Urban Lifestyles Tour

Yesterday, as part of my mother's day, Joe agreed to go on the Urban Lifestyles tour in downtown OKC. Those of you who visited when Kristen graduated from high school remember we went to eat at Toby Keith's restaurant in "Bricktown," part of the OKC revitalization project. All around downtown OKC there are different "districts" - Bricktown, Deep Deuce, Automobile Alley, the Arts District, Midtown, Business district, etc. It was like the Parade of Homes but for downtown "urban" living. Naturally they were showing mostly high-dollar stuff. But it was so fun to go in the places. There was a free shuttle that ran between all the stops (11 of them). If you wanted to go into homes where an owner was present you had to buy a ticket, so we splurged and bought the ticket. The stops usually had 2 places to visit, one either furnished or not (for sale/lease) and then one furnished with the homeowner present so you could ask questions about urban living downtown (where do they shop, security, what they liked to do, etc.) Most of the homes were townhomes (2-4 floors) like row houses only brand new. A few were lofts, some were flats. The townhomes usually had a built in elevator in each private unit. I definitely got a butt workout climbing all those stairs; I didn't want to use the elevator. The homes were gorgeous. A couple of them were efficiency apartments that were decorated real cute.

The real reason we took this tour was to look at possible living places for Kristen and Kaitlyn in the next couple of years (although 95% of what we saw we could NEVER afford). Kristen, hopefully, after her internship this year and grad school will have a permanent, full-time job at Chesapeake Energy just north of downtown OKC. At the same time (Fall 2011), Kaitlyn, hopefully, will have to go to school at the OK Health Sciences Center (the medical school campus for OU) which is just east of downtown OKC. Kristen WILL NOT live by herself (her words, not mine) so we figured maybe they could live together and it would be convenient for both as Norman is 20 miles away from where they need to be. PLUS, they could walk to all the venues (clubs, Ford Center Arena, Redhawks ballpark) in Bricktown and daddy would be a couple of blocks away at work if they needed help on something.

I know there has to be a lot more properties in downtown OKC that aren't as "tricked out" and are probably a lot more affordable than the ones we saw yesterday. We have at least one year to scope out the possibilities AND a lot can happen between now and then.

On the way home, one of Joe's hunting buddies called and asked us to come by their neighborhood block party. He has 3 young children and we hadn't seen the twins since they'd been born so we decided to stop by. The street was cordoned off and we joined the festivities. We were drawn to one of the houses on the street. It had a BEAUTIFUL yard, complete with several fountains, a large bronze elk statue in the front yard and astroturf for grass so it looked amazingly green against everyone else's lawn. Joe's friend said the couple that lived there were gay and we could not leave without taking a tour of the house. We met both men, one was a landscape architect (no wonder the yard was amazing) and the other is an antiques/art dealer. I cannot describe the inside of that house. Most everything in it, from the doors (one was like 150 years old probably from an english castle) to the decorating, was mostly antiques, very masculine, and VERY BEAUTIFUL. The dining room was sealed off and made into a temperature controlled, wine cellar, along with a beautiful dining table and chandelier. There is no way I could possibly describe the inside of that house but I will never forget it. This is what the back yard looked like. We were standing in an outdoor kitchen with a wonderful fire pit and I took these pictures from the top of the stairs. The waterfall in this one is a hot tub complete with "grotto."

This next view is of the gazebo that has a fireplace, couch and you can close it off. To the side is another outdoor eating area. He said when they moved in there were NO trees in the back yard so they converted it to look like this. WOW! Gay men definitely have the artistic/decorating thing down better than any women I know. He also made me a Cherry limeade margarita that was quite tasty.....