Bathroom Remodeling Begins

2019-10-21Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 21 – 31 October 2019, posted online 23 April 2020. Spring is looking victorious over Winter.]

After many years of scratching our heads over what to do about the upstairs bathroom, which was in need of repairs, we finally contacted an interior architect to help us actually get something done.

She drew up a new bathroom for us, and agreed to manage the job as well, as she’s well connected into the world of contractors, while we have no clue. So, one Monday morning, a group of Poles arrived and started tearing down the old bathroom, and thus the fun had begun! (60-ish images total)

Monday 21 October 2019

Bjarki, by some of the things that used to live in the upstairs bathroom.
I almost forgot to take a photo of the bathroom before they began, and they’d already removed the upper cabinet doors before I came to my senses!
The shower was a big reason for the remodeling. It had been ‘built’ out of blocks, but the whole thing leaked, and had begun falling apart.
The bathtub, i.e the holder and collector of clothes. We had decided to get rid of the bathtub, as nobody except Emma was still using it.
The upstairs hallway slowly but surely filling up with stuff before it was carried away. We’d managed to empty out the bathroom the day before, but didn’t quite manage to clear the top of the dresser. Oh well.
45 minutes later, the cabinets were gone…!
This happened to coincide with the two-day-long school winter-break, so the kids were home. Emma gave up on the noise, and went out to play with a friend.
Ex-wall stuff.
About two hours after their arrival, the bathtub was out.
As with most everything, good gear is key. Those buckets looked sturdy!
Bathtub gone, but shower still standing. Not for long though…
The shower beginning to lose some skin.
I popped my head in again at lunchtime, and found the shower on the floor…
The very-disliked glass blocks.
Outside, the shower bottom joined the bathtub.
The shower and friends.
As they were gearing up to start jackhammering up the floor, I took one last photo shortly before 1 pm, and then took the kids bowling!
Hanging out with friends at the bowling alley.
Emma got to use the stand, but Bjarki had to throw his own balls.
When we got home the bathroom had been properly stripped.
The wall of windows.
The toilet got left behind, but with all the dust there, it was not used.
Downstairs, a new Ikea shelf housed our toiletries, and would for two more months.

Wednesday 23 October 2019

The lunch at work was Duck Confit, one of Finnur’s favorites, so I had to send him a few photos to brighten his day. Or mine. I’m not sure.
The duck in question.
Lunch!
At home, the plumbers had made their first appearance. We’d asked them to renew the drinking water plumbing, since the plastic coating we’d had installed when we moved in wouldn’t last forever.
The first snow appeared that evening!

Thursday 24 October 2019

When we got home we could see that the plumbers had been busy removing the old piping. They left the red pipe which belongs to the radiator-system.
The old pipes.
With all the remodeling, there was no getting around the fact that the door-frame facing the old shower door had given up on clean living, and invited some fungus families in to live. There would be no rescuing this door.
As a friendly reminder of our rusted-out piping, the laundry room faucet gave us this gift, probably because the plumbers had torn some piping open. Happily, it was only this sink, and the brown color went away quickly, and I haven’t seen it since.
Yay, back to normal!
Ooops, apparently our walls are thin.

Friday 25 October 2019

I took the big car into the tire shop early that morning to get it outfitted with proper winter tires, as I was planning to drive to house #2 with some girlfriends.
Eating dinner with said girlfriends in Borgarnes.
Yes, I finally managed to invite some sewing club members to stay overnight at house #2. We had a really good time! 🙂

Saturday 26 October 2019

The weather was super lovely, even though it was cold.
We took off back to town shortly before tea-time.
We got a little nourishment, both physical and mental, in Borgarnes, before driving back to town.

Sunday 27 October 2019

Pumpkin carving time!
We’d actually gotten them a few days earlier, but didn’t get around to carving them until that day. Unfortunately, one of them was starting to deteriorate a bit, so Anna improvised a hat in that area.
Bjarki playing on the piano. It doubles as an electric piano, meaning you only hear the piano in the headphones if you set one of the pedals a certain way.
Finnur’s Gengar.
Anna’s cat.
Anna lighting an additional candle.

Tuesday 29 October 2019

The plumbers had been busy installing new plumbing, drilling down through the floor into the garage.
Making space for the shower water-controlling unit.
Down in the garage, we had a couple of new pipes peeking in through the ceiling.
I finally had/made time to carve my own pumpkin.
I went with the classics.
There be lights.

Wednesday 30 October 2019

In bathroom-land, pipes for the sink made an appearance.
The water-controlling unit in place.
Emma was a little shocked that her room had funky things on the wall, and a lot of dust on the floor. Happily, she could sleep in another bedroom.
Outside, the pumpkins looked suitably menacing.

Thursday 31 October 2019 – Halloween

The cafeteria at work was in a playful mood, and offered freshly spun candy floss on top of cakes for dessert.
Emma went to a Halloween ball at school. We will remember to dress her up as something scary next year, as she was the only princess apparently!
Upstairs, the towel-radiator had been fitted, and the shower water-controller got hooked up. Now, at the time, nobody realized, but this water-controller and the shower-head that goes with it, actually needs two pipes going up to the head. This mistake would bite us in the arse in December, but the contractors took on some of the extra cost in fixing it, as they had the shower-gear sitting there the whole time, and should have realized.
Sink-faucet about to be hooked up.
Our local shopping mall had a discount-day, and was open until midnight. I stopped by at 10:30 pm to buy shoes, and found the place unusually crowded, and performers singing loudly.