Bohemian retreat

Na konci zimy (the end of winter)

2010-04-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Ahoy,

An adventure is only around the corner in CZ .... you never have to look very hard for new things to happen ..., last month we visited our wonderful friend Gregory ..., (a celeb in his own right, an out and out English gent who has been somewhat adopted by his neighbours). We just popped around for a 'cuppa' and to borrow 'The Good Soldier Sweik" by Jaroslav Hasek, (you have to read it .. ) and during our chat he invited us to join him at a "festival" at the neighbouring farm house. We know the owners a little so agreed to go with him.
As is usual here, we were welcomed with open arms, offered tea and invited to take part in the celebrations.

I don't know about any similar celebrations in the UK but I am sure that they probably exist. We helped to dress a life-sized straw doll in womans clothing and long red, green and yellow ribbons (rather like a maypole). These signify earth and life. The "figure" was then painted with a rather gruesome "death face" and given a rather sharp looking scyth to hold, during which the gathering sang local songs. All spectators, adults and children alike, were given birch twigs again wrapped with ribbons and some lucky ones were given instruments to rattle and shake.

Once prepared, there was more singing and everyone danced around the figure - some holding ribbons and trying not to tie up the chap who was supporting her on a pole. At this point the elder of the family made a short speech about the banishing of winter. He has done this for many many years and it was quite emotional to watch although I have to say we were a little lost in translation. We then formed a procession and followed the figure up the lane to a small bridge.

At the bridge, more songs were sung with everyone chanting "Out out out, let the Spring come in" (in Czech obviously!) and a short speech made before the figure was set alight and then "banished" into the river below whilst the wife of the gentleman who carried "her" gently patted at the flames that threatened to engulf him too!.

This ceremony has taken place for more than 30 years. In fact Hannah wrote a good blog about her experience of the festival last year see http://krumlovbrit.blogspot.com/search/label/magic. It really is quite magical and we were honoured to be allowed to participate in this years festivities.

Emergency measures for frozen pipes !!

2010-04-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

Dobrý den Vážení freinds, So here we are catching up on posts again ... I know that winter has moved on but wanted to post this one first of all ... hope you like it.
As I've said life here is never dull and the winters can get somewhat cold ... minus 20 again this year, which didn't burst any of our pipes but still managed to burst a main in the village. A month or so ago before going to bed we found we had no water .. at all, not unusual as we figured that having seen someone from the water board earlier in the day something was up and hopefully service would resume in the morning .. (a nice shower before travelling back to the UK the following day) ... yeah right .. !, no water so what to do ??? .... so this is where the old army training kicked in as we figured there's plenty of water out side ... just in a frozen state .. so what did we do ? .. I think the attached pics explain it all ....
We filled up a wheel barrow full of the white stuff and proceeded to melt as much of it as we could, enough to fill the toilet cystern twice, the kettle several times and enough to wash and shave before setting off on our travels back to the uk. When needs must I guess you just have to get on with it .... just stay away from the 'yellow' type .... thanks Spike !!!, oh and don't try micowaving .. it takes too long.

Fun in the snow

2010-01-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

While England seems to have have closed due to inclement weather, life in Czecho goes on as normal.

By law every car here is fitted with winter tyres. The main roads are gritted and salted and clear. The snow ploughs make regular sweeps of the villages and add to this the fact the Czechs have lived with snow and ice every winter since forever and the outcome is that driving over here in snowy icy conditions seems a far safer option than traveling in the UK would be right now.

Of course temperatures are low. We've hit -20C over night a few times and and it has been known to get a lot colder. Our house is toasty warm thanks to the ground source heating. Whilst the part of the house that we are living in still has the original "small" radiators* temperatures indoors have only dropped to 17C on a couple of occasions when the outside temperatures have really fallen. On these occasions we stoke up the cast iron stove and it jumps to the mid/late 20's within an hour or so.

*In the future we will need to install larger radiators and possibly underfloor in this part of the house to optimise temperatures throughout the whole house as our heating engineer has set the system specifically to keep us warm in this small section.

So life goes on and new seasonal opportunities for fun arise.

We hike through snowy forests with Spike and Oz (As you can see he likes to come too).

And until the snow gets up to Spikes chin all is well. He does feel the cold and tends to rebel at about -5C as he prefers to be snuggled under his blanket on the sofa whereas Oz just likes the "tree climbing" opportunities.

South Bohemia is very close to Austria. We are about half an hour from the border and as such we can travel to several nice Austrian ski resorts within an hour or so and we have our own local resort just 30 minutes up the road at Lipno (more about that in a bit!).

Tim and I have decided to take a break from the pressures of building and take time out for fun so as part of our action plan we decided to have an afternoon of skiing in Hochficht, Austria.

We set off under the instruction of "mrs sat-nav" and headed toward Lake Lipno. The roads are all quite small in this region but they had all been cleared - even those through the Sumava National Forest area where salt is not permitted - so we were soon alongside the lake. I have been given to understand that Lipno has one of the longest skating tracks in Europe during the winter months. It is quite a sight to see such a massive body of water completely frozen. People cross country skiing and skating the entire length (Apparently there is a bar in the middle so must give that a try at some point!). There are stories - probably true - of locals that drive their cars across the lake during this season. It seems that there are a few at the bottom when drivers chanced their luck too far into Spring!

Anyway we were progressing well and under instruction turned right into Frymberk town whereupon "mrs sat-nav" announced that we should "board the ferry"! - Thanks Garmin! Please think about adding a "Ferry choice option" to your software. - Considering that using the ferry would have involved pushing it across the ice ourselves we decided to detour and go around the lake.

Well, we must be getting old because I have to say that I really enjoyed the drive. It was a lovely sunny day and the scenery was breathtaking but we eventually arrived at Hochficht about and hour later than planned.

You can find plenty of information about this fairly large resort online so I wont go into much detail here. Needless to say it was very busy with huge lift queues as it was school holidays and being peek season an afternoons skiing was rather expensive especially when you consider the time spent queuing and not skiing. Having said this we did have a great afternoon and really started to brush up on our rusty manouvering. Needless to say we chose a quicker route home with a slight detour to stand on lake Lipno (all of about 20m in - how brave arent we!!)

