“So we talked about the issues. Anything I needed to be concerned about. And they were very upfront about the water damage. They never even stayed here. This was a house they were planning to flip, but they lost some money in some other investments, which is why they were trying to get it off their hands. Then they said, since they really wanted to close, if it concerned me that much, they would take five thousand off the asking price.”
“So again, no inspection? And you didn’t mention any of this to me?”
She shakes her head. “I just didn’t want you to be concerned, and I thought it’d be fine. I figured we could use that money to fix the damages.”
I sigh. “Holy fucking shit.”
“What is it?”
“This is probably termites. There’s no telling how much damage they’ve done to the structure, Kate.”
I stop myself. I don’t want to go off on her, but she has no idea what a wreck she made of her future.
“Can’t we go back and ask them to fix it or something?” Kate asks.
“That’s not how it works. The contract you signed said as-is. And if they didn’t live here, I doubt anyone knew about the termites, so it’s a shitty situation that you eagerly signed up for.”
“What are we talking about in terms of cost?”
“That’s the million dollar question… and I do mean the million dollar question because there’s no telling until we get someone out here to figure out what needs to be repaired.” It’s a reminder that I had every reason to be skeptical about this deal. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Her excited expression dissolves, and though I’m sad that I have to be the one to disillusion her, it has to be done.
“It’s not going to be millions, but this could be a serious mess.”
Something a lot worse than if she had waited and found something a little more expensive and with fewer issues than this is likely to have.
I run my hands across my face. I wanted her out of Mom and Dad’s, but I don’t know that it’s going to be worth it when she finds out just how expensive a mistake like this can be.
23
Mikey calls a friend of his who’s an exterminator and asks him if he can swing by tomorrow.
I’m nervous that the change in plans will mean Mikey and I will have to wait until another time to mess around, but he coordinates everything seemingly with us in mind. After we transfer what we can from the moving truck into Kate’s house, at least to store it while Mikey sorts out the mess, Jordan takes Kate back to their parents’ with some of the stuff that she’ll need now that she can’t move in. If it was just Kate, Mikey said there wouldn’t be an issue, but with Roger, the renovation will be extensive enough that it won’t be a healthy environment for him—not with sawdust and chemicals in the air.
While Kate, Roger, and Jordan head back to Kirk and Dara’s, Mikey and I return the truck to the rental service before heading back to his hotel room.
He doesn’t talk much on the way back. And I keep quiet because he has a lot to digest, and more than anything, I can tell he’s bothered by how he had to squash Kate’s dreams.
He pulls himself from his daze and looks at me briefly. “Sorry. I know I’m not particularly exciting today.”
“Considering what just happened, I totally understand.”
“I don’t think Kate realizes how serious this is. How much it’ll cost. The more I poked around, the more extensive the damage looked. And it’s to the foundation of the house. That friend who’s an exterminator, the one I called, used to work with me when I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity during college.”
Habitat for Humanity is a local housing project. They build homes for struggling families. Mikey hadn’t mentioned that he used to do that. Yet another thing about him that surprises me.
“He’ll come out and take a look at it tomorrow,” he continues. “See what we can do.”
“What’s the worst case scenario?”
“I don’t know. We’re talking about potentially tens of thousands of dollars in damage. I could be overreacting, though. It just looks like it’s affecting that one part of the house. I won’t really know for sure until my friend takes a look.”
“Kate can’t afford the kind of thing you’re talking about,” I say. “You know that.”
“Hell, neither can I. I’m gonna call into work and tell them I need to spend some more time out here. I can telework as long as I need to. I already finished up our big project of the year and now it’s just supervising the damn thing, getting some of the changes made. That’s the lucky part. Even if I need to stay out here to take care of some of this stuff. It’d be too expensive to get contractors, so I’ll do it myself.”
“Yourself? You can do shit like that?”
