It all happened so quickly that I can’t even believe it. About a month ago, Stacey and Mel introduced me to the Daybreak community down in South Jordan. It looked so much like Sugarhouse, without the added benefits of roaming panhandlers that I became obsessed with it. Mike had been hinting that he’d like a bigger house, so within a month, we find ourselves packing and heading south.

Just for my records, I’m posting some of the blogs and websites I’ve found that have information about my new home:

• Daybreak Utah — Newsroom
• Daybreak Community Association: The official community site
• CDA Properties SLC Utah: The Realtor who helped us find a rental in Daybreak so quickly. Ask for Adam Willis. He’s awesome!
• Facebook | Daybreak: Most of the great information that I’ve been able to get is from the Daybreak Facebook fan page.
• The Daybreak Daily: An unofficial community website
• DAYBREAK TODAY: A Daybreak resident’s web log about the community
• Daybreak (@DaybreakUt) on Twitter
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Daybreak Community: A little out of date, but some good links to maps and such.

My biggest regret is that I won’t be living next to NakedJen anymore. Everything else about Daybreak is looking to be wonderful. I’m sure to bore you all with lots of photos of the area and the lake.

There is a woman at Daybreak protesting. She has a sign that says:

Daybreak Dream a Nightmare

Apparently, her complaints are with Kennecott Land and the Daybreak Homeowners Association:

• Resident with signs on Topview and Daybreak Pkwy. – The Daybreak Daily

The resident is a long-time Daybreak resident who lives in Founders. She has been an avid proponent of Daybreak but has many examples of KL and HOA failures to live up to their advertising, promises and obligations. A quick conversation with her was enlightening. She does not seem to be one who just has an axe to grind but someone who sees what needs to be fixed to keep our community great and some suggestions about how to fix them.

After living in Sugarhouse for the last six years, all of these complaints seem superfluous.

• Are you paying $1080 a month for 823 square feet?

• Is your house so old that the drains don’t drain, the power breakers pop if you run the microwave and the toaster at the same time or the colony of mice living in your basement are impossible to exterminate?

• Have you had panhandlers knock on your door asking for money?

• Have you dealt with boarded up windows and waist-high weeds at the two vacant houses on your street?

• Was your supposedly securely locked bicycle been stolen off your front porch in the middle of the night?

• Has a stranger been apprehended and arrested by the police in your backyard?

Daybreak is HEAVEN compared to some of the issues in other neighborhoods, even prestigious ones like Sugarhouse. If the Daybreak Dream is a NIGHTMARE, I think you need to learn the correct definition of nightmare and move downtown for a while. You’ll come back to South Jordan with a whole new perspective.

An entry on the Daybreak newsletter disturbed me. It read:

You may have noticed swallows that have nested under the bridges on 11400 S. The Association has looked into these particular birds and they are federally protected species of bird and we are not able to tamper with the nests until after they migrate this fall. Once the birds have migrated we will go through the area and clean up their nests.

It surprised me that they didn’t mention the BEST reason to have cliff swallows inhabiting Daybreak. Each swallow eats close to THREE pounds of mosquitoes every day. Rather than trying to get rid of the birds, we should be encouraging them to stay here because there is a lot of water for mosquitoes to breed on Oquirrh Lake. Cliff swallows might make unsightly nests under the bridge, but I’d much rather deal with that and bird droppings than to have to constantly fight swarms of mosquitoes with every walk around the lake.

Almost a week ago, Mike and I took photos and some video of The Swallows of Daybreak. Here’s what we saw.

Here is some video:

After seeing the swallows face to face and knowing what they can do to make Daybreak a better place, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to remove their nests, no matter how they look. If you would like to learn more about cliff swallows, here are a couple of links:

• Cliff Swallow – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Don’t be a Hoser: The Swallows of California « The blog of Keith Hansen

There was some excitement in the neighborhood yesterday. Hundreds of cars were parked around the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and people were rushing to see the the replacement of the Angel Moroni on the top of the LDS temple.

In case you hadn’t heard, the Mormon temple in Daybreak was hit by lightning back in June:

• MormonTimes – Lightning hits Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Nothing had been done to correct the damage done to the Angel Moroni statue. I kind of expected to see scaffolding and crews around the temple day and night as soon as the open house was over, but instead, they brought in a replacement Moroni and just switched them out.

I didn’t see them take the old statue down, but I was there when they were lifting the new one up. You can see the photos here:

After two months, the charring from the lightning had faded, but there is no denying that the new statue looks much better. It was impressive to watch the process and see the crowds of people, eager to see the local church be repaired.

Update 08-13-09: According to 2News, the new statue has TWO lightning rods in it now, one on the trumpet and one on Moroni’s head. Glad to know that they are planning for the future this time since South Jordan gets a lot of lightning and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple is the tallest thing for miles.

Jenny Bauman had a house built in Daybreak. It is the same design as the house Mike and I live in, so it feels like a video of OUR house being built.

Our House Being Built from Jenny Bauman on Vimeo.

Our house is the brown color the house was before the painting, so for a bit, it REALLY feels like our house.

Via: Facebook | Daybreak Status