Our House Is a Very Very Very Fine House

So……..

We own a house. Awesome. Super awesome actually (our mortgage payment is WAY less than our rent was for the same house). It’s slowly sinking in that it is OUR house. It was kind of anti-climactic really. There was no exciting moment of receiving the keys at the closing and we came home to the same house we’d been living in for 7 months. But the first weekend we decided to get to work changing some things that had been bugging us. And slowly the house is starting to feel like it’s ours.

The first project was the mudroom/entry/sunroom. It was actually one of the things I loved about the house when I first saw pictures of it, but some things needed improvement. Like this bench by the windows:

Yuck. The rug that was covering the bench made the room smell musty. So, we ripped it off, replaced the hardware, and painted it. Here’s the after:

We also decided to add some color to the other side of the room where there are hooks for our coats. It was plain white like this before:

And now it looks like this:

We also found this cool 7-up crate on eBay and added that for some decoration.

The next project was the built-in shelves in our bedroom. It looked fine before, but a little boring. I’d wanted to paint the back wall of it or a while, so that’s what we did.

Before:

After:

We’re really really happy with how things have turned out. It feels cleaner and more like our house.

Derrick’s also set up his “home theater room” (aka the basement family room) exactly how he wants it. That room didn’t take any paint or anything, but Derrick got fancy with the wiring. Here’s a link to his stuff on that: http://blog.djvitamind.com/home-theatre/.

Our next project will be the laundry room!

What do you think?

(You can click the pictures to see some in progress pictures on Flickr.)

Thermopolis, WY

Derrick and I drove up to Thermopolis on Friday morning.  It was an incredible drive! We drove through the Wind River Basin,  Boysen State Park, and then through the Wind River Canyon. Living in Wyoming makes me really realize I live on this planet of Earth. I know that sounds strange, but I’m not sure how else to put it. There is so much land and it is so diverse. When living in a city, it’s easy to forget about the earth beneath you. It’s really amazing how beautiful it is to look around you and see nothing but land and sky (and Derrick, because he’s usually there next to me).

All the pictures in this post were taken by Derrick, which is why they’re better than my usual pictures. And because I couldn’t post 72 pictures here, here is a link to the rest of them on Flickr.

Here’s a couple pictures of the Wind River Basin and the Boysen Reservoir:

This picture does not compare to what it actually looked like. We were a few feet from a ledge and the rest of the land in the picture was WAY below us. All 360 degrees of this view was absolutely incredible. It gave me chills.

This is the Boysen Reservoir, which is what you pass right before entering the Wind River Canyon. This was also beautiful.

I had a workshop to go to on Friday, so while I was in a windowless room all day, Derrick explored Hot Springs State Park. (And I guess I wasn’t in there all day, we did take a walk around the park at lunch). After the workshop, we went around together.

On Saturday, instead of swimming in the hot springs pools, Derrick and I went to see the petroglyphs that are nearby. The petroglyphs are prehistoric rock art. Scientists are still working on dating the art. Here is a little more information about them.

     

It really was amazing and we only spent a little more than 24 hours up there. Seriously, look at all the amazing pictures on Flickr!

– Jamie

A Spring Day Spent in Encampment, WY

We had our first warm day since we moved here! It was 66 degrees yesterday! (And I’m writing this blog post to relive it, because now there’s about 3 inches of snow on the ground). Derrick and I went shopping for a house, since we’re still homeless come May 1st. After that we drove down to Saratoga for lunch (about 40 miles from here). We planned that to be the highlight of our afternoon, but after lunch I wanted to drive Derrick into Encampment, and that turned out to be the best part! You are surrounded by mountains as you drive in – it’s very pretty. I drove him through the town a little bit to show him the library (what can I say, I’m a librarian 24/7!). The town is almost entirely dirt roads, except for two main streets which are paved. The street signs are all wooden. We spotted a little liquor store called “Chez Booze” (I love Wyoming!). We decided to stop in since the best liquor store in Rawlins is the one at City Market. We talked with the owner a little bit – turns out he’s been in Encampment 15 years and Chez Booze has been open since 2004! Amazing what you can learn in 10 minutes! Anyway, he told us about the Grand Encampment Museum a few blocks away. Even though it was closed, he said we could walk around and check out the old buildings. We went over there and it was amazing!

I’d love to go back to get a tour and hear more about everything and go into the buildings, but Derrick and I had an awesome time just exploring on our own.  I did find some information on the Museum’s website about the things we saw. These are ore buckets from the Ferris Haggerty Mine. The mine produced 50 tons of copper ore EVERY DAY.

Inside the grounds of the museum, there are several buildings. I think only one of them is a replica. The rest are original buildings from the early 1900’s.

 

The Forest Service's watch tower

Derrick exploring...

After walking around we headed back, but did make one more stop at the wildlife viewing area at Saratoga Lake.

It was such a great day. I can’t wait to do more exploring around the county this summer!