The very next day we decided - action plan again - that we would try out Lipno ski resort. To be honest we didnt expect too much from this resort as it is not as well known but we were more than surprised. The facilities are excellent. There are several restaurants and cafes at various points around the resort. The main restaurant at the entrance serves good home cooked food - we had the goulash with dumplings - at sensible prices. Ski passes are half the price of Austria and for those wanting lessons Lipno is ideal as instructors probably outnumber skiiers. The lifts are all "chair" and despite the school holidays the queues were non existent. There are 5 or 6 good runs and the resort keeps the snow blowers on when the conditions are not absolutely perfect to ensure that the surface remains excellent for all levels of skiing ability. All in all, this resort is perfect for those who want a fun afternoon. It is close to home, cost effective and well maintained. It is going to be our first choice from now on.

Quick post script: Just found a new "resort" (well it has 1 lift) that is open in the evenings and at weekends and is only 5-10 minutes from home. Will check it out and let you know how it goes. This is of course assuming that Tim survives his new passion for cross country skiing (he is a glutton for punishment!) without breaking any bones!!. { Tim .. "I'm just back from a ski .. it was hard work today, the snow is a lot deeper so you don't quite now how deep the next bit is .. I went for a good hike into the forest which was so quiet apart from a lone woodpecker banging on a tree ... yes it is addictive, not quite sure why but I think its a culmination of the physical effort, adrenaline and the shear beauty of the landscape although I do stare at my ski tips a lot and get in the 'zone' .... have to try out the little ski place up the road"}.

Take care all .... gonna get some Ice Skates at the weekend we think and give frozen Lipno a go .... will write again soon cau cau ..

Restaurant rave!

2010-01-17T06:52:00.000-08:00

We had relatives coming to stay. Not a mean feat when there is only one bed and a living room but these two are the kind of people who make themselves at home anywhere and are easy to cater for.

So we planned a few outings and took them to sample some of the local cuisine - which they loved!

Now the thing about this area is that the restaurants pretty much run along the same theme. That is to say mostly the food is meat, meat, meat and dumplings! All fantastic I have to say but just sometimes you want something a little more - not sure what the word here should be - possibly challenging or perhaps a little more cosmopolitan.

Anyway, we took them to Prague for the weekend. It was fun! Cant blog about a lot of it but I do want to mention in fact give a big mention to one particular restaurant that we visited.

The restaurant is called Mlynec. It overlooks the Charles bridge.

I had visited this restaurant years ago when I traveled with a company that I worked for and remembered that the food had been very good even for one of those big corporate events. So we booked a table for the Saturday night.

Well, the website said that cocktails were free before 8pm if we were eating so we arrived at 7.30 (Just to make the most of the evening you understand!). The staff were wonderful. Very friendly and helpful. They suggested that we should join their club, the "Zatisi" group of restaurants as we would then get points towards further meals etc (and the free cocktails). We did this and then sat down for the most amazing meal...

We chose the "Chefs choice Asian fusion 7 course menu" with wines to complement. Our waiter, Peter (We have since met Philip who is equally as talented) chose the wines and provided a glass with each course as it was served. Our guests are "foodies" like us so each course was accompanied by full scale discussion about the amazing quality of the food and the degree to which the alcohol - which included cold saki with one course - went so brilliantly together. I cant remember the combinations. Lets face it 2 margaritas and 7 different other drinks before coffee and I would be pressed to remember my name but I can tell you that the courses included the following:

Beef Tataki with Bonito Jús , garlic chips and spring Onion
Sautéed Scallops St. Jacques, Yuzu fruit dressing, mango-papaya salsa and Nori Nishiki rice
Tuna rolls with asparagus and scallops Sashimi with yuzu-chillli mayonnaise
Chef´s deer goulash

I have always admired the art of the somelier. I had thought that in time I could learn some of this skill, perhaps to start with the pudding wines (There cant be so many of them can there?) but I am now in complete awe and know that this talent is in a league of its own. The saki was a complete but perfect curveball. A reisling with one course was something I would never have considered drinking at home. By the time we got to the "Cab-sav" - a usual mainstay at home- I actually found myself thinking that although it went perfectly with the food (I think that this might have been the venison) my pallet had become so suddenly sophisticated that I considered never drinking it at home again (What would my dear old dad say!)

In England we used to visit some nice pubs that had great menus and I guess that with wine it would be easy to spend £50 per head but this meal above meals cost us less than that and was the most enjoyable foodie night out I have had in years.

The story doesnt end here.

We received the membership card a couple of weeks after our visit and with it a voucher for 2 meals for the price of 1. If this wasnt enough, at Christmas we received a card and a years complementary Gold card membership which of course we took advantage of on our next visit to the city.

I should mention that at this next visit we chose the same "chefs choice" menu. The courses were different and the wines were different and everything was perfectly matched again thanks to Philip. Additionally, because of our new membership status we were able to chose a bottle of very nice wine to take away with us. And, imagine our surprise when we were offered a free limousine home!

There are some very nice restaurants in Prague and I have seen a few! Mlynec is I have to say, by far my favorite to date and if the staff ever read this I just want to say thank you for doing such a wonderful job. I cannot recommend this place enough so for those who want to know, this is the web address: www.mlynec.cz

Next time I should remember to take notes and some photos - or would that be too food obsessed?

Update

2009-11-15T06:54:00.000-08:00

Tim is still slaving away at work so it has been left to me to post a few words.

Building is going slowly as it is entirely cash dependent but at least the roof is now insulated so the heating can turned on.

Our fantastic builder installed a large rusty wood burner into the living room of the part of the house that is habitable so at the moment all is toasty but we have already had a week of snow so I can tell you that I wasn't looking forward to the next few months without working radiators. With an electric fan, I am able to transfer some of the heat into the bedroom and the kitchen although the temperature differences remain high. At the moment it is about 30C in the living room and 8-9C in the bathroom.

As you probably know, when you use ground source heating, the temperature that eventually reaches the radiators is much lower than we Brits are used to from our gas/electric heating. Usually you have to install much larger radiators and/or underfloor heating. This will mean that whilst the heating - on this side of the house - in our standard sized radiators will be effective for most of the winter (especially as heat loss takes longer through metre thick walls) I will probably still need to use the wood burner when the temperature really drops.

