How I sticked stone plates on my home's walls

Sunday 28 September 2008

The task of my business yesterday and today was to make a stone footing on the outside walls of my house. That means generally speaking to stick stone plates on the down part of the wall. According to my aesthetic paradigm, the stone plates with their beautiful colors do match with the color of the house in a way, which in Bulgaria we call like bottom and pants.

Armed with plates, a glue and instruments, I started with an enthusiasm the execution of my goal. The work is not hard, but requires both patience and passion...

Take the plate, cover the back side with the necessary quantity of glue, stick it on the wall, hit with the hammer to make a stronger cohesion, then fill up the gaps with more glue...

Here is a view of the rough result after the job's initial stage:

As you see, my work is not completed, so I continue... These small wooden splinters are used with two aims:
1. To prop the separated plates until the glue dries;
2. To make a distance (a gap) between the plates, which will be filled with glue later.

My dad despite the warm sun was wearing his hat and jacket. At first he did sit on a plastic chair and all the time gave me his wise advices :) My father has a restless heart and in some moment he did stand up and included himself in the work...
Finally he was convinced that the situation wasn't hopeless and even if I'll never be a good master, I can cope with th work. So then he sat on his chair again ...

I really endeavoured to arrange the stone plates in a homelike and nice way... Here is the last picture that I took that evening. That wall is almost ready but there are few other sides of the house as well as a stone fence in the front side of the yard!

The future feats are waiting for me :)

My family

Wednesday 24 September 2008

family [social group] a group of people who are related to each other, such as a mother, a father, and their children...
(from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

What is the home without people? A cold and empty building... When I said that my home has a soul, I had in mind my relatives, who did put their love, imagination and hopes for better life in this house. So let me introduce to you my family!

My parents are pensioners. Today we live together in our family house. They inhabit the groud floor and I live on the upper floor. My mather's name is Petronka and the people call her shortly Petya. The name of my father is Angel. My father is a very skilled and hard woking man and he did many improvements of the house through the years. My mother was a careful and sympatethic nurse. Now she takes care on my nephew and teaches him after school.

For me my parents are priceless! Sometimes I think about myself like "Man of the Family". My old parents and all my relatives were probably the main reason for me to return in Haskovo after I graduated the Sofia University. And I don't regret about my choice! The truth is that often we have different points of view and make strong arguments, but nothing can't break our sense of commonwealth and our support in times of crisis.

Also I have a brother who's ten years older than me. He is married and has his own family. They live in their apartment in 10 minutes on foot. I have two beautiful and smart nephews - a girl, called Zlatina and a boy, called Angel.

Angel and Zlatina

Angel is 8 years old and Zlatina is 14 years old. Don't you think they look like me? I think so. In my opinion it's better that the kids have the features of their uncle, because their father is not an example for numan beauty... don't mention that in front of my brother!

So we talk about the beast and here he is! Some people say that there're similarities between me and my brother. I don't know really, but you can evaluate alone the reason of that affirmation. If I close my eyes and use my imagination, probably I'll find many common features...
In the left is my older brother. (did I say that he's 10 years older than me?) On the right side is my honour...
But lets leave the joke aside.
The true is that my brother Stanislav is a nice person. Before many years he introduced to me the music of The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, who are among my most favourite bands. Today I'm even bigger fan.

Location and neighbourhood

Tuesday 23 September 2008

neighbourhood - the area of a town that surrounds someone's home, or the people who live in this area...
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

The location of the house

My house is located in a small and relatively calm residential district in the south part of Haskovo, Bulgaria. The name of the area in Bulgarian sounds likes “quarter Ovcharsky”, which means “Shepherds’ district”. Many our neighbour families live here from many decades. Actually some of them are living here from the beginning of the quarter.

Visit a link to Google map of Haskovo (my house is right in the centre of the picture)

According to my friend Ivan the latitude of my house is 41.926978815610575 and the longitude is 25.562632083892822.


The neighbourhood

The story began fairly 160 years ago, when few clans from the villages south of Haskovo moved and settled the town. They created a new quarter and because their main occupation was the shepherd’s trade and the farming, the name of that place naturally received the brand “Shepperds’ quarter”. The section lies between two small rivers, which cross Haskovo – the self-titled “Haskovska reka” [in Bulgarian: Хасковска река] and the river “Byal kladenec” [in Bulgarian: Бял кладенец]. There’s a short distance between the house and the city centre - about 15 minutes on foot.

The church "Saint George" is one of the most remarkable places in the neighbourhood. The old church was built up from the first settlers before 160 years. It was low-rise building without bell tower. Later, when Bulgaria became a free state, the people made a new church with tower and bell. I was baptized here.

Probably "St. George" is the most suitable name for the local tample. No, not because I bring the saint's name. As I said, the first residents of the district were farmers and shepherds and according to the Christian tradition St.Georgi is their protector.

The story of my house

Monday 22 September 2008

story [description] - a description, either true or imagined, of a conncted series of events...
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

The banal and true phrase says that every house has a story. The house is just a building in which the people live. A heap of bricks. Should I bother you with my house's story? Well, dear reader, in that case you always might leave that page. But if like my blog and the story of my house, you're welcome agian.

Like every other house, mine has a story. And my house has a soul.

My home was built from my grandfather Georgi in 1957. The previous two years the family made bricks for the building. Mom was just 16 years old but she helped in the production too. The house had two storeys but the lack of money became the reason to be not completed. There wasn’t a bathroom and a solid stairway, some of the rooms of the upper floor even didn’t have doors.

When my father married my mother in 1965, they decided to live in Haskovo, in my mother’s family house. So dad started his life in the house of his parents-in-law (situation not very usual for the Bulgarian tradition). But dad wasn't frustrated - he's very ambitious and hard working person, so in a short time he made strong staircase and a terrace.
In the late 90’s with my parents we started new massive repair. We earned enough money to replace the old wooden floor between our two storeys with concrete. That cause many subsequent repairs and … well, we still work on our house with intention to make it a better place for living.

That's my blog...

Saturday 20 September 2008

... about my house, about my yard, about all little things I do at home. Here is the place for my modest and home like life.
You'll read about some my amateur repairs and my gardening passion and how the people and the house live together... and maybe you'll catch the spirit and the atmosphere of that place which I name "a place to call my own".

Home like home

• The blog is organized in few categories like Hammer and trowel, Different topics, Family matters, Garden of delights, Days are numbers etc.
  
• For your facilitation I made a search engine, so you might search in the blog using different keywords.
  

The inspiration for the blog's name and subject came when I was listening to a song from the last album of Toto.

Simple life

Days feel so long
My life seems short as years go by
The chance that I took
Feeling so strong I had to try
All of the pain I left behind

Been down the road
My heart has been sold
The price was steep
The world that we have
The wish that we made is ours to keep

All of our emotions are so deep
Cuz I can't stop falling in love with you

All I want is a simple life
All I really want is you
All I want, all I need
Is a simple life