Help dress the texan for cold weather! (house, buying)

[Juicegoose]

Aight guys as the time draws near for my departure to the cold north I can't help but feel helpless in regards to proper cold weather attire. For the most part I will be able to dress casually at the plant(until i actually have to go into a working area then on comes the nomex) What type of comfortable shoes can i buy? Certainly not regular tennis shoes, I was thinking more like hiking shoes any suggestions as to what to look for in the shoe? Insulated, waterproof, traction? What about socks? I'm sure standard cotton socks will get nasty pretty quick so what do ya'll recommend? Same thing goes for pants, shirts, and jacket, Gloves, and hat.
What i've figured on so far is to where some nice waterproof hiking shoes on most days with some wool socks, A layer of thinsulate long johns and then a pair of jeans. For the top end i would have the thinsulate layer along with a t-shirt and sweater or fleece jacket. And on cold days where my wool peacoat. And on really cold days where my heavy duty thick duck hunting jacket. It's insulated and water proof.
Any advise regarding what i should be buying is greatly appreciated
the main things i need to buy are
shoes
gloves(lightweight and heavyweight)
longjohns
socks
head protection(although i have some beanies and a couple flannel head wraps from sking)
thanks.

[domergurl]

Holy cow ... you're not moving to Antarctica

Good coat
good pair of gloves
good hat
layers, lots of layers under the coat.

[Juicegoose]

I understand i need a good anything i will be using up there. What features should i be looking for in a coat,hat, gloves. By layers what typically do you consider layers. describe a typical days dress please.

[domergurl]

Fleece, Thinsulate & down.

[Chuckity]

Honestly?

Last week I saw a guy shoveling show in a sweatshirt and shorts.

We do have some cold days but honestly it's not THAT bad. And usually, we all go from our house to our car to our destination for the most part ... with maybe only a block or two of walking in between.

And even on the coldest days you'll find me in normal cotton socks, normal gym shoes and a pretty normal wool coat. Long sleeved shirt underneath and jeans. I only wear boots outside to shovel our own driveway.

Even DH who works outside ALL day in every kind of weather wears a thermal shirt, long sleeved work shirt, sweatjacket and a Cardhartt jacket. Regular leather work gloves and steel toed boots ... which can be colder than any other boot anyway. Knit hat, sweatjacket hood over that plus his hard hat.

And seriously, I just read your post over again - if you plan on wearing all those layers and being inside ... you're going to be doing on serious sweating.

[Juicegoose]

your probably right. I'll stick with what i have and just pickup some work boots

[cobolt]

It's no big deal. You're not moving to Canada. Dress in layers so you can add and remove accordingly. Cotton isn't good for real cold weather because you sweat and it doesn't absorb the moisture and keep you dry. So maybe invest in a pair of wool socks and if you're going to buy long johns for that once in a blue moon sub zero thingy, then get silk. A good hat is a valuable thing. A decent jacket that's waterproof and windproof (so they say). It's not Minneapolis cold. You'll be fine.

[plaidmom]

Ok, just had to chime in....

For all of you "northerners" saying "you're not moving to Alaska/Canada/MN "etc etc....

As a native of Southern California and former Naturalized Texan just gotta say:

It IS cold to US

Just a public service announcement.

I do agree with the "dress in layers" advice and I avoid cotton. I like wool, fleece and down.

[Juicegoose]

Plaidmom thank you for your kind words on the cold. I have been skiing and i thought that it wasn't cold at all. Especially considering the northeners don't know what humid cold is. But i digress, I just want to be prepared.