Moving Week
Warning: This is a massively long post, but it has lots of pictures! 🙂
When we made our original offer on our new house, we’d asked for a rather quick hand-over date, some three weeks into the future. We did this in part because we wanted to move during our summer holiday, and in part because our year-long rental-agreement would expire on July 15th. Sure, the rental would have gone to a month-to-month arrangement, but we figured a quick move was worth a shot. Luckily for us, the seller had her eye on an apartment that was already empty, so she could get it very quickly. Thus Monday July 11th, almost a month after our initial viewing on Tuesday June 14th, became the ‘we get the keys to the house’-day.
Knowing that we’d get the keys on the Monday, we spent the previous three or four days packing, and by Monday, we were mostly done. It helped tremendously that we’d moved just a year before, so we didn’t have to do much sorting and throwing stuff away. We just packed what we had, and figured that if it was too much, then the extra stuff could be taken care of on the other end, a whopping 11 km away.
Boxes and bags everywhere...
Like I mentioned in a previous post, we got the keys relatively late on the Monday, so we didn’t get anything ‘done’ except survey what needed to be done. Thankfully the house turned out to be clean, and the walls didn’t need much painting at all. The next day (Tuesday) Finnur went to the new house with his sister and effective-brother-in-law and started removing nails and filling in the holes with spackle. Meanwhile, I borrowed Finnur’s parent’s utility trailer (kerra) and started hauling boxes down the four flights of stairs, under the accompaniment of Tim Minchin. The plan was to ‘make a dent’ in the number of boxes we’d need to transport during the ‘real’ moving day (aka The Next Day), but without a lot of fuss. I envisioned myself removing boxes in relative peace and quiet, perhaps joined by a couple of friends later in the day.
As it happened, my uncle’s wife called up and after a short chat offered up my uncle’s assistance in moving boxes because they also have utility trailer. Sure enough, Arnar (younger brother of my mom’s) showed up shortly after lunchtime, and started hauling boxes with me. We each made two trips to the new house with full trunks and trailers before our friends Adda and Halli finished their other business for the day and joined us on a final trip to our old apartment (I think that Guðrún had also appeared at the new place by that time to help unpack boxes). Together we managed to haul out every single thing that wasn’t a ‘furniture’ or needed for the last night in the old place. I must say that I was absolutely thrilled over how much got done that day! 🙂
Wednesday morning was spent packing up the last bits and pieces (duvets! bedding! clothes! washing machine!) before calling a bunch of strong men as well as hauling company. (Side story: Almost all Icelandic hauling companies rent out trucks plus a driver. Two companies follow the U-Haul model of just renting a truck, which is somewhat cheaper. We’d initially planned on U-Hauling our stuff, but it turned out that Ridley Scott (or the makers of Prometheus) had rented all the ‘regular-sized’ U-Haul trucks. We were about to rent a huge one (making Finnur nervous) but in the end we heeded Guðrún’s advice of just renting a truck plus driver. It was at our place less than 30 minutes after I made the call!)
With a bunch of strong viking men (and a couple of viking women) the old apartment was emptied out in an hour and a half:
Looking down from our old kitchen window onto the moving truck and movers. Seen here are the driver (holding the red nightstand), Finnur (sssh, don't mention his hair color!), Adda and LA Jón's feet.
Our ex-living room emptied out quickly. Those curtains came straight from California, and I never bothered to re-hem them. Oh well... too late now!
Adda taking a quick breather while Halli hauls out a piece of furniture.
Nökkvi, Þórarinn and Finnur by the truck which filled up quickly.
Our stuff finally on the move to our new place!
Driving from our old place to the new place I had no place to put our uncooked eggs from the fridge - so I put them in a paint-mixer and held them up because my lap was full. 🙂
Hello stuff! The driver both arranged the stuff into the truck and helped us carry it. Excellent service! 🙂
Table mostly reassembled.
