Renovations Continue As Yule Looms

2019-12-01Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 07 December, posted online 30 May 2020. Social rules getting very relaxed, I began going to the office and gym this week. ]

December began with the bathroom rapidly taking shape, although a little bit behind schedule due to the late arrival of the shower bottom, and the discovery of the shower-head plumbing mistake.

The upcoming yule-season marked the days, with gift-buying, eating, and decorating. Birthday parties began lining up, Anna and myself attended a symphony orchestra concert, we had dinner with friends, and Bjarki participated in a fun gymnastics “meet” (everybody wins!). (40-ish images total)

Sunday 01 December 2019

Every year pretty much since Anna was born I’ve made a photo calendar with the kids, to give to the grandparents, and for ourselves. This year was no exception. I used to use calendar-making software, but three years ago I switched to google docs. It’s a bit of extra work, but a little more freedom than the usual pre-set designs.
A CostCo run. Was happy to find a festive dress for Emma.
Emma and a friend at the ice-skate-rink. We followed the friend home and had dinner with them.

Monday 02 December 2019

We attended a double birthday party after work!
Bjarki practicing the yule-tide song he was due to play at the music school yule-tide recital.
In bathroom land, the painter was done with the ceiling.

Tuesday 03 December 2019

Anna had an x-ray appointment to check on her neck after she landed harshly during a gymnastics practice.
X-rays are so weird.
We waited for a while to get the results, but decided Anna needed to back to school. As we were driving away they called and asked us to come back for a CT-scan since something wasn’t quite captured well enough on the regular x-ray. The CT-scan came back clear, so that was good!
Back at home base, we now had a functioning light!

Wednesday 04 December 2019

I decided to put up some yule-tide decorations on my cluttered desk. As life got twisty, I only just removed these (and tidied up the desk) this past Monday, 25 May 2020!

Thursday 05 December 2019

Candy started showing up in the office, to tide us through this literally darkest of months.
At home, the plumbers began hooking things up.
Shower being hooked up.
Stand for the shower-bottom.
Finally, the somewhat delayed shower bottom!
A coworker of mine very kindly offered me two tickets to the symphony that night, as some of his family members couldn’t make it due to illness. So Anna and I dashed downtown, and luckily found a place that could serve us a decent dinner fast.
In front of a colorful Harpa.
The view from our seats.
Mother and daughter. It was a fun (baroque? if I remember correctly) concert!
We took the long way out.
A snowy pillar-top at home.

Friday 06 December 2019

The annual Yule-Feast at work was this Friday noon.
The kitchen staff really went above and beyond in making a huge feast!
Good stuff!
Dessert!!
Later that day there was a yule-beef-tasting for those that were interested.
I was there!
Probably my favorite Icelandic comic, Ari Eldjárn, came and tried out his upcoming new-show stuff on us. There was a lot of laughter!
Over on the home-front, things weren’t quite that rosy. The plumbers had gone to hook up the shower-head, and realized they’d forgotten to hook up the second line to it, and also to install the special heavy-duty holder. After much wrangling of hands, our project manager decided this should be fixed right away, and that the contractors needed to eat the cost of the extra work, since the shower-head had been on location from the beginning. To save the new new tiles, the wall in Emma’s room was gutted instead. Finnur efficiently emptied all the random stuff into Bjarki’s room, and covered up the rest.
The route for pipe #2, as well as the original pipe #1.
In other news, there was now a toilet!
Towel-warmer, and hand-shower. Note the tiny hole for the shower-head…
Sink faucet!
Shower drain.
I was home in the early afternoon to take deliver of the rest of the cabinets. They got to hang out in the garage for a bit.
There was one large towel & laundry cabinet, and then three mirror cabinets for above the counter-top.
I’d met the tilers when I arrived, and they were going to get a core-drill to make a larger hole. They lucked out and found one in a nearby store, so they had time to come back and finish the drilling job.
A clean cut and no cracks, that they themselves documented, so they had evidence in case the plumbers made some mistake!

Saturday 07 December 2019

It was time for a fun yule-“meet”. It was more of a show, as there weren’t any judges, and it was more to let the young kids try out their tricks in front of an audience.
The team-gymnastics boy group has grown over the years. This was a mix of the younger and older boys. The fantastic new gymnasium (the one we were in) has surely helped.
All the kids getting a medal, under the guise of excelling on one apparatus or another.
We drove Reykjanesbær-town to have dinner with friends. It was lovely as always.