Avett Brothers

This summer Kyle Josh and I ALSO saw the AVETT BROTHERS

at the Gallivan Center Downtown.  Another "new" group (been

around for a while) that Kyle introduced us to.

LOVE THEM!  Were excited to hear they were coming

through SLC this summer on tour as well--

They came in June and it was a nice

hot muggy night for a concert.  The sky was

once again spectacular and so was the show.

ANOTHER group (See my MUMFORD Post) that

is BETTER live too!  These boys put on a great show.

We loved that it was a smaller crowd and more

intimate venue.  Scott Avett (far left) and Seth Avett

are bringing back the banjo!

Seriously these boys played piano, banjo, guitar, drums,

harmonica, sang, danced, fiddled--pure talent!

They sing so great together!

Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing

Like the love that let us share our name

Avett Brothers "Murder in the City"

 

Mumford & Sons

Last Wednesday night Kyle Josh and I headed

out to Salt Air (see 2nd picture) to see 

these guys...Mumford and Sons!

  Kyle first introduced us to them last year.

Thanks to Josh and Kyle, my musical tastes

have not been stuck in the 80's and I do love

to find and listen to new groups and music.

(Not that there's anything wrong with 80's music!)

We were excited to see them as they had very

few U.S. stops (not sure WHY they came to Utah!)

Concert was at Salt Air--the scenery (sunset) was

SPECTACULAR!  The lake was smelly and the music

exceeded ALL our expectations!

Sunset over the Great Salt Lake.

I would have to say if you LIKE these guys on the radio--

make EVERY effort to see them live.  They were HONESTLY

one of the best (if not THE best) bands I have ever

heard a live show from.  They sounded 100X BETTER
(no joke!) live then "recorded".  Marcus Mumford

has an amazing voice and their show was wonderful.

Yay for Mumford and Sons!

Yay for a great memory with my husband and son.

"In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die

and where you invest your love, you invest your life...."

~ MUMFORD & SONS (Awake My Soul)

Da Gurls....

(and YES! I do know that's spelling wrong!)

Here is the next set off to school today.

Grace Catherine--High School (10th Grade)

Eliza Jane--Jr High (7th Grade)

Olivia Isabelle--who is only EVER called

Bompie (Bom-Pee) or Puddy or Fluffy or 

Sniffy or P-Soup or...she may require

therapy at some point in her life or not

know who she really is (HA HA)--

anyway, she is 4th Grade.

So if you're smart, you've figured out that

I have one in college, High School, Jr High

AND Elementary School.

I am tired and officially broke just typing 

all that (and paying all the bills)

There they are though... Da Gurls!

I'm BAAACCCCKKKK......

My mother asked where I'd been.

Kyle's cousin (hi Libbi!) asked where I'd been.

A friend asked where I'd been.

Well, I've been busy.

And I've been lazy.

But I'll try and be better....

But I've got news....

A BIG life event!!

My heart is fluttering a little in my chest!

See that tall kid up there???

HE STARTS COLLEGE TOMORROW!

HOLY COW!

HOLY FREAKIN' COW!!

I've got a kid going to college.

I must have started having kids

at 14, right?

Or I must be getting old!

(le sigh)

GOOD LUCK JOSH!!!

I guess I will have to cheer a little

louder for the Utes now too.

Classes include awful things like

Calculus II, Computer Science,

Intro to Computer Engineering, 

Social and Ethical Implications of Engineering

and some writing class.

He's thinking he will

major in Computer Engineering

with an emphasis (minor) in 

Computer Science.

Smarty Pants!!!

It's a good thing he's A LOT smarter

than me--Pretty sure I would fail

ALL of those classes (except maybe

the writing one!)

More to come...

about vacations 

about Josh's new job 

(which started in July)

about my other kids starting school

(next Monday)

about my mom moving to SLC

(yeah!)

about our life!

before and after, one more time

~Before~

I wanted to show the dramatic

difference in side by side pic's.

(or in this case top to bottom).

pretty big difference, huh?

~After~

You may also note on the roof

of the original picture you can 

see the chairs the boys use  

 from time to time.

And if you look even closer you

will also see a box of Shasta's

resting right next to the chimney.

Empty, of course.

You may ALSO note that after

weeks of no rain and scorching

temperatures, our lawn is slowly

dying.  There is no hope this

summer unless we see some rain.

Soon.

If you give a mouse a cookie....

Or if you give Kyle a project...

So the porch was done and 

his palms were itching...

The paint samples were 

on the house.

Light?

or dark?

If you lived in the 'hood

and walked by, you got a vote.

(Not that it ultimately mattered)

But still, we wanted you to

feel like you were a part

of the process in some small way.

First step?

