Settling in Bartlesville
In December 2007 we found ourselves a lovely little place on (appropriately) Colonial Estates in the South of the City, and finally got our own furniture delivered from its storage in Tulsa.
around the back we had a much bigger garden, ideal for chipping practice, we also had a couple of nice little trees.
the place was a 4 bedroom bungalow with a triple garage so plenty of room, though we tended to stick to the open plan area overlooking the rear garden. We made an effort to do Christmas but with no family around it was a bit of a waste of time really, warm sunshine didn't do much for the Christmas feel either.
the open plan area had a kitchen, small breakfast area and living room together which we really liked.
we never did quite get our heads around this area, too big for an entrance hall, not the right place for a room
it was great to have a huge bedroom with double doors out to the rear garden
and the en suite bathroom and walk in wardrobe were even better, there is a lot to be said for having space
the other bedrooms were pretty nice too, all in all this was a lovely little place.
Sarah kept talking about the neighbourhood houses and all the xmas lights they had, so while she was at work one day I went down to the 'Home Depot' and did this to the house...
it was pretty straightforward thanks to external electrical sockets (simple but so useful) and Sarah's face when she came home was worth the effort alone (as well as 'fitting in' to the neighbourhood) don't want to be the miserable sods of the street do we.
after just one week in the house we were hit with an 'Ice Storm' which was fantastic, though it didn't do our little tree any good as the weight of the ice snapped off branches. Many places around the City and Oklahoma as a whole lost power for weeks, we were lucky and ours stayed on.
everything was covered in its own wrapping of ice, even the smallest branches and blades of grass on the lawn. It was the strangest thing and a really interesting experience, another week later we were back to sunshine and 50 degrees F' .
we had to wait until January before we got any snow, we got 3 hours worth one afternoon.
When Mark and Hayley arrived to visit us in February 08 Mark and I set up a golf net......when Mark blasted a Pro V1 into the next street behind us we ran back into the house like a pair of scolded kids and sat around listening for ambulance sirens but it seems we got away with it.
when Neil, Paula and Adam came to visit we tested out the garden for football, then had to go next door and ask for our ball back.
My brother Steve also made it to Montrose but evaded the camera around the house. We loved our house on Montrose Drive, you could walk from here to a beautiful park called Jo Allyn Lowe Park from where a path called the 'Pathfinder Parkway' meandered through the city without ever needing to cross a road, it was bursting with wildlife plants and points of interest and we walked here most evenings; this was a great time in our lives.