Some of the plaster boarding is also completed. Our builders have curved the apex of the ceiling in the master bedroom and it is going to look beautiful when finished. Unfortunately, it took so long to complete this feature that we have had to make the decision that the other rooms will have to be boarded in a more straightforward fashion to save time/money.

Tim plans to share some of the photos of what was our garden at some point. I am glad that its winter as there isnt a blade of grass that survived the ground pump digging. We ended up with 6 x 90m bore holes (hit water 3 times!!) which were then connected via pipes buried 2m in huge trenches.

Oh well - we are in this for the long haul...

Deer Hunter

2009-11-15T06:51:00.000-08:00

I am more than a bit behind with a few postings as you can see. The following happened a couple of months ago before "the snow came..."

As you are probably aware, Tim and I have a mad little “Min-Pin” called Spike. Up until Oz the “Mys hunter” came to live with us Spike ruled the roost and dictated the daily goings etc.

Since said relentless cat arrived we have made particular effort to take Spike for walks and give him some attention (He doesn’t get much with Oz demanding all of our full focus!). Funny thing is that whilst Spike seems to have become “all grown up” not he has a younger playmate he also become naughtier when we are out with him.

As you probably know, in Czecho you cant walk a few yards into the countryside without seeing a few deer loitering in a field or running across the path. Spike can smell the deer and it is clear that he feels the need to be with them! On the odd occasion that he has noticed deer (he isn’t all that observant!) he has chased them across fields like Pepe Le Pew, never quite catching up but very enthusiastically bouncing up and down through fields of corn/daisies (everything is taller than him) to get his bearings and further the chase. As “parents”, Tim and I find it all very disconcerting especially as Spikes excitement gets so much the better of him that no amount of calling and bribery will make him come back until he is well and truly ready. To this end – and also because it is now hunting season- he is now on “lead restrictions” except when he appears to be doing as he is told.

Our mistake…

Half and hour into a stroll in the forest and Spike just turns left off the path a few feet ahead of us and he was gone. Twenty minutes later and we were at panic stations. I was dispatched home to get mobile phone and car and Tim carried on calling for errant hound. At the hour point I think that we were losing hope but then this is Czech so what happened next shouldn’t really have been a surprise.

Tim turned back to retrace along the path that we had come only to hear a dog bark. (Ours doesn’t bark except at strangers at the house). Thinking – wisely – that where there is another dog, Spike might be drawn, he followed the sound… only to be met on the path by a woman with a large otter hound, Spike on a lead and…

a tame pet deer.

Yes, a deer. It seems that this lady has hand reared the fawn and now it follows her around like a –well behaved- dog. You can just about see the collar that it is wearing in the picture below.

So dog found and a new experience to add to the ever growing list.

Mysi

2009-11-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

So we saw a mouse (mys)…

Tried to explain to Spike – please bear in mind that he is a Min-Pin and was therefore bread as a “ratter” – that he should catch and kill all small moving things. Most especially, we have tried to re-instill this killing instinct in relation to anything that runs across the living room floor or that jumps out of our kitchen cupboards. It hasn’t worked. In fact our not so bright hound is usually totally unaware when the little critters are eating out of his food bowl or running around behind his back. On the odd occasion that he spots one of the little monsters creeping about, he wags his tails and chases it in a sad effort to find a new friend!!!

By the time we saw the third mouse, we realized that there was a bit of a problem. OK, so we have lived in old houses before so I was prepared with the poison. The problem with poison is that it doesn’t kill the mys immediately. This leads to the unsettling problem of finding (or worse, Spike finding) small critter staggering around in the final throws. The worry that said dog might suddenly decide that dead poisoned mys might provide a tasty snack put an end to the poison stations.

Everyone said “get a cat”!

Our builder provided the second solution. He arrived one day with 5 of those spring loaded death traps and advice about potato. Apparently potato is the ideal bait….

No it isn’t, and neither is chocolate or anything else that I found in the fridge. In fact the little critters seemed to prefer Spikes food above all else and Spike didn’t seem to mind sharing at all. So dog food was the solution. The problem with dried dog food is that it doesn’t stick to the trap. In the first few cases the bait was taken and the traps remained set. So, I tied the bait to the hook – little buggers weren’t going to get it off without a struggle.

Of course, I hadn’t quite prepared for the first success. Spike saw it before I did! The trap had not worked exactly to plan and the mys was still writhing in it. Whilst I can usually cope with most things – I am after all a trained medical professional! – the sight of a spasming little mouse being harassed by an excited little dog was too much and I did the “girly” thing and ran out to find a man who dispatched the thing with a large boot.

Again, everyone said “get a cat”!

I sent a text to all English speaking friends to ask where it might be possible to find a “mys killing” fiend of a cat and was instantly besieged with messages and locations.

The next day my Czech friend and I visited a farmhouse. On entry the little girl of the owner presented me with a dangly little 8 week old ginger kitten who immediately became part of the family.

Oz is cuddly, cute and relentless. You should see him and Spike play together – no-one could have foreseen this strange bond occurring. When they are not rolling around on the floor play fighting, they are sharing Spikes food or curled up together in his bed licking each others faces.

And the mice…..

Well, we still see the occasional mys but now that Oz is the grand old age of 12 weeks the critter is usually very dead and soon becomes one with cat. Why is it that when we kill a mouse we feel inhumane and guilty but when our littlist boy does it we feel like proud parents!

Will post some photos when TOH brings back the camera cable!

Mushrooms

2009-08-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

According to our lovely heating engineer “Mushroom picking is a competitive sport in the Czech Republic”.

He is right you know! As you drive along the back roads at ridiculous times of the early morning you can already see flashes of clothing through the trees as the foraging starts.

For us Brits Abroad, mushroom picking is not so much competitive as an “Extreme” sport. Bear in mind that on the whole Brits do not forage (although Hugh F-W is helping with the recent surge of interest in this area). A neighbor once turned down fresh carrots from my garden because she preferred to see what she was getting all wrapped up at Tesco. OK so we might pop down a local lane to pick blackberries but how many people actually pick the wild plums and cherries that grow locally.... not many I can tell you.... in fact whilst eating some during dog walking, I am often asked by fellow walkers whether it is safe to eat the fruit from the trees!!

