We were students on a limited budget. We had to move.

It certainly doesn't feel like we've been in the business 25 years. When we began building homes we were working on our master's degrees in architecture. Between 1981 and 1983, four of our children were born at Norman Regional Hospital. They're all now students at OU.

I can look at our management group and see they are mostly young enough to be our children.

Mohammad and I took a tour of the devastation.

So the whole structure is weakened and collapses. Our system ties down the roof joists and rafters to the exterior walls down to the foundation. If windows and doors are broken and the house is twisted on its foundation, the occupants are still safe.

Never underestimate your mistakes, for they are the fount of all experiences and beginning of all truths.