Three weeks of Renos - Demolition is still in progress

Two and a half weeks ago I took a Friday off as a well day.  In the midst of doing what I wanted I started to scrape off the plastic tiles.  I then took a break from this for my sister and I to finish it in the afternoon. My style taking the tiles off was that of a girly girl, Melanie was demolition ninja.  After that John, my mom, Mel, Randi and I went to the dinner theatre and Randi gave Mel her engagement ring.

The next day John was bank to demolition.  Since then John has moved plugs, added plug for dishwasher and for the microwave and hood fan we plan to put above the stove.

This week John finished taking out the valance and found we had wood rot on some of our joists and determined he wanted to shore up the joists with additional joists.  This is now done.  I was happy to get to help him a little with this.  

Now that this is done John says the only thing still to do in demolition is to remove the glue/adhesive left behind from the tiles I took off.  Then we can start putting it back together.  Yesterday my sister came and took me to Lowes to show me how we can tie all our different wood colours together. 

As a result I chose three different wall colors I like and 6 counter top colors with a top 3.  We will see if John like these and we agree on colors or have to compromise.

More to come at a later date.

Home Repairs - Start Up

As many of you know we started our home rentals 4 - 5 weeks ago.  This is the opening pictures from when John started the demolition.

Just the start of things

Home

On Monday the 28th of September we spent the morning at the blue lagoon.  It was great getting time at the hot springs.  A note for future trips is to not book this on the same day as you are to depart Iceland but to give yourself the day to enjoy the experience.

We then headed to the airport for an afternoon departure for home.  The flights were on time and we arrived home 10 minutes early at 5:15 local time. This was a six hour time difference from Iceland.  

We were lucky at home as it only took us 10 minutes to clear customs.  

We have been home for three days now and are slowly adjusting to local time and our daily lives again. We are considering another Europe trip in 5 years.

ATVing and The Settlement Museum

Sunday - September 27, 2015

Today is our last full day in Iceland.  John and I took an ATV tour in the morning. We had a great ride to the top of the mountain and saw a spectacular view while taking a break before we turned around.  It was over before we began, almost.

In the afternoon we walked to the Iceland Settlement Exhibition. On the way there we saw a statue in front of a store.  It was moveable.  John only took a few pictures at the museum as his battery died.  The importance of the exhibition besides the history of Iceland is that it is built around an archeological dig the found the remnants of a home that could be traced back to before 870 AD.  They can date this because of the layer of lava rock from a volcanic eruption in 870.

It took us almost 3 hours to tour the museum.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped for a late lunch and managed to drag one more picture of John having a beer.