The wind came sweeping down the plain

The ceaseless wind is an unalterable part of life in Oklahoma. It's taken me a long time to adapt. A few years ago, I realized I'd finally adjusted to living with it: I was outside and the weather was pleasant enough, but something felt wrong. Off. Different. It took me a few minutes of quietly standing in one place before I noticed the wind wasn't blowing. Its absence was unsettling.

Yesterday morning, as I was watching the dogs romp in the yard, I texted Johnny about the fence on the north side of our yard: "I noticed one of the crepe myrtles pushing on that fence, which does not look like it can stand that for long." The house's previous owners were really into planting trees and shrubs as close to the fence lines as possible; last summer, our neighbor paid another neighbor to come trim the crepe myrtles pushing on his side of the fence. (That's another story; I fear the poor crepe myrtles will never recover.)

Yesterday evening, I caught sight of the north fence lying in the grass. Uh oh. I hoped (without much optimism) that it was only a small section of fence that had fallen. To my dismay, nearly the entire length of the fence had been blown over by yesterday's awful wind.

The fallen fence.

About 72 feet of fence is down. The dogs are unhappy about the loss of turnout time, and Buttons is extremely displeased at having to walk (and go to the bathroom) on a leash. The indignity.

The helpful woman from our homeowner's insurance agency explained that our plan has a deductible of $5,000 for damages incurring from wind; the pleasant man from the fencing company I called gave me a quote of $1,440 to repair it.

Johnny is enthusiastic about fixing it ourselves; I am wary. I've fixed and built fences before and know it's a time consuming and backbreaking process. But I figure if we fix it ourselves, we can at least salvage it for cross-country jumps.

Stephanie jumping Spike over a coop.

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Is this thing still on?

Wow, we managed to not post at all in 2015! Honestly, it wasn't the most exciting year. We got married in a lovely Kentucky Derby themed affair; for a wedding that included two live Thoroughbreds, a short guest lecture on the history of the Derby, and live streaming of the event itself, everything went very smoothly.

No real house projects were accomplished, though our wretched in-ground swimming pool has been filled in since the last post. We opted to add to the existing deck, which worked out pretty well. I made an effort at container gardening over the summer, which also went pretty well. I had more basil than I could eat! (Who am I kidding; I can always find a place for basil.)

We recently adopted a stray kitten; his name is Uncle Jimmy and he's a sleek black ball of boundless kitten energy.

We're excited about 2016 and have some fun projects slated for the year. Like our complete master bathroom remodel. (Which has been ongoing since 2014 or so.) We promise to keep you up to date!

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Five stages of dealing with a contractor

1. Denial: "We met with her in March. It's June. Why hasn't she contacted us? She must have something personal going on. Maybe she's sick. Maybe her dog died. Something has to be going on, because reasonable business owners like making money."

2. Anger: "What a terrible contractor! What's wrong with her? Doesn't she want our money? If anyone else would come to Claremore, I'd fire her immediately! I'm going to email her every day."

3. Bargaining: "Maybe if we go ahead and give her half of the payment right now, she'll get started on demolishing this stupid pool."

4. Depression: "She's never coming. This backyard isn't going to be finished for our friends' visit over the Fourth of July. Why bother mowing the yard? Who care about weed eating? We might as well let the weeds overtake the yard; I just hope the dogs don't get lost in the jungle. Or maybe I do."

5. Acceptance: "The yard will get done when it gets done. I suppose I don't mind not having a Memorial Day cookout. Or a Fourth of July party. Or spending afternoons reading in the sun. The pond-like habitat of the pool is kind of nice, right? It's like a whole little ecosystem for frogs!" 

Paint Colors

Our insurance claim repairs finally finished up last week. Two of the bedrooms were painted (the pink room and the master bedroom) and we're really pleased with how they came out. The pink room is painted a lovely shade of gray. It's the same color as the other small bedroom. 

The color is 'Gentle Rain' by Behr. It's a much lighter gray, both in person and usually online. (I don't know why it looks so dark.) 

In the master bedroom, we went very bold with Sherwin Williams' Jargon Jade.

The painter asked me if I was sure this was what we wanted. Our contractor's business partner asked me if this was the color I'd intended the room to be painted. Johnny asked me if anyone would buy the house with the bedroom such a wild color. (I pointed out he bought a house with a purple room.) 

The colors came out beautifully; I'll have photo evidence once the rooms are back together and looking like people who aren't squatters live in them.

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We Looked At A House

Somehow, we've become obsessed with the idea of buying a fixer-upper in a neighborhood we really like.

Now, you're probably all thinking this is a terrible idea. After all, we're the people who took months to replace a toilet (hey, it was grouted to the floor!), still haven't filled in our pool (we're waiting to hear back from a contractor!), and didn't paint our hideous pink and purple room until water damage forced some subcontractors to paint it for us.

But we've been doing better, really! I painted one bedroom before the water damage debacle. Johnny and I have been working diligently on the front yard. And we've both found reserves of willpower we didn't know we had thanks to doing this wacky Whole30 diet.

So last weekend we went to look at a house in the historic Maple Ridge neighborhood in Tulsa. The location couldn't be better. The house...Well, the house could be a lot better. We knew it was probably in rough shape, as it's being sold as a short sale and there were no pictures of the interior.

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary little bungalow that needs some love. However, the real estate agent was right when he said "I hope you have your brave hats on" before we went inside.

Front bedroom, complete with bizarre extra room.

Back bedroom, with a tampon applicator on the floor,
writing ALL OVER the walls, and "MURDER" written in
large letters. Fun!

Living/dining room.

Bizarre huge closet off the back bedroom. Totally baffled
as to its original function.

Kitchen, which has clearly seen improvements in the last
decade or so. 

As if the interior weren't terrifying enough, the exterior was somehow more frightening.

The foundation is definitely not in good shape. One of the basement walls had caved in completely, and it was easy to feel the slope of a ruined foundation while walking inside the house.

Now, the property is priced very cheaply and thus, is very tempting. But do a couple of people who have trouble not giving up on installing a toilet need to tackle a project of this scope? Sadly, the answer is "probably not". But that hasn't stopped us from reading all about home renovation...

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