.

I ended up staying one night at Peter's Hotel. It was okay. Clean, comfortable, and a good bathroom.  Their snack bar/restaurant is also closed.

I'm glad I did stay over in Toshevo so I arrived at the house early next morning. Though I love the house, it took all day cleaning just to get one room and bed clean enough to sleep in! It had been unlived in for two years, and the elderly widow who lived here had been ill for many years before that. So cleaning and a lot of necessary house repairs unfortunately slipped.

The place needs so much more doing than I expected that the first night here I was quite miserable and I wondered if I'd made a huge mistake. Now, after a week here cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and puttying up as many loose drafty window panes as I could before I ran out of putty, planting some tree seeds where the garden needs new trees, getting to know my neighbours and the neighbourhood, I am ready to cry at needing to fly back to the UK tomorrow and can't wait to get back.

Good news that you like your purchase...Krasen is in a beautiful place, lots of wildlife and very rural.

@janemulberry where are you in Krasen? We are in Rosen the next village over towards the Romanian border. We had a similar experience with our house when we bought it three years ago but now love being here. We are leaving for Israel early Sunday but if you'd like to come over today or tomorrow you're welcome. Judy and Terry.

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Judy, that would have been wonderful. but I flew back to the UK yesterday! Hopefully we can meet up another time, that would be great. I'd be very interested to hear your experiences.

As we missed the residency boat pre-Brexit for various reasons -- mainly hubby waiting for the perfect house at a lower cost than was ever going to happen, till I insisted we just needed to buy an imperfect house for what we could easily afford! -- we now have to wait 5 years till I'm officially retired to make the full time move. But we'll be back and forward as often as we can in the meantime.

Our house is right in the village centre, next street back from the main road, behind the chitalishte. We are not looking to try to turn a traditional village house into a UK house, but even with more realistic expectations, it still needs a lot of work. Malko po malko. We will get there.

Congratulations Jane on your new Bulgarian home and many happy returns.

@janemulberry we also wanted to keep the village character in our place. The modest renovation on the house we made cost us a bit more than buying the property. We had to replace the main roof but I insisted on using the original tiles so it would still fit in to the village atmosphere. We also put in a very simple kitchen (just a countertop with sink and some shelves), simple bathroom. We cast concrete floors over the original mud. We did change the doors and windows to PVC which I wasn't too thrilled about but I kept the same basic design of three panels per opening so they blend nicely. I understand that I can't post my phone number nor address but I believe everyone in Rosen knows where the American/ Israelis live! We'll be back in January if not earlier.

I will hope to see you then, Judy! I'm back in the UK, but hope to travel over frequently to work on the house. I would love to visit with you and see how you did your place. You can send a direct message via this site when you are back in Bulgaria.

I'm not thrilled about getting PVC windows, either. We would much prefer double glazed wood. A friend who lives near VT found a good Bulgarian joiner who made him beautiful wooden windows, the old way of double glazing with two separate windows. One of each opening pair is even designed to lift off its hinges and be replaced with an insect screened window for summer.

But I have no idea how to find someone capable of that level of craftsmanship in our area. They probably do exist, but find them is the issue!

@janemulberry I also wanted wood at the beginning but neighbors who had bought the old school house and renovated it convinced me not to. They had put in wood and after two years they were shrinking and not closing well. They actually convinced me to go with double glazed PVC. Is your house painted blue and white?

I'd heard the same Judy so when we get our single glazed windows replaced they will have to be PCV.

Wooden windows are very charming, but IMHO they are a pain in the proverbial. There's a reason why UPVC is so popular!

Most of the houses in our village have been renovated. Almost without exception, they replace all the doors and windows with double-glazed UPVC, add external insulation, and then apply new render. Perhaps it's less "authentic", but it's simply the most cost-effective way to upgrade your house, and it really does dramatically change the thermal performance of the property.

That said, there is a case for keeping old wooden windows (which are made of strong old wood) and renovating them (albeit a lot of work). Modern wood is less aged / improperly dried, so tends to be far less durable.

My parents have a listed farmhouse in Suffolk... and I had a large German townhouse in a conservation area... and my brother has a Georgian townhouse in London... so we've all had to deal with wooden windows... and picky compliance issues.

UK rules mean that my parents had to install wooden single-glazed which are the worst of all worlds. My brother similarly has to keep the style of the original windows, so opted to renovate them, and install secondary glazing inside. I replaced mine with new wooden double-glazed windows. All were very expensive options. And all the brand new windows aged badly.

For our Bulgarian house we just yanked out all the old windows (wooden, single-glazed) and replaced with brown UPVC windows. Doors too, while we were at it. Super quick, super easy, and quite affordable. As a bonus, it's very easy to add external shutters and/or flyscreens to UPVC windows. I would never, voluntarily, go for wooden! And, indeed, my experience of conservation rules was part of why I looked for (and now enjoy) a house where I can do whatever I feel like doing. :-)