The Leaning Wall Fix of 2018

2018-05-12Us Standard

[Photos taken on 12-19 May 2018, posted on 16 December 2018.  It’s wet and warm outside.  Finnur’s in the USA, expected to return in a couple of days.]

In a fit of insanity/curiosity/too-much-sleep I decided to dig a large hole behind the sloping wall in our backyard, “to see what was behind it”.  This ended with Finnur completely dismantling the whole wall, and rebuilding it, now with drainage, in the hopes that it won’t start leaning again any time soon.  This project took the whole entire summer to complete!

Aside from that, live went on as usual!  (20-ish photos total)

Saturday 12 May 2018

Emma and Finnur out in the backyard, being productive. The leaning wall is on the right of the image.
The worst bit of the wall, and the growing hole behind it.
As suspected, there was no drainage or special stones behind the wall to prevent water from accumulating and pushing forward during freezes.
The bottom bit of the wall had broken away from the base, and the gap was easily big enough to put a shovel inside it.
The teenager got roped into pulling her weight.
We summoned some folks who know about stonework to take a look, and the conclusion was that the wall would need to be rebuilt from scratch. So Finnur went to work taking it apart!
The stones got laid out in order on the we-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-this-gravel-area next to our house.  Such a handy area to have!

Sunday 13 May 2018

By lunchtime the following day, Finnur was back to tearing the wall down.
Meanwhile, the kids actually managed to do a bit of school-work in relative peace and quiet for about five minutes.
Then Anna and I went to work moving the stones to the holding area by the side of the house. Highly recommend having fully grown kids when doing yard-work!
By 6pm we’d gotten all the way to the base.
Emma’s writing practice.

Monday 14 May 2018

The ‘very modern’ way we use to punch in and out of work.  I’m pretty sure I took this picture because I didn’t have the little fob with me, and wanted to document the time as there is no way to hand-enter my id for example… Grrr!
Emma’s turn for a hair-cut included a much needed wash.
She managed to get two lollies from the salon for being very patient!

Tuesday 15 May 2018

Paw Patrol was all the rage this past winter.
It looks like we went swimming!
Happy with her curls.

Friday 18 May 2018

The outside of my workplace at 9 am. All the windows were getting replaced on the building on the right.  I probably had to park in a weird spot, since all the Marel people from the building that burnt down had relocated into the main building.

Saturday 19 May 2018

That evening we met up with Finnur’s siblings and his parents (+ spouses) for a Russian night, in honor of Finnur’s grand-dad.  Every family brought a Russian dish, and much fun was had!