Lisa Kim built an igloo on the front lawn of her West Hartford home, using colorful ice blocks.

Lisa Kim stands next to the colorful igloo she built on the front lawn of her West Hartford home. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

By Ronni Newton

West Hartford resident Lisa Kim found a beautiful and magical way to take advantage of the arctic weather that gripped the area over the past several weeks.

Her version of turning “lemons to lemonade” involved turning ice and snow into an igloo – lit from inside to create a dome-shaped, rainbow-colored glowing structure on the front lawn of her West Hartford home.

Kim said she had seen images of colorful igloos on social media, and showed them to her husband. “Wouldn’t this be cool?” she said to him. “Because we were big snowman people, and we’d build them every year with the kids. And I wanted to do something now that they’re all kind of grown up and moved on.”

She showed her husband the pictures and mentioned it would be fun to try, “and the next day all these containers and food coloring show up at our house. He just ordered it for me because he knows I enjoy doing this stuff.”

Lisa Kim built this colorful igloo in front of her West Hartford home. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Kim’s husband helped fill the 80 ice block molds and add food coloring, but she ended up doing the building herself. “Our son came home from college, and he and his girlfriend helped with carrying containers and filling water,” she said. That college student is her youngest child; the others are out of school and live in other states.

The 80 blocks ended up not being enough to complete the igloo, so it was a multi-step process to create and freeze additional blocks. Ultimately it took about 120 blocks to create the roughly 4-foot-tall igloo.

Ice blocks in the process of freezing are lined up along the front lawn. Courtesy of Lisa Kim

“I don’t,” Kim said in response to a question about having any architectural skills. But she said she researched the process, and how to set the ice blocks at an angle that follows the shape they form in the mold. “As it keeps coming up, it keeps slanting in gradually,” she said.

“This was just the right size for me to handle on my own. I had one hand up and grabbing this slushy concoction you have to make with water and snow. It’s kind of like the mortar,” Kim said, and that sticks between the pieces to hold it all together.

Igloo under construction. Courtesy of Lisa Kim.

She was able to wear gloves – multiple layers of gloves and layers of clothing as well – while working outside in temperatures that were well below freezing. The overall process took about a week, including getting the blocks to freeze solid which became more challenging after the first weekend since by then it wasn’t quite as cold outside. Kim said she never had to resort to putting any of them in the freezer – although she did pop some of the final blocks out of their molds and flip them over so the other side would freeze more easily.

Igloo under construction. Courtesy of Lisa Kim

Once the weather started to warm up, Kim said she started covering the igloo during the day with a white tarp, so it wouldn’t heat up or absorb as much sunlight.

“Maybe we’ll get another week or so,” she said Thursday evening.

Lisa Kim built this colorful igloo in front of her West Hartford home. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Kim’s house is on Timothy Drive, near Corbin’s Corner. It’s okay if people drive by, she said, but while she is able to crawl inside – and a small child or dog would fit comfortably – no one is permitted to go inside for safety reasons.

She shared a photo of the igloo on Facebook earlier this week, noting that she was “Savoring the last of the winter magic before it melts away.” Kim said she hopes the igloo makes people smile – and as of Friday morning, her post had nearly 600 positive reactions.

This igloo doesn’t have – or need – a keystone, she said, but larger ones do. “This is small, but maybe next year we will try a bigger one, but we’ll see,” Kim said.

Interior of igloo. Courtesy of Lisa Kim

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