Post-Vacation Room Improvements

2018-09-10Us Standard

[Photos taken on 10 – 19 September 2018, posted online 24 March 2019. Currently in a cafe while the kids are at the movies!]

This year’s post-vacation room fixing energy went towards making the “storage” room off of the foyer useful. I’d rearranged it the year before, but since then stuff had just kept accumulating, so major action was needed!

Finnur also kept working on the back-yard wall and finally FINISHED IT (!!!), while Anna and I went hunting for an actual piano, as she’d declared our old keyboard to be too crappy to keep playing it. Dramatic teenage angst music needs proper dynamic range! (45-ish images total)

Monday 10 September 2018

First step in the room-make-over was to take this old and very dead bed to the recycling center.
My first two color-tests. We ended up going more yellow so we didn’t have to buy new shelves as these colors clashed mightily with our Billy bookcases!

Tuesday 11 September 2018

Apparently there was a cake at work that day. Can’t remember why any more!
Bus-card photo-shoot of Bjarki. He now takes the bus to and from gymnastics practice, as they now practice in the new group-gymnastics building an 8 minute car ride away. Is it just me or does he look a lot older than 11 in that photo?!

Wednesday 12 September 2018

Wall-work at 7 pm as the sun was setting. The cap-stones all lined up, with the original moss still in good shape.

Thursday 13 September 2018

The mostly deconstructed front room.
Just a hint of color. Paint, move shelves, paint the rest. Sounds easy enough.
Finnur in his domain.
I moved the little table that had been downstairs into Emma’s room. She instantly created a tea-party!

Friday 14 September 2018

I spent a good chunk of the day at the national hospital as mum had gotten a blood clot scare, but thankfully nothing more came of it. She went home later that day.
Finnur spent the weekend in the north of Iceland with his football/soccer buddies, so I splurged on sushi for dinner. I’ve sort of given up on cooking when I’m on (short) solo parenting duty!
By 10 pm I’d cleared and sorted the stuff out of the bookcases. I ended up relegating a lot of our books to house #2, since they get zero attention at home.
The bookcases in their new spot.
The remainder of the crap in the room. Sigh.

Saturday 15 September 2018

First things first. Our drill had migrated to house #2, so I went to the hardware store and got another one on sale. 🙂
Wall-fastening mission accomplished!!
I couldn’t resist looking through a few photo albums as they moved about the room. Here’s a young Finnur with my youngest brother.
Father and son. Such a priceless sleeping position!!
Memories galore! So sad these two are no longer with us.
Is Anna is morphing into a clone of myself?
Library girl-trip downtown, with obligatory cafe-stop.
By 7:30 pm I’d managed to clear all the stuff from the wall I wanted to paint.
Late dinner was at Ikea. So glad it’s open late on the weekends too!
Meanwhile, Finnur was having a somewhat fancier dinner with his fellow football-enthusiasts up north.
The sleeper-sofa I was eyeing for the room under attack.

Sunday 16 September 2018

Emma mid-dance move.
I decided to take the old chest of drawers to the good-will container.
Finnur’s parents claimed this old unit.
New curtains installed, gasp!
The huge line into the recycling center. Our society has too much crap!
Quick mental health break at a nearby cafe. It’s so cool that Anna can now keep an eye on Emma.

Monday 17 September 2018

Ikea decision time!
My father-in-law kindly agreed to come and tow this monster home.
Sofa assembly in action. Misunderstood Ikea assembly directions for the first time in ages, but it all worked out in the end!

Tuesday 18 September 2018

All done!! This entire room is “by Ikea”, even that 15 (?) year old photo on the wall!
The bookshelves, and an orphan box, which needs to fit into the garage at some point. It mostly contains print-outs of our medical records from the US! 😉
Later that day Emma got a haircut.
Her fallen red locks.
It’s all about the lollipop in the end!
I also got my hair cut, and she found this fantastic white hair! Yay! About to start looking distinguished, finally!!

Wednesday 19 September 2018

With Anna trying out pianos at one of the two music stores in town.
Playing the piano we ended up buying. It’s got a “silent” mode, where you mechanically disengage the sound-board, and the piano turns into an electric piano. We reserved it, for delivery in the following week.
At home-base, the capstones were being installed!
Will the lower wall be rebuilt next summer? Who knows?!