Anyway I diverge. “Extreme”, yes because we Brits on the whole have absolutely no idea what we are doing when it comes to mushrooms. It is a bit like Russian Roulette for us. Our parents didn’t teach us what to look for and I guess that as children a giant puffball was there to be kicked not eaten. Over the last few months my lovely Czech friends have taken time out with me for foraging/teaching trips to various good mushroom hunting spots. So far I have managed to pick some of the most deadly specimens and also some pretty good eaters.

I have a fairly simple system to decide whether I will eat something that I have picked myself. Firstly I try to identify it in one of several mushroom books that I now own. Usually I am left with a choice of two pictures, one of a very poisonous mushroom and one of a particularly delicious mushroom – both of which appear to look the same. Then, I present the mushroom and the pictures of specimens in the book to my builder (yes, the builder – most Czech people have a pretty good understanding of mushrooms). If he says yes, I then take it to my friend Hannah who gives me a definitive answer before I cook/eat it. If he says no, I abandon the mushroom and try to remember what it looked like.

So far, I have Chanterelles in the freezer and I have dried some Boletes ready for winter stews. Of the mushrooms that need be eaten fresh the Parasol is probably the most interesting find. You fry it whole and it tastes a bit like scrambled egg but has the texture of fish (sort of!) The best thing about them is that they are kind of easy to spot because of their size. We measured the last find up against the dog (I didn’t have a tape measure with me) and just look at the size of it!!

Heating - a change of mind

2009-04-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

After agreeing that we were going to go with solar heating we have changed our minds .... why??, because solar heating is proving to be expensive and not as green and energy efficient as you might think !!.

Basically, despite your solar system heating your water you will still require an electric heating system that heats your water in a storage tank during night time and low light hours. This will require an increase in your electric mains power from 12 to 34Kw. Using the building and room dimensions we calculated our energy, (electric) usage would come to nearly 20,000Kc, (over £660 per month) !!!. I am so glad I held the initial site meeting now as it was our appointed buildings engineer who ensures all works are carried out in accordance with the authorised plans that raised the issue. Without asking he went away and did some of his own calculations and advised us against it. Turns out he was looking to do the same to his own property until he found out about about geothermal heating and ground pumps and has had the system fitted to his property. We went to visit and its very impressive. Ive attached some pics of the system as you can see. We have since had a survey completed and are looking to go this way. Despite the outlay being a little more that the solar system we are looking at a considerable overall cost reduction with a limitless source of heating ....

We have now engaged an engineering company to do the geothermal, (ground source) installations and they recently arrived on site and started installing all the pipework ...

Window problems

2009-04-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

(above computer animated image)

Prior to submitting your final plans to the local planning office its a good idea to make contact with them to tell them your intentions. We have done this via our 'girl in krumlov' and have explained to them our intentions and exactly what we want to do. Up to now they have been very helpful as far as explaining what we need to do and which things we need to be compliant with. Turns out we are in a conservation area so need to be sympathetic to our surroundings. We showed our window plans to the office and explained how many we intended to fit in order to provide a sufficient amount of light in the new bedrooms. They were given the ok so based on this we obtained quotes and agreed a company to do the fittings for us. Unfortunately it turns out that the person who initially agreed our plans has since left the Krumlov planning office and their replacement informed us that we had to reduce the amount of windows we intended on installing. This was based on the fact that despite the fact you would see no structural changes to the roof from the street you could see them on the inside of the courtyard from the main road as you pass the village, (from about 1/2 K away, on a good day if your really paying attention !!!, we think some politics going on). Potentially there could be major isues with this ... no windows no light in our new rooms. We were then told we could have them visible from the street instead ??!!. If we had known this before we would have done it this way so had to revise our plans at additional cost. Our architect has been great about all our changes, (he is also a member of the historical society) so did this for a minimal cost. We have had the plans re-submitted along with all the rest of our building permissions and finally recieved the final papers and approval a couple of weeks ago. We have done all we have been asked to do, (again with Czech help) so all should be fine. Prior to final approval we were told that we could start some of the work so long as it didn't effect any of the structure so the builder started work waterproofing and lining the roof as no weatherproof membrane had been previously fitted. Building works have since commenced with a fervour .... including some feets of extraordinary engineering .. ( the beam was huge!!!! ..400kgs) ... I think I'll entitle that one 'Health and Safety' ... but thats another post.

Exchange rates - important

2009-04-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Money is always going to be a big deal when buying / renovating abroad ....

When we bought the house in 2007 the exchange rate was 41.5 Ck to the Pound, we recently bought Ck's for as low as 27.50 .... our last transfer which was a pretty large amount we managed to get 30.45. Hopefully the market will pick up again but with the interntional monetary crisis the market is slow although there have been some improvements. With exchange rates so bad it can't be helping the tourist industry which Krumlov so relies upon.

You will need to consider how you are going to get your money from the UK in CZ. We did this using either one of 2 ways, ...
1) hand carrying sterling and exchanging it once we got over which means you need to shop around to get the best deal .... locally the best appears to be Petra Tour s.r.o no. 4 Karla street in Cesky Budejovice which is about a 1/2 hour drive from Krumlov but you can also go to Pilzen or Prague but that involves a fair trip from Krumlov.
or
2) using an International Money transfer company ... you really need to shop around with these to get the best rates and when you have all the rates you need to palm them off against each other to see if you can get an even better deal. You can try the following ...
http://www.hifx.co.uk/, http://www.moneycorp.com/ or http://www.currenciesdirect.com/uk/ .... these seem to be the best. One thing to be sure of is that you have a Czech bank account and also be aware your bank may charge you for transfering to them from the UK !!?? sounds daft but most seem to do so, up to 1000Ck+. When you do your deal with the exchange company make sure that they will cover any of those costs. Basically follow the process as described at http://moneysavingexpert.com ..... good luck.