Guðrún's Bragi took all the activity in his stride. 🙂
It took about 30 minutes to empty the truck. Not having to haul things over four flights of stairs really helped out! Most of the moving crew disappeared after the big stuff was done, and we thank them profusely! I myself returned to our old place to tidy up the kitchen which was left as a bit of a disaster zone, while Finnur, Adda and Halli stayed behind at out new place and got the bedrooms functional.
Our first night at the house was uneventful. The next morning (Thursday), Finnur’s mother came over to take stock of the situation, and shortly before lunchtime we finally got out of the house, dropped Bjarki off at daycare and stared cleaning the old place.
Anna cleaned the windows with gusto!
Finnur cleaned the walls with a 'magic eraser'.
Anna cleaning the floor and some of our chairs that we brought over to reach high places.
Back in our new place with the Scary Discovery of the move: This is the original plug of our year-old dryer. Apparently a 'bad contact' can result in the plastic overheating. Erm. Great. The plug has now been replaced.
It took us 3-4 hours to finish cleaning the apartment, after which Finnur and I went to Ikea on an ‘exploratory run’, but bought almost nothing… yet. 🙂
Friday morning arrived (July 15th!) and Finnur met up with our old landlord to return the keys. We left him the ceiling lights which weren’t worth the trouble to take down. I think Finnur and I are both in agreement that we won’t miss that apartment one bit (like all temporary housing), but it fulfilled its purpose so we can’t complain. Back at the new place Finnur got out the wall-paint and went to work:
Finnur painting over the spackling.
Meanwhile, mom lounged out on the deck in the scorching heat (I'm not even kidding!) and blazing sun. We need to get deck chairs!
Adda and Halli arrived in the afternoon bearing a jumping castle their family owns(!!). The kids loved it! 🙂
Good times! 🙂 Hopefully one of many! 🙂
The first home-cooked meal. It was delicious! 🙂 We think we'll be keeping the table at this size for now...
The weather continued being awesome on Saturday, so we charmed Adda and Halli over to our place again – this time so that we could abuse their car on an Ikea run later in the day… 🙂 Also, having their two kids around helped to entertain our two kids, meaning we had more time to unpack etc… 🙂
Saturday: Yet another utterly fabulous day! 🙂
We even brought out the inflatable pool, that was last used during a heat wave in California. It's easier to use in Iceland because the hot tap water is both cheap and plentiful, so we could keep the pool warm even if there was a slightly chilly breeze out.
Closing out this Moving Week was a ‘move-in/birthday-party’ held late on the Sunday. We had initially planned to hold a ‘big’ birthday for Bjarki at our old place, but we figured it would be smarter to just combine it into an overall celebration with our family and friends. Sneakily we also added Finnur’s upcoming birthday to the invite, so this was a three-in-one party. 🙂
First up, on yet another gorgeous day, was buying a small electric lawn mower and cutting the grass. It's a really cute mower! 🙂
A peek into Anna's new bedroom. She finally got a new bed because this room is too small for her old queen sized bed. We chose a 'magic' Hemnes bed from Ikea which expands into a queen sized bed (the front is on wheels)! The storage underneath will also come in mighty handy! 🙂 On the floor is one part of a new matching chest of drawers for her since we're hijacking her old one for downstairs for now...
Our living room in its current condition with a few guests. 🙂
Hello BBQ and more guests! 🙂 Three cheers for good weather and a good deck to enjoy it on! 🙂 Also, our lovely neighbors offered us their chairs for our party. They obviously rock! 🙂
... and, shockingly, more guests! 🙂
On offer were hamburgers and hot dogs, as well as some melons and uh... salt sticks. 🙂
The view from the living room into the dining area/kitchen. I'm really starting to dig this setup, although it's perhaps a little tight when there are a lot of people around...
Ze greelmeesters.
Artwork by Jóhanna.
To make it an official birthday party for Bjarki we had some singing...
... and recently baked brownies with four candles. He seemed to like the attention. 🙂
Pffft... and they all went out! 🙂
Thus ended our epic Moving Week! It looked a little un-do-able at first, but with the help of a lot of good friends and family we pulled through, and now we own half a house! 🙂 Thank you all! 🙂 🙂