Fill in the "gable" on the front.

This part of the project was free

thanks to the Mark Nielson

"leftover" store.  Kyle's dad

used shingles on his house last

year (the year before?) and

had a whole pile of leftovers

that Kyle was able to use for 

our project!  Thanks Mark Depot! 

Progress on the gable

Looming question?

Dark or light paint?

Weather proofing the front

Vent for the attic

Filling in shingles

above and 

below

Shingles in and primed.

Paint started.

Dark won...

As it looks today.

The front is finished to the

garage.  It has been 100 degrees

here for over a week.

Kyle is waiting until it dips

below 95 to resume painting

(with a roller in case you're

wondering...tedious and tiring)

What do we think?

Glad you asked!

We LOVE IT!!

It totally updates our home

from 1950 (when it was built)

to 2012.  It looks sleek,

cooler, more modern and clean.

We seriously LOVE IT!

(did i mention that)

For any purists who are against

painting brick--well you can keep

yours how you want it, right?

Until the end...that's my update.

dumpster diving

Once a year in our neighborhood

the city brings in dumpsters so

that residents can dispose of

garbage.  One day while Kyle

was getting rid of OUR garbage

he found THIS metal chair in 

the dumpster...and well, he

"dove" in and retrieved it.

What can we say?

It was awfully retro and cute

and seemed like an easy thing

to fix to fit into our kitchen.

My mother in law (had she seen

this in its original RED color)

would've probably wrestled me

and Kyle to the ground for it--

she's a BIT of a "red fanatic".

(Understatement of the year.)

So we found a cool (ugly) green to

match the kitchen and sanded and painted....

And painted and painted (and swore

a little under our breaths at all

the painting....)

Here we have the finished product.

This is a pretty bad picture

(I blame the photographer...)

but it turned out pretty cute and

it matches all the blues and

greens in my kitchen (which of

course is recycled itself so 

this matches perfectly!)

It sits in a nice spot under

the window and is a fun accent.

crumbling, eroding, falling to pieces, falling apart

My man, he likes a project.  Call him crazy, call him handy, or just

call him my man.  Some men like to bike and run--Kyle he likes

to build and fix.  So when the last piece of railing fell of the

porch of our 61 year old house this spring and the steps

continued eroding into little pieces of garden pebbles, we 

looked into pouring new cement.  Prices we heard were high,

anywhere from $1500 to $2000.  

Sigh, 

we didn't have that to spend on steps, so being

the handy man that he is Kyle looked into tiling over

the bad cement for a 10 year fix.  He had seen it done

and thought it might work.  We made our way to 

our favorite tile store (Tile For Less) where they

now know us on a first name basis and even 

feel comfortable enough with us to let a swear

word out (or two.)  We found some rough surfaced

tile that even looked like cement and the price tag

on THIS was closer to $150. 

Labor: Free

We saved ourselves a cool $1200 (or so) dollars.

I forgot how BAD!!!! these steps looked until

today when I pulled up these pictures!

Crumbling, Eroding, Falling to pieces...

(and you thought this post was going 

to be about ME right? ha ha)

Here is our porch remodel.

SERIOUSLY?? Yikes!!!

Quite literally...falling to pieces

bad, bad and just plain bad!

Temporary wood holding up porch roof, important details!

Hard at work

Rain

OR shine!

Making progress

New tile is kind of like "if you give a mouse a cookie...."

(the book) it leads to other things, right?  The old

metal 1950's post that was holding UP the roof over

the porch ALSO fell off (can't wait to see what

else falls off this old house--it AMAZES me sometimes

to think what we paid for a completely broken

down old house to live a good location ("location,

location, location!") in Salt Lake City.

I digress though....where was I?

Things falling apart, ah yes, the post...it fell off too.

Kinda gotta have a post to hold up the roof so Mr. Handy

thought he would build a lovely new one out of wood.

As follows:

New Post

Leveling and making thing straight

Adding some "bulk", some "beef", some "texture"

Caulking and wood fill

OHHHH pretty!

Time for primer and paint

And there it is!!

New steps!

New post!

Sing Hallelujah! 

Can you see how this is leading to painting the

old trim white that is now old and tan and peeling?

And can you see the samples of gray

paint on the house?

UH-HUH!

If you give a mouse a cookie...

or in my case if you give my man some tile...

Thank goodness he's CHEAP!

Next on the agenda, scraping and painting the all old trim a 

new shiny white.  Kyle plans on hand painting the brick to 

bring orange 1950's brick up to the 2012's.  

No offense to any who love old orange brick--our house

is just ready for a change.  We think we've settled on a 

color, and it will probably take all summer to finish this--but we

have NOTHING but time on our hands~