Problems with an old house episode one

2009-04-06T07:59:00.001-07:00

Of course ..... buying an old house is going to mean that you are going to find things that need fixing ... unfortunately when they have been covered up for years and left unchecked you don't tend to find these things until you happen upon them. Luckily we have some experience with these things so along with our builder we have been doing some uncovering .. (its helps when you know the right places to look).
Roof and ceiling timbers are a major issue so one of the first things we have done is got a roofer in to inspect and repair some of the slipped and rotten / damaged timbers .... once that was done we got our builder to treat all of the exposed roof timbers with an insecticide to kill any beetle / worm infestations. Unfortunately after further inspection, to see if the chemical treatments had worked we came upon further issues, mainly within the areas where the house had been renovated over the last 20yrs or so. It would appear that the oldest parts of the house, mainly the ceiling timbers have remained unaffected but the newer parts where the ceilings have been modified show signs of dry rota and woodworm infestation so we decided to get an independent surveyor in to have a further look who along with the builder highlighted further areas for concern. So after much brick moving and disposing of timbers all areas that require to be addressed have been identified now all that is required is fixing / replacing and treating them so that any infestation is effectively irradicated. Irradicated being the operative word. Did you know that know that there is no 100% guarantee that chemical treatment will work, (have done quite a bit of research on this) as the chemicals cannot penetrate deep enough into the wood, especially the thickness of some of the timbers we have. The Beetles will literally come up for 'air', have a sniff and if they don't like what they smell they just wait and go back to hibernation. Apparently they can 'live' in the timbers for years. Your modern, thinner roof timbers can be treated effectively by chemicals. So ... what to do, as far as I knew this WAS the only way to treat timbers ... there is however a more modern and effective way to do this using microwaves. Apparently it can be done on floor boards and has been used on antique furniture for a few years so makes sense that it should work on roof timbers. This typically involves heating timbers to between 50-54 degC and has proven to kill larvae at all stages of development. We got in touch with a company called Impreg who are in Budejovice, see http://www.impreg.cz/ and had them treat our roof and ceiling timbers. Once the renovation work begins timbers etc. will get covered so we would rather have the piece of mind that the roof and ceiling is solid enough and bug / rot free to prevent even worse problems in the future.

Blowing up the house (our recent visit)

2009-04-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

get ready for a load of posts, there is a fair amount to bring you up to date with, here is the first .....

Things have progressed since our last post and we are getting even closer to being full time in CZ. It is now just the tying up of those loose ends that are stopping us and of course getting all the planning permissions in place to start the renovations at the CZ house.
The planning side of things has taken up a fair amount of time, especially with the drawing up of plans and deciding how we are going to fit a completely new central heating system that will cover the whole of the living areas, (and not cost the earth in doing so) as well as windows to bring enough light into the rooms as well as the layout and position of the rooms etc. We have even had several complete changes of plans which includes issues with windows as well as changing from a solar heating system to a geothermal one. I'll tell more on this in further posts.
First of all we had a trip back to the house recently and had an exciting trip ....., after taking our friend H's advice I bit the bullet and had winter tyres fitted .... despite the fact this is likely to be a legal requirement throughout Europe very soon you just need to get this done. It makes a huge difference to your driving ... so we avoided the problems we encountered the last time we were over !!. It was the being at the house that was the fun bit ..... SNOW ... did it ever, in bucket loads and kept doing so during the whole stay ... great powder for skiing though !!!. The temp was a balmy -10deg C during the day and we had -20 at night. On our first night yours truly thought that it would be a really good idea to get the boiler started so after turning on the water supply and re-filling the system I started a fire .... in the boiler of course but it was a good one and it was happily roaring away but with freezing cold radiators and a pressure gauge creeping into the red zone rather rapidly with some pretty good clanging and banging of pipes !!!. Note to self and warning too others ... despite the central heating being drained down you will not get rid of all the water in the system. Yes you will prevent the pipes from bursting in your absence but you need to refill and heat your system slowly. I started the boiler using wood which provided the heat but as it couldn't circulate far beyond the boiler I managed to melt the pressure and temp gauges off of the front of it. Its a good job that the system is simple enough that you simply shut it all in to starve it of oxygen and then drain the water down so the pressure is reduced within minutes. Didn't save the gauges though !!. Unfortunately my neighbour did not have so much luck and thank god nobody was hurt .... her back boiler to an open fire in the lounge did blow .... took out all the windows to the front of the house and lifted the roof off!!!!. Turns out she never had a pressure relief valve fitted, not even a pressure gauge and it was just a matter of time and a hard freeze.
So as I said more to follow .... cau T

We've Sold !!!!!!

2009-01-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

Hello all ..... good news .. but first I am sooo sorry we haven't posted for far to long .... sorry to my dear friend 'H' who's been watching and waiting ..... so hears my explanation;

