We Just Got Our Dream Home In Turkey

How did we go from this to this in just 12 months? A year ago we left the UK and moved to Bulgaria. We wanted somewhere green and lush. Somewhere with sunshine, the sea and a completely different lifestyle. And a few months ago we started searching. And now we're walking through the doors of a house that's changed everything. And we're discussing the pros and cons of starting a fresh life here. So you're more for this sort of area where it's green, lush, kind of tropical, warm all year round. Then the magic moment happened. And it was this. Green, lush, sea, tropical and sun most of the year round. We found our dream home in Turkey. There's two, there's two in there. Yeah, I think there's two exactly the same. Try the other one. Not that one. It's got to be this one. Right, let's go in. We are so tired. Looks like there's some sort of damp problem. Looks like we need to investigate it a little bit further. Yes, there's also a few extractor fans either broken or missing in the bathroom. A few tiles are missing. So at some point those will need to be replaced. And the kitchen looks like it needs to be renovated. You guys want to come and have a look? Yeah. Come on in. Yeah, you had a bug on your face. It is very hot in here. There's no AC. Oh, it is nice. This would be... Oh, there is an AC here. Oh, brilliant. And there's furniture as well. Definitely kid's room. But guys, look at this. Wow. Massive. Need to replace that as well. There's a lot that needs to be done. Probably need to repaint this metal bit. And does this work? Is that a tap? An actual tap that works? Oh, maybe not. I won't touch it. Let's not break anything yet until we're going to fix it. This is going to be one of the kids' rooms. We still need to get some curtains for in here. It's massive windows. But the windows let the sun in and it is absolutely... It is scorching in here. Tiles, that's all good. But I just need some decoration and some areas which have not been finished off properly. You look a little bit more kiddy. A bit more kiddy, yeah. Maybe change the wall colours, I don't know. Yeah, have a feature wall or something. A feature wall, yeah. If a road splits in two, you cannot go down both roads. You need to choose a direction you want to go. It's just like choosing a side. You can either sit there and be the naysayer and find negative reasons to complain about something, situation, or even people doing stuff. Or you can go on the side of the people who are actually making movements and actually getting your mindset to where you want to be. That's what you need to choose. You can join us on this journey and see what we do, where this takes us. And then how we deal with anything that comes up in our way or obstacles. And the first thing is sorting out this property. Guys, do you know what day it is today? No. It's tidy up day. It's the weekend and we need to clean up all outside. The leaves are falling and we need to clean it up. All the rubbish needs to go into there. And we've got to clean them all up the stairs and this area. Sweep it all up. So even lesser, you can help Mari pick up all the twigs and leaves anything we need picking up. And Mari, yeah, we can sweep down the whole stairs. So yeah, let's get it done. I'm going to be doing jobs myself. So while the guys are doing that, I'm going to see what other jobs need to be done around the property. I need to tidy up because within all these fruit trees, there's, I don't know what these are. I don't know what this tree is. I don't think it's actually a fruit tree. And I've got obviously these lovely kind of cactus kind of plants. I've got a fig tree here trying to grow, which I don't want. I've got olive tree there, which is taking over the area going towards the swim pool. And down the bottom there, we've got pears, avocado and that kind of stuff. Our training in Bulgaria has given me the expertise. I would say expertise, it's just given me a little bit of skill to deal with some of this. It's a completely different environment. It is very harsh, it's very hot. And the insects in Turkey do not play around. I've just cut these two trees here, which is here. And because our machine is broken, I had to do it by hand. And then I'm going to cut this big branch, what's covering all this area. So I'm going to cut and get rid of all this here to let more sunlight in. One thing we have here is lots of mosquitoes. We also got this outside wood burner. I don't know what you call them. I forgot the name of them in Bulgaria. But the chimney is broken, which is going to repair. And it's the first time opening this. It's full of rubbish. But I believe it's like a pizza oven. You can cook in there, bread, that kind of stuff. So we're going to use that. But also the garage area above the car, we're going to redo that, tidy it up for now. Maybe in the future, put a proper garage there. But for now, my best friend is this. Until I replace that in the area there. So, yep, it's the joys of having a garden. Straight from the bottom, straight from the bottom, that's