Fresh Start Sticks
The paperwork is signed, the legal checks are clear, and the nerve-wracking house hunt is officially behind us. It still doesn’t feel completely real, but we are holding the physical, heavy iron keys in our hands.
We have officially moved into our very first Bulgarian home!
After leaving the fast-paced UK grind, walking through this front door as rightful owners represents the ultimate fresh start for our family. But as with any move abroad, the reality of rural Bulgarian living comes with an immediate mix of breathtaking charm and unexpected surprises.
Dust off your boots and step inside—we’re taking you on the raw, unfiltered tour of our new life.
Stepping onto the property, the first thing that hits you is the sheer scale of what you can get here compared to the UK. We are surrounded by our own land, a massive stone barn, and mature fruit trees—all completely ours, debt-free.
The house itself is a classic piece of regional history. Standing on the ground floor, you truly appreciate the craftsmanship of a bygone era.
No matter how many times you view a property before buying, everything changes the day you actually move your suitcases in. We discovered a few things on day one that the estate agent’s listing completely glossed over:
As we mentioned in our renovation diaries, we were bracing ourselves to live like pioneers with a wooden outhouse in the garden. But walking through on moving day, we fell in love with our fully functioning internal bathroom. It needs a modern facelift and some serious plumbing updates, but having running water, a proper toilet, and a shower inside the house from day one feels like absolute luxury.
The house tour looks a bit different from your standard UK property video. There is no fresh beige paint or pristine plasterboard here. We haven’t re-rendered any of the walls yet. Right now, we are surrounded by beautiful, raw, exposed stone and historic mud bricks. It’s rustic, it’s dusty, and we absolutely love it. We are intentionally keeping them bare for a few seasons to let the building breathe and dry out under its new roof.
In Bulgaria, it’s very common for sellers to leave everything behind. We inherited hand-woven traditional rugs, antique wooden trunks, vintage farming tools in the barn, and several jars of homemade kompot (preserved fruit) in the cellar. Sorting through it all feels like a historical treasure hunt for the kids!
Living in a Bulgarian village is a total sensory shift from British suburban life. On our very first night, the absolute silence was staggering—no highway hum, no sirens, just the sound of crickets and the distant chime of goat bells on the hillside.
But rural life also means adjusting to a completely different rhythm:
| The Village Reality | What We Are Learning |
| Water Supply: | Village water pressure can fluctuate, especially in the summer when everyone is watering their vegetable patches. We are already learning to plan our washing cycles! |
| The Local Shop: | Don’t expect a 24-hour supermarket. Our village shop is a single room run by a lovely lady named Maria, stocking fresh bread, cheese, beer, and basic essentials. If you need more, it’s a drive to the nearest town. |
| The Language Barrier: | Holding the keys is one thing; explaining to the local delivery driver where our house is using broken Bulgarian and hand gestures is another. Google Translate is currently our most used app. |
Right now, the living room is a sea of cardboard boxes, the kids are building forts out of packing paper, and we are boiling the kettle on a temporary camping stove. It is chaotic, exhausting, and perfectly imperfect.
We didn’t move across Europe for a sterile, showroom life. We moved for an adventure, for financial breathing room, and to show our children that you can write your own script. Looking out our windows at the rolling Bulgarian hills, we know we made the right choice. The dust can wait—today, we are just celebrating the fact that we are finally home.
In our next post, the real work begins. We are unpacking the tools and tackling our very first weekend DIY projects to make the space liveable. Subscribe to follow the transformation step-by-step!
If you moved abroad, what is the very first room you would unpack and set up to make it feel like home? The kitchen, the kids’ bedrooms, or the bathroom? Let us know in the comments below!