We had a buyer for the house in June / July last year so hopes were raised and we were thinking that we would be in CZ by the end of 2008 but alas, the credit crunch was looming and despite even putting in an offer for our buyers buyer's property it all fell through and the property values continued to fall ... things were not looking good. Our buyer had to withdraw their offer which left us back at square one. We had a few viewings but no real interest until, finally, after months of waiting and wondering if we were ever going to sell our original buyer came back to us with an offer but at a significantly reduced amount than before which meant that we would have to find a property at a price which would still give us the capital required to do the work to the house at Mirkovice, and so the house hunting began. Not only has the housing market suffered but also business including my own work which meant additional time away from home and a new posting in Singapore leaving my wife to do ALL the work sorting things out. In total Shelley must have seen in the region of 30 properties before settling on what turned out to be a bargain at the price and would give us what we needed. The idea was to get everything completed by October during my first home leave but as is the way with these things there were further delays with mortgage offers and lawyers not doing anything, (not ours) and we didn't complete. Finally, a completion date was set for 3rd Nov only for our buyers buyer to transfer funds late and the completion not going through despite Shelley having packed up and then having to stay with relatives with a loaded lorry parked in the driveway until everything finally cleared 2 days later. So on 5th Nov 2008 we finally sold and moved to a smaller house in the UK that will be our base for now and also a place for my son to live when Shelley and I finally make the move full time to Krumlov. I didn't return from Singapore until the 11th December.
Since getting back we have managed to get over to Krumlov to see friends and catch up with things. We had the Xmas week there which was sooo good. It is such a relaxing place to be, we had plenty of walks but unfortunately no time for skiing although a huge dump of snow put a dampner on things as we were driving across the Czech border from Germany and meant a detour via Linz. Our friends inform us that we need snow tyres as its against the law not to have them as well as giving you that all essential grip you need which we didn't have when it was needed. Trouble is I have low profile motorway tyres on our Vectra and they can't be changed that easily. I will look to buy new wheels so that I can just change them when we get over, meantime I bought a set of snow chains just in case.
We had a meeting with our chosen builder and also pulled up some of the flooring to explore concerns about wood rot and beetle infestations. Thankfully things look okay. We are anticipating challenges like this so will let you know what else we find as things progress. We have already treated most of the wood work as well as removing some of the damaged beams. It looks like all the stuff that's a couple of hundred years old is fine ..its the stuff that was done in the 70's / 80's that isn't so good. The plans have all been done including the solar heating, plumbing and electricity .. we are just waiting to get the building engineers stamp that is required before they can be submitted to the planning office. We have been told it can take anything from 10 days to 3 months to get plans approved .... I'll keep you posted on that one. As soon as we get the go ahead we can get the builders in to start work installing windows and the solar heating system as well as the internal frame for new walls for the proposed 4 bedrooms with en suites.
Of course the 'new' house in the UK has needed some work including new boilers, carpets and a new kitchen. This has not been without its own challenges after flooded bathrooms after the plumbers apprentice forgot to shut the radiator bleed valves properly but good to his word the plumber has had the offending ceiling repaired and the new vinyl is being done on Monday. Shelley and I have been tiling the kitchen today...we make a good team and are honing our renovation skills ready for the big move to CZ once the plans are approved.
So .. that's how things are .., the main thing being we can now go ahead with what we've wanted to do for so long and that's to live full time in Krumlov.

Back with more news soon ... take care all,

Tim and Shelley x

UK Housing Market

2008-07-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

As you are all aware the UK Housing Market has taken a downturn and unfortunately whether we like it or not we are caught up in it. Two months ago we had buyers who in turn had a cash buyer and we were all ready to complete in 8-10 wks ....... two months later we are still waiting as our buyers no longer have a sale !!!!. Their buyers, who thought they could get a cash buy could not raise the necessary capital and the sale fell through. So what now ??? ... well, we thought, that it might be a good idea to approach our buyers buyer and see what the property was like that they had to sell in order to get things moving. Whilst not perfect, it ticked the boxes so we have placed an offer on it with our buyers even expressing a willingness to further negotiate their selling price to accommodate the sale. That was over a week ago .... we are still waiting.
So ... things are on hold. We can't really progress anything substantial until we can free up enough equity from the UK house sale. I just hope that things pick up and we get sold in time for our plans to be agreed and stamped. If anyone can offer an explanation as to why the UK housing market is as it is I'd love to hear it .... , as far as I can see it's all based on hype and scare mongering .... it can't all be about fuel prices can it ??.
We are really missing CZ at the moment. We hear from friends that the weather has been really good. Oh well wish us luck ...... :-) T

Triumph Bonneville - Krumlov MCC

2008-06-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

All, this is my bike .... the beloved Bonnie, ridden all the way from UK to CZ in late 2007 and has hardly been ridden since ... she has been neglected and I have missed her!!!. This last week I decided to give her a bit of TLC and take off the dust covers as she has been in storage for over a year. The battery was flat as a pancake and after 2 days on the optimiser things did not look good as the starter motor wouldn't even turn over. So as a last ditch effort I put her on the car charger for 24hrs ......

I must admit I did drain the carbs down and emptied her of fuel, (remember the minus 20 deg C), covered her up and rested the tyres on wood and put her away clean and dry. She hasn't been started in well over 6mths .... so I connected her up and .... she started after about 4 tries, I couldn't believe it, after a good warm up she was singing a tune, (am still trying to shake off the childlike grin from my face!!). This has to be testament to good old Triumph engineering.

Once the house is sorted we are thinking that it would be good to provide some accommodation to holiday makers and the biking in this area is fantastic. Maybe I could even upon up 'Mirkovice Custom Motorcycles' one day ???? mmmm..... I have the workshop??!. Friends as well as other people in the village have said we should open up the pub again ... I have plans for this, once all the rubbish is out of the Garaz, (Garage)!.

Its not all about work you know ...... :-)))

Moving House !!

2008-06-10T13:11:00.001-07:00

Dear Viewers .... here is the next installment .... we are committed now ... the furniture has left our house in England and made it's trek across the channel, through France, Belgium, Germany and into the Czech rep .....
It will be over 3 weeks ago now that I was looking at hiring a self drive lorry, (I have my HGV) but was having problems trying to get insurance for a lorry big enough. You can get fleet insurance but when you are just a private person and not a company it is really difficult to get. So whilst this was going on our 'fixer' in CZ was having a chat with a client who just turned out to be a haulage contractor and when he heard of our situation said that they could help as they had a lorry delivering that week that could return via our house in the UK and pick up furniture and deliver to Krumlov. So ... how much I hear you ask ??? ... well, lets put it this way, we were being quoted by the likes of Pickfords International around 5K .... !!!! our Czech company did it for 1.3K !! needless to say the proverbial arm was bitten .. !! what a price. I hope they don't mind me mentioning them as to be honest they were absolutely excellent ... ferry tickets etc. were all arranged and I even travelled over with the driver .. what a journey ..., the company was Katelines Europe s.r.o from Blatna in CZ. The driver was at my house before 6am on the Weds and helped to load, (very carefully) our furniture to make sure non would be damaged. We had some friends over to help .... thankyou to Roy, Richard and my son and his friend for their help.
See the attached clip of us having a 'break' whilst loading ... we 'filled' the artic lorry with everything from the lampshades to the ride on lawnmower !!

