Hi, From Rural Bulgaria!

Hi 😊👋
I'm so excited to have found this website! So many forums and threads full of skills and knowledge I'm desperate to soak in.
My name's Kayleigh and my husband and I move to Bulgaria from England. We're slowly bringing an abandoned vineyard back to life and transforming it into a beautiful off-grid homestead for us and our two children, Alex and Ember.
It is a very slow transformation, as we are doing the work ourselves and are using the leftovers of each pay cheque on our projects.

Our big main project will be the build of our home. We are in love with Earthships and strawbale homes, and completed a strawbale building course in Brighton a few years back. Our biggest hurdle here is the planning and building codes in Bulgaria. The use of tyres, from what we have seen, is a no go. So we are in the research phase of working out what we can do. This is tricky when information is not too easily available and you are still a beginner in the Bulgarian language BUT we have overcome many challenges to get to where we are now so we won't let this stop us!

There's, of course, lots of sideline projects also, water management and permaculture are huge players in this.

Now to resume scrolling and reading - thank you for reading!

Kayleigh 🇧🇬🌱❤️

Hi, i have a small bias against tires, but wouldn't it be easier to build a wooden structure and fill it in with haybales to get a permit?

Hugo Morvan wrote:Hi, i have a small bias against tires, but wouldn't it be easier to build a wooden structure and fill it in with haybales to get a permit?

I think if we did a timber framed strawbale structure it would certainly be easier for permits. I had also wondered about an earthbag build. We are trying to get more information on the building permit requirements over here at the moment, but it's not easy to find!

Hello Kayleigh and welcome! Sounds like you have a lot going on.
I would think earthbags are a reasonable alternative to tyres; and possibly less work too, which may suit depending on your resources. Adobe, rammed earth walls...there are many ways of achieving similar thermal mass and structural ability depending on your local soil type. We've probably got separate forums for discussing each of those in the natural and off grid building forum!
Good luck and keep us updated!

Nancy Reading wrote:Hello Kayleigh and welcome! Sounds like you have a lot going on.
I would think earthbags are a reasonable alternative to tyres; and possibly less work too, which may suit depending on your resources. Adobe, rammed earth walls...there are many ways of achieving similar thermal mass and structural ability depending on your local soil type. We've probably got separate forums for discussing each of those in the natural and off grid building forum!
Good luck and keep us updated!

Yes definitely lots of options. We are keen to find what is right for our location and climate that's for sure.

Thank you for your suggestions ☺️