Chapter 30

Dad came in from the back door, and washed his hands as I set the two hot cast iron pans to the side, plating up the baked potatoes with butter and chive flowers, and the steaks with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. The potatoes were a work of art, because I didn’t foil wrap, they were crispy on the outside like a good french fry, encrusted in a heavy sprinkle of salt. Split lengthwise, the butter quickly melted in the heat, and the bright purple of the chive flower heavily sprinkled down the cut just made them pop. The garlicky flavor would only make it better.

“Dinner is served!” I announced, but grabbed us both bottles of ginger brew before sitting down next to Dad.

“Seriously Sam, this is amazing,” he said, as his fork went back for more.

I dug in as well. It was almost as amazing as the steak I had before I got sick.

“Wow, grass fed organic beef is so much tastier,” I said.

“How much did you pay for these rib eyes?”

“Not telling, my treat for the Dad who works so much.”

“Seriously, let’s not discuss that, it’ll ruin my appetite.”

“So, what are your plans for the basement?” I asked him.

“I’d like to clear it all out, including the shelving and the old furnace, and put an epoxy floor down. It will seal the concrete, and give a nice non slip surface. I want to set up more lights, I’m thinking LED strips, and paint the walls and ceiling. After that, I’m undecided.”

“Either that space or the attic would make a great one bedroom apartment, or a great games room.”

“I can see adding skylights to bring in more natural light, and maybe a balcony at the corner over the back yard, turning the attic into a killer apartment. Joan asked me about the second staircase, I think there’s room to even to replace it with a pneumatic elevator with access from the outside.”

“Wow, that would be awesome!”

“Before you get too excited, that would be for me, when you go to college. I could turn the rest of the old house into a bed and breakfast.”

“You would hire out the breakfast part right?”

“Joan says she knows exactly who could run it.”

“So what would you do for the rooms, add another bathroom, and have guests share, or create ensuites?”

“Thanks to your discovery, we know that my master bath has wasted space, and room for a nice window. I think an access space is still a good idea, for pipes and such, but between that square footage, and resizing the rooms I think we can get four bedrooms with attached three-quarter baths, and one master suite, for a total of five rentable rooms.

“We can create a bedroom with a full bath, and still have room for a small office for the guest manager and cook to live in and use on the first floor. That would leave the breakfast nook, the formal dining, the kitchen, the living room, the half bath, and the entry. We would move the laundry and utility room downstairs, and include a game room down there with a bar, and a pool table maybe. It would also need a bathroom.”

“Wow Dad, what a vision. Would you do the remodel work yourself?”

“That’s the idea, plus with you as helper. It would give me two years to get it done before you left for college.”

“Like all great edifices, built on the back of slaves.”

He just grinned, “So what do you think?”

“I think you need to bring this mystery manager in from the beginning to help plan it. Two years is a long time, and the sooner they are invested in the project, the more support you’ll have long term.”

“What else?”

“You’re still going to need stairs no matter how fancy your elevator is to the attic. Put new stairs and the elevator in as an addition to the interior corner out back. I don’t think it would block any windows, and would be easy as all it would contain is the stairs and old man elevator. If you don’t have good access, you have to crane furniture in.”

“That’s an interesting idea.”

“Also you need to tour some bed and breakfast places to see how they operate. Can your business plan find customers, it’s Salt Bush, not Summerville. Plus this is the edge of town, is there appeal for a country bed and breakfast? Is there even zoning for it?”

“Wow, way to dump a bucket of cold water on me.”

“I love the idea Dad, especially if it’s something you want to do. If it’s just the cool idea Aunt Joan had about what to do with the giant house you bought, then maybe figure out what you want? The attic is the same square footage as the other floors, you could create a luxury two bedroom apartment on each floor, and still have a nice home, your size, that generates income.”

“That’s a new idea.”

“This place is what, six thousand square feet? It’s a lot of house for two guys. Maybe you pick up an empty lot and build your dream house, after you fix up this monster and sell it to a family with ten kids.”

“It’s closer to eight thousand,” he said.

I gave him a look, we had never really talked about why he bought the house, just that he had, and we were moving because he had a new job. I’d left my friends behind, but they were all relatively new people anyway.

“I understand we moved after Mom died because the owner was selling the house and it hurt too much to try to buy it from him. She was everywhere in that house. But now we have this new house, it seems to be paying for itself, but it’s way more than we need, right now.”