Oooooooooklahoma!

The three of us drove to Oklahoma this weekend to visit my brother Griffin, and his wife Ashland, and to help them fix up the house they just bought. My mom and dad were also there, and it was really fun to get to see everybody again so soon after Christmas.

First, a little background on the house. It is so cute, and in the nicest neighborhood. The only bad thing about this house is...well, the entire inside. The people who lived here before them were seriously lacking in cleaning and decorating ability, and didn't do any (and I mean any) upkeep on the property. on top of that, Griffin and Ash bought this as a foreclosure, and I guess the people who lived here before them figured anything they left behind or broke before they were kicked out was fair payback to whoever bought it. The structure of the home is in great shape though, so all it really needed was a little TLC. And that's where we came in

We arrived in Cleveland, Oklahoma Friday afternoon, and went straight to work for the next two days. I stripped golfing wallpaper off the master bedroom walls, flower wallpaper off the master bathroom walls, and fishy wallpaper off the main bathroom walls. I loathe wallpaper. And I think these people must have used Elmer's glue to put it up or something, because I lost hours of my life and more than one fingernail attempting to scrape this stuff off. Hooray for paint! I also washed more stuff than I care to recount, painted a few rooms (and a few of my clothes), scrubbed cupboards, pulled weeds, piled up garbage, etc....

As tired as I was at the end of all of this, Matt must have been a hundred times more so. He is truly amazing to me. When we walked in the door of the house he jumped into action and I didn't see him again until we got in the truck to go home. After it was all over, we counted up the projects he had worked on and came up with a list of seventeen different things he had fixed, built, or installed in the course of two days. What a stud.

It was all worth it though. By the time we left there was a morning and late afternoon difference. I can't really say a day and night difference, because there is still a long way to go. But the point is, it looks a lot better.

And we had a lot of fun doing it.

The house. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and sits on about an acre of beautiful wooded land. So nice!

Griffin and Ashland, the happy homeowners. (No, Griffin does not always look that creepy.)

My dad, striking his usual pose as he paints the guest bathroom.

My mom, saying "Don't take a picture of me, I look so bad." (I think she is always pretty.)

Ashland's mom, Charlotte, getting down and dirty with the seemingly permanent grime.

Ashland's dad, Jeff (or "The Judge" if you are Matt) caulking, caulking, caulking forever.

Matt, installing a water purification system. This is about all I saw of him for two days.

Bennett getting in on the action.

And this is a picture that is just so ironic it hurts. If you have read the blog entry below, you know we had quite the time getting up here. Because of this, Charlotte and Jeff suggested we take a different way home. We got about 45 minutes down the road, and this is what we saw. Needless to say, it was a very long drive.

Congratulations on the new home to Griffin and Ashland!