Land of the Midnight Sun

I mentioned in my last post that Eric and I took a trip to Iceland. It was a trip of beautiful scenery and almost endless sunlight. We began by exploring some of the geothermal features of the island. There are numerous hot springs which create an eerie steamy landscape.

We saw the famous Geysir (for which all geysers are named). 

Nearby was an impressive waterfall flowing deep into a ravine.

Part of Iceland sits on the division between the Atlantic and Euro tectonic plates, which are are separating at a rate of 2 cm per year. A large valley and some very deep, water-filled crevices have formed as a result. We went snorkeling in one of these crevices. The water just above freezing, so we wore 'teddy-bear jump suits' and dry suits over the top. The water was incredibly clear (and tasty). 

Throughout the trip we did a lot of driving in our tiny Chevy Spark. Luckily we got 50 mpg!

Despite it's small size, we drove through some pretty rough terrain in this car. The roads in rural Iceland are unpaved, steep, and very narrow. There were a ton of these signs. I'll leave it to you to interpret the meaning. 

We decided this would make a good car ad photo:

Snow capped mountain? Check. Rocky terrain? Check. Alpine lake? Check. 

We stopped at said alpine lake for a lunch break with some Appelsin pop (appel means orange?). Yum!

Since we were doing so much driving along the coast, we stayed in a different guest house every night. Many of them were quite cute, like the mini-cabin in the center of this photo:

The owner of this guest house also owns the adjacent land on which a huge lava tube sits. He gave us a guided tour of the 1.5km long cave. The entrance is a spectacular opening in an otherwise very flat lava field. 

In addition to numerous lava formations, the cave also houses Ice Elf City, a series of ice stalagmites that form and melt each year according to the season.

Settled primarily by the Vikings, Icelanders had some curious customs. One was the stone carrying test that was used to test a sailor's strength. I was only able to lift the smallest of the 4 stones. 

Eric tried the second stone:

Whew, made it! But even that wouldn't cut it for the Icelanders. In order to pass the test, a potential fisherman was required to lift the 3rd stone onto the platform. 

We stopped at the famous bird cliffs in the West Fjords, which span 14 km and reach heights of 441 m. The drop was truly dizzying. What made this even more scary was that there was a very very very strong wind (had to be at least 40 mph) which felt like it was attempting to rip you right off the edge of the cliff. 

The wind made it very difficult to get a good view of the cliffs themselves. There was a lot of crawling going on to get a peek over the edge.

Told you it was windy! At one point the saliva was blown (directly horizontally) out of my mouth!

The entire country was covered in these violet-blue flowers. Whole hillsides were completely blanketed - gorgeous! 

With only 300,000 residents and a population that is moving out of rural areas, it was common place to find abandoned buildings. I thought this old hangar provided a very interesting focal point for this photo.

One of the guest houses that we stayed in had a hot spring-fed swimming pool. The water was VERY hot. (By the way, it was about 10pm in the photo below.) By midnight the sun would no longer be visible in the sky, but twilight would fade slowly into dawn rather than full night.

 
We ended our travels with a trip to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa whose waters are fed by the adjacent geothermal power plant. A very nice place to soak in some relaxation time before the end of vacation!

Who's Got a New Front Door?!

Okay, I've been a bad blogger. My last post was 3 weeks ago! But in my defense, a lot has been going on.

First this happened:

Yup, I graduated! My family came out to see the big day. 

Then, this happened:

Eric and I took a trip to Iceland! I'll post again about Iceland soon. :)

But what has been happening on the home improvement front? Not a whole lot actually, but I do have some projects from a while back that I haven't shared with you yet. As a bit of background, the two windows on the south side of our house were starting to rot away. In addition, the exterior doors in the house were showing wear, not to mention that they leaked in cold air like you would not believe in the winter. So... cue project window and door replacement.

Starting with the windows, (of course with my dad helping doing almost all the work) there was a lot of work on a ladder. 

We ended up having to remove some of the siding so that we could get the new windows in and taking a trip to Home Depot to get some new weatherproof material to put around the exterior of the new frames. Adding these two difficulties, we were pounding and hammering away until long past dark... hopefully our neighbors don't hate us! The end result looks good as new:

Okay, on to the doors. First came the door between the garage and house (sorry, I son't have a lot of pics of this one). It went something like this:

Then came the front door (this one is definitely my favorite). Eric actually picked out this door and I was so impressed with his choice! Remember, we started with this:

 

The door actually had a little vertical blind on it when we first moved in, but that didn't last too long. 

And then the door was gone! (that couldn't be me standing around, could it?)

Here is the new door! It is amazing how much it brightens up the entryway!

My dad added the exterior trim boards back on:

... and installed the door knob:

I added a few details on the outside: (a pretty mat from Eric's sis Amanda and a $3 garage sale bench that I stained to look good as new)

Here's how it looks now (sorry about the weird light reflected on the door - it really is just a solid shade of white):

What's next for this area? Well, I don't think I mentioned it yet, but we got some hail damage from a storm a while back, so we are getting a new roof and new siding! Of course, this makes me most excited about choosing a new color for the exterior of the house. I'm currently thinking a silver grey with bright white accents and trim and a navy door. Do you think that would match with the reddish-brown brick in the pic above? Any other ideas for exterior colors?

Razing the Deck

A lot has been going on here lately. I defended my Ph.D. thesis, and will hopefully start a new job in early July - hooray for ending my (very long) stint as a student!!!!! I feel like I have been a student for my whole life... wait, I HAVE been a student for the whole life. I guess it would be an understatement to say that I am ready to be done. 

In house-related news, we had two nice Saturdays in a row, so we've been working hard on a (big!) outdoor project. We tore down the deck!!!!

Here is what we started out with:

As you can see, there is some major wonkiness going on in the floorboard area... which made us VERY nervous whenever we walked on the deck. Upon closer inspection (ie looking under the deck), we found the culprit:

That's right, the deck was literally splitting down the middle. Structural integrity - not so good.  

So, to remedy the problem, we had a deck razing party! (Thanks for your help Mom, Dad, Rozi, & Steve... and yes, Eric did help one of the days, though somehow he didn't end up in any of the pics.)

Railings were first to go, followed by the floorboards, which came off like butter (well, almost) with the help of a 36" FatMax crowbar (no, seriously, that is the name of the crowbar, as evidenced by the huge text of said name emblazoned across the handle). 

Next came the stairs and joists. 

(doesn't my mom look like a monkey in this pic?!? - sorry mom, I had to!)

Almost there!

Meanwhile, my little sis, Rozi, was helping to remove the rocks from around the stump in the front yard. Since then, Eric took an ax to the stump and we leveled it out and added grass seed. Hopefully the grass will fill in quickly. 

Okay, back to the deck. Before we knew it, there was very little left:

Since the deck joists actually protrude out from the house, we sawed them off for now rather than leave gaping holes in the side of the house. They will be removed and the holes filled in before we start building the new deck. There are also 2 more posts that we have yet to be removed from the ground. But, other than that, you might just ask, 'What deck?'. (Okay, the very large pile of used lumber at the side of the house makes that pretty obvious too.)

It is amazing how much more light comes in through the lower bedroom window now that the deck is out of the way. We are in the process of designing the new deck, and allowing light to come through that window is definitely a consideration. It is so exciting to come up with ideas for the new deck - can't wait to see how it turns out!