Things we've noticed about Utah

Fall begins pretty early here! We took this pic a week ago on a drive on the "Alpine Loop" that travels the mountains just east of us. You can see some of the fall colors on the mountains, and Sundance ski area is on the distant left. Trees down here in our valley are beginning to change, and although there aren't nearly as many trees as in Virginia...the colors are pretty vibrant so far.

Quick update on the baby: sonogram on Friday confirmed: 100% Boy. Also, he checked in at about 2.5 pounds, at 27 weeks, which is bigger than the average 2 pounds...so Jim's hopes for an NFL all star might be coming true.

Now, for things we've noticed about Utah:
1) Oh My Heck. This expression pops up pretty frequently around here. Used in place of Oh my gosh, etc. Pretty funny.
2) Utahns love RVs. We are convinced that there are more RVs/Winnebagos/Campers per capita in Utah than any other place we've seen. There is at least one RV parked on each block. Really. I've counted 15 just in the four square blocks around our house.
3) Utahns love ice cream. Similar to the RVs...(wonder if there is a correlation??)...there must be more ice cream shops per capita in Utah than anywhere else. Amazingly, there are more ice cream shops than there were Starbucks back in DFW (or any other normal coffee consuming area, I suppose). And they are always full of people, eating ice cream. Pretty impressive.
4) Coffee is not a staple of life. This morning at around 10:30 we stopped at a bakery for breakfast. Jim ordered a cup of coffee and the waitress said, "Hang on, let me see if we made any yet this morning." At a bakery. Amazing. We're assuming that this fact alone will keep Matt from looking at job opportunities at BYU and UVSC. But don't judge too quickly. There is one (1) Starbucks in this valley of 400,000 people.

In other news, we're still working on the house and becoming official residents. Tomorrow we're off to get drivers licenses and become official Utahns ourselves. Take care, and drop us a line!

Livingston Guitars

Hey gang. This is a short post, but just wanted to let you know that I'm having a new guitar being built by a master craftsman from Texas. Check out his website to see my guitar as well as others in various stages of production. Most fascinating though is the podcast of my guitar being built which you can find by clicking on a link on his website. It is www.livingstonguitars.com
Higher quality videos than what you would find on PBS!

ski season just around the corner

A picture of our house from the front.

Our first snow...SEPT 16!! Only in the mountains, though. These are shots from our front yard. They don't do the beauty justice, but I'm going to get better shots with my other camera. Hope everyone is in the mood for skiing this year!




O.K...so I went back out front and took a few more zoomed in a bit. I realize that the telephone pole in the dead center of the pic isn't going to win me any awards, but when you are looking at the mountain in real life you don't even notice that it is there. Just another reason to come and visit and see for yourself!

Our House...in the middle of our street...

After one week of feverish work with loads of help from Kristen's mom, Kathy, (who made the trip up just to lend her decorating expertise) and our new found Utah friends, the house is looking like a home...

The Blue Room (Guest room/Office) Before and After
The bedroom and guest room both had raw cedar trim around all the windows and doors and closets. Strange. We were lucky enough to have Misty around to lead the team in ripping this trim off. Actually replacing it with real crown molding and floor boards is a longer term project, but at least its gone now.









The Living Room: Before and After:








The kitchen BEFORE: You can see where the previous owner had his dart board. Thankfully he took it with him, although he left up the wooden planks he installed to protect the wall. When Jim took those down with a crowbar, they came off with a lot of the wall. We had to replaster with joint compound. Kristen loves working with joint compound (really).

By the way, the little room you can to the left, just off the kitchen, is the laundry room/mud room/back door entrance. The previous owner left his washer and dryer, which we at first attempted to use, then attempted to clean, then abandoned altogether and replaced....We love Costco.

The room off to the right is the bathroom.






The Kitchen AFTER








And here is our favorite helper: McKenna. We had some great folks spend their time helping us paint, patch, and move in. McKenna was the only one who diagramed her whole family on the wall in paint.

New House

Jim getting ready to open one of many boxes waiting to be unpacked. Painted kitchen in the background. More (and better) pics to come of the house transformation process (after film gets developed).



These are some pics of our home recovering from asbestos-ridden popcorn ceilings. You can't be too careful.