The driver .... was well, brilliant, spoke very good English and was great company ... I have made a new friend and plan to keep in touch ....
We left the the UK house at around 4.30pm on the Weds and made the 8.20pm ferry from Dover to Calais then drove through the night and made Koln in Germany by 5am where we rested the mandatory number of hours .... the lorry Cab was a Scania highliner I think it is called which has 2 berths in it so I slept quite comfortably although these cabs get quite warm when the sun is shining on them during the day ... To note the road services in Europe are just so much better than the UK .... food is usually excellent and the toilets are well maintained ... so, we left Koln at around 5pm (Thurs) and was at the house in Mirkovice by 4.30 am on the Friday ... tired but elated .. my next worry being the state of the furniture !!!
We had arranged for some help to unload at Mirkovice so after a couple of hours sleep I was up again with our builder and his mate who, consequently were a little worse for wear after celebrating the birth of our builders new son, (congratulations to P & P on your new addition) and after a breakfast toast of Becherovka we started the unload. Bearing in mind the amount of stuff to unload and the condition of some of our 'team' we had unloaded over 1/2 of the contents in 2hrs and took a well deserved break where we visited what can only be described as a 'soup kitchen' in a neighbouring village !!. This kitchen is run by a wonderful but rather large local lady who prepares a very basic meal of soap, rice and stew and feeds local workers and villagers for a small fee of 60Kc which is about £2 ... food was great as was the company, being the solitary Englishman was no matter to anyone ... so after a good meal we returned to the house to finish unloading. By 2pm everything was unpacked and stowed away, ready for us to decide where it is all to go. A couple of things had small scratches, (nothing the couldn't be polished away) but aside from that the furniture had arrived in the same condition that it had left which is testament to the quality of our drivers loading skills. The extra blankets, quilts and cardboard in between furniture had done their job.
So, two days after setting off I was exhausted but happy that it had just gone so well .. all aided by our Czech friends, old and new. Thanks again to all those that helped ... also to Katelines Europe and the driver ... I cannot recommend them highly enough. That evening was spent having a couple of beers and relaxing ..... but that's another story and a large headache later !!! .. Naschla .... cau fur the noo .. Tim

The buying process - our experience

2008-05-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

So ... hopefully I have gained enough interest to warrant a 'how to' explaination so I shall endeavour to explain our experience of buying a property here in CZ. This will not be a definitive guide but as there are others out there more qualified than I to guide you through but here goes ...

1) First you need a will, and where there's a will there is always a way ...

2) You need to have friends who are Czech .... seriously, I believe if you were doing this cold you would have problems with the language and interpretation.

3) Decide where you want to be first by visiting and spending time here ... step off the beaten track and really explore ..

4) Employ somebody who 'knows' ... it makes such a difference especially when it comes to identifying things like covenants in contracts and title deeds.

So, what did we do ? ... well, our friend 'H', who I can highly recommend offers such a service, (this is not a plug by the way but to be honest we could not have done it without her and where she didn't know she would soon find out) .. see http://www.czechpropertysearch.co.uk/ which is her website. Her help was actually offered before she set up this service and amongst others we encouraged her to do it as she just does it so well. So, as I was saying .... the first thing you need BEFORE you can buy property in CZ is residency which must be obtained from the Foreign Police Office. So how can you get residency when you cannot buy I here you ask ?? .. well what we did was 'rent' a room with another expat who had already gone through this same process and demonstrated this by having a contract so that this gave us a mailing address. We explained via 'H' who acted as our interpreter that we wanted to live in Cesky Krumlov to learn to speak Czech as well as learn about Czech culture and the arts. The Foreign Police are used to this and I am sure are aware that this is a way to buy property. There is nothing illegal in this, it is just an acceptable way for expats to get a residency stamp. To note the Czech authorities are very keen on dispelling any doubts of corruption which was ever present during the communist era. If you know how things are done properly then you will be fine. This is after all Central Europe and CZ is in the EU. Once you are armed with your 'residency' you can then place an offer on a property via an agent who, like the UK acts on behalf of the persons selling the property. They do however differ slightly in that they handle the contract side of things and they will prepare a 'holding' contract where you will pay a deposit to them ..., this initial contract MUST be checked before you sign and updated as necessary to read that the agent agrees to agree no sale to anyone else as they can continue to market and agree a sale to another party depending on the way this contract is worded. You also have to be mindful that you could potentially lose your deposit so you have to check that the contract includes the return of all fees in the event of a no sale on the agents part. We kind of ran out of time when doing this so I would recommend that you give yourself plenty of time to house hunt, make an offer and sign the holding contract, at least 10 days in country.

The process now starts and a further 'purchasing' contract will be prepared by the agent which you will again need to sign and this must be done in front of a notary, again appointed by the agent. You must obtain a draft copy and have this checked to ensure that there are no covenants etc. that may effect you as being sole owner before signing. It is at this time that all necessary documentation, residency and czech bank account etc. must be available. You will also pay the agreed purchase price, (less deposit) to the agent who will pay this to an official who holds the money until the purchase is agreed and rights transferred via the land registry, (katastry office). Be aware that there will be charges for this made by the lawyer who acts on behalf of both parties and will pay X amount to the agent, x amount to the seller or amounts to each family member. In our experience the agent omitted to tell us about the additional lawyers charge and although not much we had to pay the extra to ensure the sale went through. You will be given a registry number and you must then wait approx 4 wks for the registration. As it was the Katastry office in Krumlov are very good and exact and they highlighted a potential error in the English / Czech translation of the contract which required additional amendments to be drawn up. This then ensured that we were 100% owners of all of the property as detailed with the land registry. Unfortunately this caused further delays and return trips ..., I think our sellers were quite embarrassed by it all and in fact allowed us to stay in the property whilst the sale was going through, (this is unheard of in the UK ??!!). Approx 2 and a bit months after we signed the initial contract we became the rightful owners of the house. Once this was done we then returned to the Foreign Police and had our residency stamps updated to show our new address. There were no fees paid for this.

To re-iterate, it makes so much sense to get help through this process with someone who knows the system. Be aware of hidden extras as well as charges that may be made to you. So I hope this helps .... but don't rely on me .. ask someone who knows and you could soon be the proud owners of a fantastic property.

Will mail again soon ... in actuality I typed this mail over 2 weeks ago but have been at sea so am on my way home to sort out lorries as I plan to ship some of our furniture over by doing a self drive ... I'll let you know how I get on .. tell then .,,, naschladonou .. Tim

Pics of the house ....

