The Renaissance Neighborhood History Project

Cassie and Travis Bungalow ~2300 sq feet 3 bedroom/2.5 bath Interviewed on March 20, 2017 * * * Cassie and Travis recount their 2007 house hunting experience and Cassie says she wasn't exactly sold on the idea of home ownership. They had been living in a loft in downtown Tulsa and she wasn't sure she wanted to leave. Nevertheless, they started looking and saw about nine houses before they found the one. Travis had shown Cassie on-line pictures of the listing and she wasn't impressed. On first blush, the walk-through didn't change her mind. The dining room was "Pepto-Bismal pink" and "so many strange decisions had been made.” But before they realized it, they were mentally moving in.  “The dining room table can go here.  This is our bedroom…,”  Cassie said, “It had good bones.”    The tall ceilings throughout and the basement especially sold them.  (More about these later.)  Even though they were scheduled to le...

My earliest memory of home is of a pink adobe stucco in Espanola, New Mexico.  We called it "The Pink House" - my memories are fleeting.  Going forward we lived in lots of places including a log cabin in the Jemez Moutains of New Mexico and a shack on the beach in Baja Calfornia.   I had a non-traditional upbringing, and didn't always attend school, but I was exposed to all sorts of cultures, races and languages.  I wouldn't change anything my life now, and yet when I was young of often longed for 'normal life'.  Living in a house, on a block was key in this 'normal life.'  I also wanted to go to school, eat white bread and get bangs. My grandmother was a realtor in the Western Chicago suburbs in the 1980's.  This was during a time when the real estate market was booming. She sold million dollar homes.  Every summer we would visit and she would sometimes she would take me to see some of the rambling houses she had for sale. I was so inter...