it. And then grab to the middle and then throw it over. In the middle, this branch, in the middle, just between. No, no, the actual branch, that's it. Yeah, that's looking great, Eva, Mari and Vanessa. Doing a really good job. It's a problem, the leaves keep falling. Every time we cut the leaves, they keep falling down. You can see there's loads in the area there. So, yep, it's the joys of having a garden. Now, this is the bit we're focusing on. We're going to try and get this done, try and get this installed and working for the end of the day. I haven't got a clue what I'm doing, by the way. I've never done a blind before. So I started that one, I took it off. And now I've got to work out to put it back on again and get it working because it's electric as well. Okay, so I'm just going to shave down the area here that doesn't catch. Again, it's been fitted very badly, so we're going to try and make it better than it was before and work. Oh, they're doing a good job. It's looking nice down there. While I'm up here, I'll just have a minor view of the avocados. Just down there's banana and you've just got the sea. You can see it's a bit hazy, but the sea's right there. So, yeah, it's one of our farms. Not a bad view to make up to every day. While they're cleaning down on the ground floor, I am on the first floor. Yes, there is a second up there. And the next job is to fix the electric blinds. This one I've got working. This one came off completely. So I've got that one, that one, that's just this one I've got finished. I've got to put these blinds back on and then fasten it because it was done properly. I managed to get a chainsaw out of the depot. By the way, they call the storage area or shed a depot. And this thing hasn't been used for a few years, but I found it in there. I'll try and get it going. I've never heard that name. Is it a Turkish name? Which wall? The far one. You see it going there, just drop it over the wall. So it's on this side. Make sure it's flat against the wall when you drop it. The kids were working really well as a team, helping us to clear the grounds of our new home in Turkey. There was a lot of work to do, but seeing them all pitching together made such a difference. Right, so one of the good things about living in rural areas is that we have an excuse to go out for a drive. And I've got to admit, how clean this front courtyard stairs going up is. Absolutely beautiful. Right, this is another job we have to do. At some point there was a storm here and it's damaged this whole shed and it's taken the panels out. This is because, number one, it wasn't built properly in the first place. But the option would be to knock it all down, which is a perfectly good shed, and rebuild it our way or put a new building here. Or we can do it another way and replace all these back panels here. Because right behind me, if I lean on this, I will drop 25 feet down to the ground outside. Our land extends outside of this and it's quite way down. So there's no support there for someone to even lean on this and not fall out. We're having kids, we've got to do it very quickly. We've got a lot of work to do. Quite honestly, I can't believe in 12 months we've got from Bulgaria to Turkey. People are asking what we're going to do with our Bulgarian home. An option could be to sell it. Or we can keep it as a summer home. Quite honestly, we've not decided yet. We're just looking into our options at the moment and taking it a step at a time. I mean, options of still keeping our hand in Bulgaria is very much real because we can go to Bulgaria for holidays if we want to have a break from Turkey. So guys, you can join us on this journey. This is not where it stops. We have got a lot to do here. And you guys have now joined us on this fresh start in Turkey, in our new dream home. We're going to go and get some water from the spring. It's about two miles down the road. I'm going to get some more bottles. We've acquired a cat. Look at that. Look at this. Look at this thing here. Look. Look at you. I don't even know your name. Look. Look at this. We'll use them for a certain time. And then at some point, we'll get new ones. The sun's set going on right now. Going down. I'm going to take off the roof. This is very warm. That's good about Turkey. But since we've been here, I've been in shorts every day. And the roof has been off Columbus. I put this on at night time, not for rain, but just for the dust. Because they're doing some roadworks on the road. And the road has not been resurfaced yet. So we're just waiting for them to resurface that. But for now, it's just to keep the dust out. But we'll take it off because it's warm. It's like 30-odd degrees still. It's in the evening. It's still 28, 29. So it's very warm. Then we go and get some water. I wonder what we're going to see on the way today. Now I've neatly placed all the bottles in there. Now we can go down to the spring. Next time, we were picked up in a VIP van and taken on a family excursion. We had no idea what was waiting for us. But what happened next genuinely shocked us.