[Photos taken 01 – 05 August 2023, posted online 19 May 2024. Finnur’s off on a work-trip to the mothership in California, while I am four working-days away from being unemployed, by choice.]
In practice this meant that instead of having two large bins, we ended up with three large ones (for homes with little waste, they could ask for two split bins, but we’re not there), and nowhere to put the third bin.
Thus was born the “build a garbage-bin-shed” project, which would last into the first frost and snow, but it was a lot of fun!
Tuesday 01 August 2023
Finnur about to saw the top off one of the old fence-posts that used to bracket the garbage bins. He’s sitting in the middle of the proposed shed.
That morning, however, I found myself in the west-end of town where a freshly-awakened brother was saying goodbye to our nephew, as the little one was Sweden-bound!
Trunk-space at maximum utilization.
About to set out for the airport at 8 am. It was a lovely day.
Goodbye my pretties for a while!
Back at home-base, I put on my Stanford Alumni hat (only obnoxious people wear such things, so it’s also a sign to stay away, right?) and got to digging holes for the new shed-posts.
Anna handed me a piece of dragon-fruit that had arrived in the bi-weekly fruit-box. It was… interesting!
Two holes completed!
I also tore most of the deck off, leaving a bit as a work platform. I’m heavier than Finnur so I have a built-in advantage when using a crow-bar…
Boxing in the borrowed trailers overnight with cars.
Strange to realize that it was only a year before that we’d traveled to Seattle, etc.! We were also just a few days away from a trip to Finland!
I found Emma happily playing with her slime. She’s quite the slime-fanatic!
Wednesday 02 August 2023
Sanity checking the pole locations vs a garbage bin.
Poles fastened before pouring cement.
Anna, fresh from her job of supervising weeding crews, watching Finnur mix the cement. Seeing how often Finnur’s dad tends to build decks, sheds, and houses, he happily owns his own cement mixer!
Sweaty-me post gym.
Hardening…
Anna happy with a beautiful head of broccoli from the veggie garden.
Thursday 03 August 2023
Emma on Anna’s old bike in the lovely weather.
Such an epic red-head!
Give us today our daily dose of coffee-house (I’m sitting in the same seat while writing this up.)
Poles standing upright on their own! Progress!
Finnur with the pile of deck-to-be.
Because we were rebuilding the deck, we had to use the same thickness of timber, or it wouldn’t match the paved area. It is admittedly slightly on the thin side for a deck…
Adding a few brackets to strengthen the deck.
Empty canvas!
I made the executive decision to take most of the old deck timber to the recycling yard. Finnur prefers to keep everything around until the very end, while I have a very limited patience for extra stuff lying around, so we try to compromise…
Friday 04 August 2023
Starting to lay down the deck. Spacings were a hot topic of discussion! Finnur also stained/oiled the supporting timber.
Bjarki was curious about how he could use the free-weights and kettlebells we have at home, so I summoned my professional trainer (aka baby-bro Bjarni) to take him through some exercises. I had to feed them eggs and bacon first!
Training going on.
Progress! It would later turn out that the poles and the house didn’t quite form a perfect square, so we (I) ended up unfastening the whole deck, and re-screwing it. It came in handy that Finnur insisted on only using one screw at a time out of two, so it was pretty easy to shift things around.
I took Emma to mini-Sweden, aka Ikea.
The main goal was to buy this clothes rail, as Emma’s dresses had gotten so long, they’d outgrown their old hanging space.
Saturday 05 August 2023
Paying my “rent” at the coffee house…
More progress!
We managed to invite mom over for coffee-time!
Returning the cement-mixer, as we’d be going to Finland the next day. The three garbage/rubbish bins are off on the left side.
Status at the end of the day. Not bad!
Packing for Finland! We had to leave for the airport at 7 am the next morning.
