“Is that possible? They’d share the land.”
“There are ways to landscape that would give privacy and until I’ve gotten a better feel for the building itself I won’t know for sure how to split it but I’m pretty sure I can have a six bedroom inn and a five bedroom home without too much trouble.”
“Really?” Excitement sparked in her eyes. “Do you have anything drawn up?”
“No. Not yet. It’s all in here.” He tapped his temple.
“Will you sell when it’s done?” She stood beside him in front of the newly revealed fireplace. “Holy shit. It’s fucking huge!”
Yeah, it was. Shoulder height firebox and if he spanned his arms out wide his fingertips would barely touch the sides. “Christ. This thing would heat the whole bottom level.”
“Probably why that’s an archway and not a door,” Laura said, indication the wall he’d blocked in.
“Definitely. And now that I think about it, the fireplace in the big room on the other side of that wall is just as large as this one.” Yeah, they’d definitely heat the entire ground floor and probably most of the one above.
“This place is three stories, right?”
“Yes. Plus an attic, so four really.”
“Wow. The whole place is fucking huge.”
Nash nodded. “It’s why I think I can split it in two without losing space in either section.”
“And the plan is to renovate the whole thing by when?”
“I don’t have an end date in mind. I’ll do a lot of it around working for Alex.” Except now that he’d started he kind of wanted to dive right in. Push everything else aside and financially he didn’t need to work if he didn’t want to.
“Okay, first you need to draw up some plans. They don’t need to be exact or anything professional but something so you can visualize each level. And you’ll need lists of what you want. What’s a must have, a like to have, and an if the sky’s the limit have.”
He crossed his arms and stood back when she stepped up on the hearth and got right into the firebox, hunching over she tipped her head and looked up the chimney. When she put out a hand he grabbed her arm. “Don’t touch it. You’ll get covered in soot.”
Looking at him she said, “We need to clean these stones. They’re gorgeous. I think they’re local.”
“Makes sense. Alex said a lot of these older homes were built with locally sourced timber and stone.”
“I want to help.”
He frowned. “You did. Are.”
“No. I mean, the whole thing.” She waved a hand around. “I want to help you fix up the whole house.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’m good with my hands. Ask Alex. I’ve helped him on job sites before.”
If she’d helped out why hadn’t he seen her? “Which ones. I’ve never worked with you.”
“Carly’s place, Bake & Brew. We did a lot of the labor on that one because Carly wanted to have the whole family involved in building her business.”
Ah, that was before he’d arrived in Winter Lake. He’d stayed in New York a few extra years after Alex had moved his architecture and building firm from the city to Winter Lake. “You haven’t worked on any of the jobs I’ve been involved with since I moved here.”
“Yeah, well…” She gave him a sheepish smile. “I’ve been avoiding you.”
He arched an eyebrow. “No. Really? I thought you went out of your way to spend time with me.”
“After that skinny dipping incident I thought it best to keep out of each others way.”
Nash stepped closer to her, put his hands on her waist and lifted her out of the fireplace. “And that would be because?”