It’s the middle of the winter…

And we haven’t had many adventures lately.  We’ve both been very busy with work and it’s too cold to go exploring.  We can’t wait for SUMMER!

I was going through the tons of pictures I’ve taken on our various drives since being here and I thought these were kind of cool, so since I have nothing else interesting to say or talk about, here are some neat pictures.

Unfortunately, all of these pictures were taken with my cell phone, since it’s usually the only thing handy while we’re driving.  The first set were taken with an app that makes the picture look like a Polaroid, so the coloring is slightly altered.

These last two pictures were taken from the regular camera on my phone, so that coloring is what closer to what it really looked like.

This was taken during our drive home from Casper. It was a really pretty winter sunset.

The sunset glow was fading fast.

After looking at these again, I’m actually pretty impressed these were taken with my cell phone.

So despite what the groundhog said, I’m pretty sure we can expect three more months of winter. And I’ve been told it sometimes snows in June and July here. So…yeah, it’s a good thing I love my job.

But once the temperatures rise, we’ll be exploring a lot more and I’ll have more cool Wyoming stuff to share!

– J

Adios 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

2010 was a very full year for us! I don’t normally make resolutions. Instead I’ve been thinking about the accomplishments and positive things that happened this past year. That seems like a positive way to start 2011! A lot of these are related to school and work, but that really seemed to consume my life in 2010, so it’s fitting.

• Derrick and I celebrated one year of marriage!
• I completed three quarters of grad school
• I survived a non-stop, busy summer full of working, 11 school credits, and a 100 hour internship
• I learned SO much about teen services and teen programming from some amazing people during my internship
• I graduated!  (After two long years!)
• I was offered my first professional position, which also happened to be exactly what I was hoping for in terms of responsibilities
• Derrick and I moved to a new state (a first for me)
• We got rid of our crappy Jetta and got a new, reliable, all wheel drive Subaru Impreza
• Derrick’s business has grown and is about to expand even more!
• The local newspaper wrote about my upcoming program!!!
• And we got a Nintendo Wii (Derrick’s favorite from this list!)

Hopefully 2011 brings more great adventures and accomplishments! Thank you to all of our friends and family for being so supportive and amazing this year.

For our first NYE in the happenin’ town of Rawlins, Derrick and I are cooking a fancy dinner and we just might stay up past our bedtime to ring in the new year!

Happy New Year!

-J&D

Christmas 2010

Even though we got 8 inches of snow dumped on us early this week (and more was supposed to come Wednesday and Thursday), the weather cleared up in time for my dad to come up for his visit on Wednesday.  He left just a few hours ago (boo!), but it was a great visit.  We showed him the town a little bit, watched a few movies and tv shows, and I went for a couple winter walks with him.  The best walk was on Christmas morning.  It was 15 degrees and very icy/dangerous to walk on the street, but it was still pretty and we got some good pictures.

We walked to Washington Park.  It’s not quite the same as the beautiful Washington Park in Denver, but it will probably be the only time in my life that I’ll be able to say that I live the Washington Park neighborhood.

We saw lots of deer, cool rocks, and the trees looked beautiful all covered in frost!

Dad with a friendly deer in the background

A cool rock formation near the park

Another deer

Frosty trees

Another frosty tree

 

Neat!

Hi from Mia!

 

After our walk, Derrick and I made our first Christmas dinner (with a little help from my dad) and it turned out great!  Meanwhile, Mia hung out under the record player. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year!

– J & D

Wyoming…the beginning

Well, I’ve decided to use a blog to chronicle our adventure in Wyoming.  It will be a way for Derrick and I to remember and document our time here, and a way for family and friends to check in on what’s going on with us!

We’ve been here exactly one month today!  Here are some pictures of our first few visits here in October, for the interview and when Derrick came up to look for a place for us to live.

A lot of the drive to Rawlins in the fall looks like this. Flat and golden.

 

But there are also a lot of hills. (There are hills similar to this (but larger) that surround Rawlins and when they are dusted with snow it's beautiful! I'll take a picture soon.)

 

And this is one of the mountains you'll see between Laramie and Rawlins. This *might* be Elk Mountain, though I'm not sure.

One of the first places we visited once we got into town was the park and there we saw lots of deer just hanging out.  There were also a lot more trees than I expected!  For some reason I thought Wyoming towns didn’t have many trees.  We also saw tons of deer walking through the neighborhood and hanging out in people’s yards.  I know there’s lots of deer in Colorado, but I’ve never lived somewhere where it’s almost as common to see deer in your yard as it is to see squirrels in your yard!

Deer resting in the park.

 

Trees! In Wyoming!!!

And finally, the cutest house in Rawlins:

 

Home for now…

So, that’s the introduction to our time in Wyoming.  Soon I’ll post pictures of our house and the snowy drive back to Rawlins after Thanksgiving.  I’m learning to love the scenery in Wyoming, it’s not Colorado, but it’s beautiful in its own way.