2008-05-10T01:50:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of pics of the house ..... enjoy .... so you see .. it's certainly substantial, there's a bit of work to do especially with the damp and, yes its a large project ... but nothing that can't be achieved. The intention is to turn it into a family home ... with a few enhancements of course. (ahhhh .. thinks, maybe one day ... 'krumlov custom motorcycles' with some dance or acting classes thrown in ... mmmmm.. !).

So hope this has wetted your appetite .... you can kind of see what is available out here ... and yes they were my feet in the flooded cellar !!. I'll post some more soon as well as explaining about the buying process and what we plan to do etc. .... cau fur the noo, T

In the beginning .....

2008-05-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all and Francois, (who offered my very first comment .. thank you) .... here commeth the next installment ... well not so much next but rather a start at the beginning so you all get an idea of what I'm on about .....

In the beginning ..... there was a family,.. our teenage son, Alistair .. a dog called Spike,.. a Miniature Pinscher and the wonderful girl who is my wife called Shelley. My name is Tim .. (these sometimes unwilling characters will appear in future blogs !! :-)).
'WE' i.e. Shelley and I have been coming to the Czech Rep for a while ... we have friends who you may or may not know from 'britblog', (see links on my page) ... anyway ... about 10yrs ago I befriended a chap, 'C' we'll call him who's partner was Czech and he was commuting to Prague / Cesky Krumlov. Myself, Shelley and Alistair visited Prague and met our now dearest friend 'H', ('C' s partner) and we fell in love with the country and its people from that point onwards. Unfortunately we 'lost contact' however as luck would have it I met up with 'C' at a heliport in Aberdeen in early 2007 which we both visit frequently to join our respective vessels and installations operating in the North Sea. We exchanged emails .. caught up with some gossip with a parting promise of visiting Cesky Krumlov in South Bohemia as soon as possible. Shelley and I went back to visit Krumlov several times after that, both driving and flying and over time our friends said, "look you keep coming here, why not think of buying somewhere?" .. so our friend 'H' who is an absolute goldmine when it comes to knowing how things work property wise in South Bohemia set about having a look for somewhere for us whilst we were back in UK. In the latter part of 2007 we had a final list of properties we wanted to look at which we had decided upon after several emails and arranged a visit to look to buy.
So you know, ... there are some wonderful properties in the Krumlov area ... we wanted something close to town but not on its doorstep which was substantial and we could turn in to a family home. Believe it our not we started with a 'hutkin' ... which is a small hut basically, usually made of concrete and timber and provides basic but comfortable living ... ideal for short stay holidays ... I really liked it as it overlooked Krumlov ... see view over Cesky Krumlov in first attached pic and you will see what I mean . This was good and a very reasonable price at about £12,000 but we had yet to see the rest. We had a list that included some that we had found whilst surfing the net as well as ones that 'H' had selected based on our brief. As it was the house we ended up choosing was one that both parties had picked ... so after seeing a few properties we eventually visited 'our house' ... Shelley went one way and I went the other... and when meeting back up our first words to each other were .... " I want this one !!". We both just knew that this was what we wanted. I can't really remember if we saw any more houses after that ... I think we did see at least one more that had been partly converted but it just wasn't the same. My wife has a better recollection of these things, suffice to say it was decision made.
I will look to post how to go about buying property in CZ in a separate post but so that you know its not overly complicated but YOU WILL need help. It is more of a language issue and translations of contract details of which ours was quite complicated and took a while as the property was split between several family members but in late 2007 the property was finally registered at the Katastry, (land registry office) as ours. At the time the exchange rate between the UK £ and Czech Kc was really good ... we paid around £70,000 and what a bargain ... trust me, you can't buy a flat in the UK for that.
I did the trek of a lifetime by riding my Triumph Bonneville the thousand or so miles in the wettest weather you have ever seen in Germany followed by a fantastic sunny ride through Austria and up into South Bohemia in the October to pick up the keys. The old owners were there to meet me, (we have all since become good friends with the old lady and her grandsons tending the garden whilst we are away) .. a bed had been made up ready as well as wood for the fire and a full set of verbal instructions on how to operate the solid fuel boiler, (still managed to burn myself on the flue despite telling the previous owner to be careful .. Duhhh !!). The house has been in the family for several generations .. it has been good to stay in close contact with our new neighbours and polite and I think proper to accept there generosity and helpfulness. They have been very good with helping us in our new way of life and very tolerant of my poor Czech .. but we are learning ... my answer to most things is "nerozumim, jsem ancklichan" .. which basically means "I don't understand, I am an Englishmen !!" .. but with the help of a very good dictionary and a spatter of German we get by.
If I were to describe the house I would say it is in a big square ... so basically take the front pic of the house and times it by 4 with the open courtyard in the middle. The front of the house is the main living part with the sides consisting of the old village hall, several garages and workshops, a large barn, a chicken coup, a potato store, an outdoor kitchen with solid brick floored upper floors, (vaulted ceilings below) and the top floor of the main house not livable but including a large pig smoker. The condition of this near 200yr old property is basically very sound with some damp problems with the inner and outer walls ... more than likely down to the unconsidered use of concrete internal floors and the house being unused for a few yrs. Nothing that cannot be remedied we think having experience with this is an old property we currently live in in the UK.
So here we are ... the whole thing took about 10yrs ... (with the actual house purchase taking about 3 mths in total) .... from first meeting 'C' and 'H', visiting Prague and then travelling south to Krumlov where we found our new home . My wife calls it the 'death house' ... what she means is the house we intend to live to a ripe old age in and leave in our sons inheritance ...sounds morbid but I now what she means ... somewhere to grow old together, in a beautiful country with very friendly people.
My next posts will look to show you more of the house as well as how to buy if your interested ... or even coming to visit ... when you get chance just Google Cesky Krumlov ....

CU soon ... Tx

Bohemian Retreat - Mirkovice Farmhouse

2008-04-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Dobre den, good day to you all ....

We are new to the blogging thing but have decided to join our anglicky bohemians at http://krumlovbrit.blogspot.com and show you how we are attempting to make our new life in Cesky Krumlov in a marvellous old farmhouse in the village of Mirkovice.

Watch this space for more photo's and stuff as we discover new things and renovate our 'new' home ...

Ahoy .. Čau .. back soon