Monday, August 27, 2012

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!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

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!



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

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.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

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.



Thursday, June 14, 2012

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~