Blessings

We Built This!!!

This is our home we had in Enid. Scott and I built this ourselves from the ground up. Of course we had to hire some things done due to code and due to lack of time. We hired someone to pour the concrete floor, after my husband installed the in the floor heating system. It was really cool, well rather warm!!! ha ha ha get it??? It was nice to have warm floors in the winter, and it helped on holding down heating cost. But the other thing that was neat, we had it fixed to run cold water through it in the summer when we watered the yard. It went through the floor first, then watered the yard. The garage and shop were heated and cooled this way as well.

The big odd things to the left of the garage is Scott's shop. It was a four car garage shop. He was into carpentry and had more tools than you can shake a stick at. The whole thing was full of tools and his junk. The room above the shop and garage was what I called the grand baby room. It was a huge playroom for the hopeful grand kids. At that time we only had one and he lived in Virginia, then Washington state. But he loved playing up there the few times he got to come see us in Enid.
This is the kitchen I designed. I LOVED my kitchen. The center island was 5'x 9', one of the largest solid granite slabs in Oklahoma. I did not want a stove or sink, that was where the grand kids were going to sit on top and make cookies or color, or whatever we needed to do. I had a double oven, smooth top cook stove, the dishwasher was to the left of the sink (you can't really see it) and I had it raised about 18" so I did not have to lean over to load. Figured as we got older the leaning over would be hard on the back. The microwave oven was above the dishwasher just the perfect height for me. All the lower cabinets had pull out shelves, and the corner cabinets had swing out shelves so there were no dead spaces in the corners!! My center island had storage on both sides and at the far end, nearest the sink was a trash compactor. We also had an instant hot water dispenser, neat neat item to have for quick coffee, tea, or hot water to boil on the stove etc. Love love loved it.
You can see the front door and the openness of the floor plan. See the center island to the right? You can see the formal dining table and hutch, then the front door, turning more to the left is the dry sink and portrait wall for the kids and their Sr. Pictures. It was featured with spot lighting on the photos. Then there was a hall way with two bedrooms, guest bath and a couple closets for storage. On the other side of the house was a HUGE laundry room 1/2 bath, utility room, our master bedroom, bathroom suite and walk in closet. Plus the door to the garage and upstairs to the playroom.
This view is from the front door looking towards the sun room. The sun room was located just off the center island....see it on the left? The sun room had double french doors and then windows facing west (not the smartest move) to watch out in the backyard and pasture/barn/arena.
This was the guest bathroom, I loved the colors and old fashioned fixtures.This is the back view of Scott's shop. We had two overhead doors and two walk through doors. The window above was the playroom. The room was the full width of the house, so a lot of square footage. We had a separate heating and cooling unit for the upstairs and did not leave it on unless we were going to have company or be up there our self.

This view of the barn is from Scott's shop back door. Outside the fenced area so the dogs could not run out into the pasture and chase cows, you are looking right out his shop to the barn. That barn is what was on the 15 acres when we bought it. That barn is what convinced us to buy the place. It was the neatest barn.


This was the bathroom in the barn. Of course it was not cute like this when we bought it. But in a weekend or two I had the barn fixed up. We painted the room, put in a new sink and floor, and really cute boarder. It was done in cowboy theme, go figure!

We made a little kitchenette in the tack/feed room. The hot water tank was already there for the bathroom also had a shower. So we put in the sink, frig, and micro, plus cabinets. painted that room, put in curtains, heat and air wall unit, painted the floor a brick pattern and cute cute boarder. That place was a great hang out. Especially while we were building the house.

This is the arena with lights. You could ride at night if you wanted to. The people who had it before us had play days there and many horse events, team roping I believe was one of the biggest attractions. It was a full size arena that we worked very hard to get it back into shape. If you don't take care of them weeds and things take over. And they did. We had to keep it tilled and sprayed for weeds. Took a lot of work, but by the time we sold it, it was doing pretty good.

Writing about this makes me very sad. I miss this house so much. We designed it, built it, and lived in it. All to leave it behind and move back "home" with family. We had planned to live there forever. But we had a variable interest rate, scary. We were afraid that when we retired that we would not be able to afford the house and the upkeep, plus enjoy living a little bit of life. So we made the very hard decision to sell. We advertised it three weekends and it sold. I hope the people that bought it will enjoy it and use it as much as we did. We served over 100 people there when the assistant fire chief retired. We had college class parties there every semester. I found it very important to host college parties for my students to show you can have a really good time and not need alcohol. I was never lacking for attendance. We would have 30, 40 and up to 50 and 60 people there. That house was built to entertain, and we did. We loved that place. But sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. The house is just that.....a house. I had no family and I really wanted to retire. I wish we had not spent so much on building the house. It got out of hand very quickly. Yes we did great by building it ourselves, but still, the expense is something one is not prepared for if you have not done it before. From the time we started to the time we finished was one year. We laid 12,000 sq ft of sod and put in a beautiful three rail fence to finish things off. We dreamed of fishponds, and lots of flower beds, but that did not happen. But dreams do come true. I had a dream house, my husband dreamed of always building his own home, and we dreamed of sharing it was many people. Those dreams all came true. How blessed we were, how blessed we are, and what a lesson in life it was. Dream big.