Help a family of three with a slow-building DIY house project in Öræfim, Iceland

Details

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  Description

  We are a family of three. I'm a visual artist (Eva) and Peter is a beekeeper. Ægir our son is three years old.
  
  The housebuilding project is a longterm artproject which is a way to live and share space with an existing landscape/history and shape it so we can coexist in and within it. It´s a DIY project we started 2017 and mostly I´m building myself, although we have had carpenters in bigger tasks, such as changing the roof and placing the doors in and windows. Peter is also involved, but he´s working in the primary school so he does not have much time on it. I have had two exhibition about this project, one last summer in the local artmuseum, Svavarssafn.
  
  The househistory:
  When we arrived 2016, this house, an old supermarket, had been abandoned since the year 1967. Thats the year when the ring road was opened to the east. Before 1967, there was no road for cars over the powerful glacier rivers to get out of the area, called Öræfi (Öræfi means a desolated place which is a name that the area got after the volcanic eruption 1362, when the area transformed from being forest grown and rich of vegetation to a barren desolated landscape). The way to move around before 1948, was by horse or by foot over the rivers or over the glacier. The shore here is not suitable for a harbour. But 1948 airplanes started to land here. By the year 1967, when the ring road was opened to the east, this house we are rebuilding was misplaced as a supermarket and a decision made to build a new grocery store close to the main road.
  
  We run an experimental artspace which is operated randomly.
  
  We have two cats and 10 chickens and I´ve stopped counting the bees.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  DIY and building projects

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We will share our house, our habits and life with the workawayers. There will be pleanty of opertunity for creative play with our son, chilling out with our cats, do gardening, tending to the chickens and studying the bees with Peter. We live close to spectacular natural wonders; mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and its all a part of the national park here in our backyard. The workawayers will have a great opportunity to see and understand environmental changes and meet people who have become experts in the surroundings, such as rangers in the park and guides on the glaciers. We will do activities together, such as hiking, going for trips to the swimmingpool in Höfn, visiting the local art museum and visit the ocean. The house project will provide diverse learning opportunities, such as painting and using power tools, like drilling machine and wood polishing machine. My son and I love singing and if there is an interest in language learning I´m happy to provide some basics along the day.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  The help we are looking for is mainly to have a person who would enjoy to help us with easier tasks in building the house, to be the extra hand, since it can sometimes be limiting to only have two hands... It would mean painting inside and outside, continue wall-building inside with me, placing floor material on, etc. Babysitting, tending to the chickens and cooking meals would also be greatly appreciated and it can be a mix of it all.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  Icelandic: Fluent
  Swedish: Fluent
  English: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  Eva speaks Icelandic and Peter speaks mostly Swedish at home. A Swedish speaking workawayer would be a great plus, since our son is learning Swedish from his father. Other wise, English is the language we expect to use.
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  Accommodation

  A room in the new house, which we recently moved into.
  
  Peter and I are both foodlovers. Its important for us to share a warm meal once every day with our son, and we mostly make vegetarian meals in the evening. We would nevertheless love to introduce the workawayers to Icelandic traditional food, which is the food I was brought up on, although its normally not a prominent part of our diet. We are curious of other food-cultures and would be very happy to provide space for the workawayers to share their wisdom and tradition. For some time we have made our own tempeh, which is a tradition we got to know in the Netherland, originated from Indonesia. We also buy meat from a local farmer, which we use occasionally. The fridge will be open at any time during the day and the workawayers will use what ever they want from our stock.

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  What else ...

  The location is remote. There is a grocerystore/swimmingpool/service center 110km to the east in Höfn and 90km to the west. We have a cafe/bar in a walking distance.
  
  There is a bus that operates once a day but hitchhiking is quite possible and the people from the community often help out with sharing rides when needed.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  We have a fiber cable as Internet so it is normally very good here.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  There is plenty of space for a campervan and it can be connected to electricity.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  It should not be a problem!

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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