Kim Caldwell was born in Provo Utah. During her early years her parents moved around while finishing college and setting up their careers. They moved from Provo to Logan to Provo to North Salt Lake and finally, when Kim was 7 years old, they settled down in West Bountiful Utah. Shortly after moving there her parents divorced. Her dad moved out, Kim, her siblings and her mother continued living in the house. In fact, her mom and step dad still live there today.
While growing up Kim attended Bountiful High school and was in Xela, the all girls show choir but the thing Kim remembers most about growing up was flipping houses with their family. Kim's mom had a good job working for the state as an environmental scientist, but to make extra money Kim's mom sold real estate and flipped houses. This was in the late 90's and early turn of the century, prime real estate sells time. It provided great income for their family.
Some of Kim’s best memories with her family were traveling. Aside from spending three weeks in California every year with her dad, her first trip was to the state of Missouri because this is the state she was assigned in 5th grade to do her state report on. All of the kids in their family traveled to the state they had studied. After that they went on many great vacations including St. Thomas, Hawaii, Canada, Florida, New York, Cruises and the Virgin Islands.
Kim did well in school and was awarded with a full ride scholarship to Weber State University. Her plan had been to go to beauty school. However, her dad and grandpa talked her out of that decision and through prayer Kim realized the place she should be was BYU. So she turned down the scholarship and went to BYU. Her freshman year she ended up living with some roommates from Brazil (while her future husband was serving a mission in Brazil).
Kim's first year at the Y was spent doing generals. She felt a pull to study in the interior design program. She had taken an intro course to interior design in high school and again that first year at BYU but the field was so broad she really didn't have a sense of if it was a good fit for her or not. Still she submitted the paperwork and portfolio to see if she could get into the program. She decided if she got in that would be her answer on whether or not she should pursue the major. She did get in and spent her sophomore year in the first year of the 4 year program.
The first year, was a lot of beginning art, drafting, and composition courses. She still wondered if interior design would be a good fit because there were so many niches it was hard to understand what would truly be involved. It was all over the place, from managing a business, accounting, budgeting, construction, working with architects and clients, drafting plans, to understanding materials and finishes and the requirements for each of these in different venues. After learning all this she still wasn't 100% sure about where she was headed in schooling. She also had a mission on her radar.
The 2nd year of the program, Kim attended her first day of classes and inspiration hit. She now was completely in love with the field. She wanted to drink it all in. She realized she loved it so much that now she had lost all desire for a mission. She knew that staying at BYU and completing this major was what she was supposed to do. It ended up being a good thing she didn't leave because shortly after that, they found out BYU was going to drop its interior design program. The students fought back and they let those who were already in the program finish up. That meant she would have to go to school through the summer, but that she would also finish her degree in 3 years instead of 4. She stuck around for one extra semester to finish a minor in Marriage, Family, Human Development.
After graduating from BYU, Kim's first job was at Bassett Furniture. She worked there for about 1 year and 9 months. By this time she had now lived in Provo for 5 years and was aching to get out of the college town. She wanted a change and so did her roommates. They had heard about an apartment complex in Salt Lake City called Turnberry. It was a complex where lots of young single adults were living. So they moved up to Salt Lake together and Kim started looking for a different job.
Three of Kim's roommates were sisters. They had a cousin living in South Weber named Mark Caldwell who was commuting down to Salt Lake. He was tired of the commute so they suggested he come check out their apartments and see if he liked them. He came down one Sunday to go to church with them and check things out. He got there at 8:50 before church. He and Kim started talking and he didn't end up leaving until 10:30 that night because he and Kim had hit it off so well. He only left at 10:30 because he didn't want to wear out his welcome. (Perhaps it was a little late for that.) Needless to say, he knew right away he wanted to ask her out. Kim wasn't entirely sure, but she was willing to entertain the possibility.
Mark and Kim hung out a few times with Mark’s cousins. After a few weeks Mark asked Kim out. They went out the weekend before Labor Day. They were engaged in November and married in December. Kim swore she would never do the quick date and marry scene but somehow it was right and she went with it.
About a week after meeting Mark, Kim started a new job working for Chase Associates an interior design firm. This was a dream job for Kim. The firm was a full service design firm that allowed her to work all the areas. Every project was different. She quickly rose in the company and began doing work that normally a more senior employee would be doing. She learned so many things among which was how to wine and dine high profile clients and close deals.
One of Kim's favorite projects was The Sky Lodge in Park City. She was able to take the project from the design stage to installation and opening. Starting with drafting the units, designing the furniture, specifying the finish plumbing and decorative lighting, all the way down to furnishing the kitchens and installing the art. After the design phase of the project was done, she managed the various moving and installation crews to get the hotel ready to open.
Kim loved this job. She worked there from 2005-2011 until their second child was born. After that she started working only one day a week. In addition to working for her firm, Kim also managed to pick up her real estate license and work as a real estate agent on the side. In fact, Kim found this neighborhood while showing houses to other clients.
After being married about a year and a half and living in an apartment, Kim and Mark decided they wanted to buy a house. That year they helped Kim's mother flip a house in Bountiful. The money they made from helping her they used to make a down payment on a house in Woods Cross. They planned to only live there about 2 years, but as goes in life, their plans changed and they lived there from 2007 until they moved to our neighborhood. Even though the house was small, they are so grateful they lived there. It was beneficial to their family and Mark's career because of the people they met and associations they formed.
When they decided to move, everything fell into place. They really liked this neighborhood and put an offer on a spec home in our neighborhood. They hadn’t planned on moving quite so soon so they hadn’t listed their house yet. Another offer was accepted so they decided to build. They are very grateful they did.
Kim and her family love living in this neighborhood. They love all the kids in our ward and really are grateful for the opportunity it provides for friends for their kids. They love how down-to-earth the people around here are and appreciate that they don't feel judged by others. We are so fortunate to have Kim in our relief society and the talent she brings. She is warm and easy to talk to. Every time I have ran into her I have been greeted warmly and feel welcome by her. We look forward to a hopefully long associate with Kim in our ward!
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