The Renovation
Before
Looking back at old photos, it’s pretty crazy to think we decided to buy this house. No electricity or plumbing, walls made of mud and straw, and multiple parts of the house with dirt floors.
We started looking in 2012 with the help of our good friends from Doha (at the time), Sarah and Jordan. That photo record (mainly from Sarah) turned out to be worthy of its own photography exhibition, as it evolved into a documentary of contemporary village life in Bulgaria.
Multiple parts of the house were in ruins, with mud, dirt, and straw readily visible as the main ingredients of the house.
There were still many parts of the house with historical and cultural significance, such as the djamal wood burning fireplace covered in pastel green plaster.
The upstairs was really the only part of the house that reflected modern living conditions, such as wood floors and ceilings. Even so, our future bathroom had dirt floors at this level.
We very much appreciated the various shades of green within the house and attributed them to the namesake of our village, which translates to “forest grove.”
There were/are two barns on the property. The upper barn (pictured here) has since lost its roof due to time and weather, but we intend to restore it as another functioning guest house.
Love overcame
In the end, there was enough to love about this property that outweighed the state of its physical condition, the condition we found it in. There was the covered patio that connected all three levels of the house, with views beyond to the Elena mountains.
The outdoor patio really serves as a place for communal living, for coming together and spending time with friends and family.
The barns served as moments of inspiration, as places of future opportunity, whether as places to live or to produce wine, or some combination of both.
The upper part of the property provided the best views of the entire village and region. We could see our future vineyard here, and even some kind of gazebo to conduct yoga practice.
The upper part of Golden Seed is really representative of our future vision of a place that brings people back in tune with nature, reconnecting with the things that matter in life.
Razing the roof
One of the first things to fix on the house was the roof. Being over a hundred years old, the roof was in desperate need of repair and had leaks in multiple areas. We knew we had to fix it to keep any damage on the interior from becoming worse.
What we did not expect was a complete removal and replacement of the roof. Objectively, that is what was needed, but it’s still a bit scary to see your house without a roof.
In the end, the work done by our contractor was fantastic. They carefully removed everything, kept what they could salvage, and replaced the roof respecting its original character.
The best of the rest
Over time, we eventually got the house to a point where we could actually enjoy it.
