Melar was built in 1930 by Kristjana Þorsteinsdóttir, a housewife and  bookseller  (b.  1905 – d. 1979) from Litlu Reykir in Reykjadalur,  and her husband, Jón Árnason, a local engineer (b. 1902 – d.1962), who was raised in Bakki,  the house that then neighboured Melar. Kristjana and Jón got married the year they moved into Melar rearing a family of  seven children, the first one born in 1931 and the last in 1946.  In 1936 Kristjana and Jón bought a book store which they operated in their house until the year 1978. For over forty years Kristjana was responsible for running the book store.

Kristjana and Jon kept their cows in a barn on the ground floor of the house.   It was very common, well into the 1970s, for  families to have their own livestock  maintained within the village. The spacious kitchen  was also on the ground floor.   One can only imagine the stories the walls could tell!

Many relatives,  and other tenants,  stayed in the house for  shorter or longer periods of time while Kristjana and Jón lived there, and several of their descendants were born in the house between the years 1954 and 1964. After Kristjana died in 1979  numerous other villagers  lodged in the house.

When Hildur, the present owner, bought the house in 2016 it desperately needed complete renovation. Subsequently, Hildur and her team have worked at the renovation with an emphasis on sustaining the original look, and spirit,  of the house.   The guesthouse stands tall on the seafront overlooking the harbor, the beach and the ocean.   While  the harsh nordic winter winds and snowstorms have blown heavily on the wall of Melar for 90 years, the birdlife, sunsets, the colors of nature,  as well as the wonderfully long summer nights  by the Arctic Circle, make up for everything that may seem cold at times. If only walls could talk !