“Two for two,” I say, my eyes trailing over the dining room. There’s so much to see. So much to take in. Even in this fairly sparse space.
“Awesome. Kitchen next.” She turns and heads into the second opening that we’ve obediently not peeked through.
The kitchen is definitely a sight out of a magazine.
Keno whistles as he drags his finger across the stone countertop. “I’m going to enjoy cooking in here.”
“It’s so nice, you might even convince Etna to cook,” Edna teases.
“Maybe every fifth Friday of the month,” I say as I open the fridge. “You went shopping?”
“No. You had a surprise food delivery yesterday.”
I wince. “Sorry. Forgot about that.”
“I’m just glad you changed your address, and it was delivered here.”
“You got rid of the microwave over the stove,” Keno says with a smile. He touches a button on the range and a light turns on.
“You both seemed to hate it. It’s the only construction I had done, if you can call it construction,” Edna says.
“Where’s the microwave now?” I ask.
“In the butler’s pantry that I’m entirely envious of.” She waves at the door. It’s smaller than a regular-sized door in width, but the top is rounded, as if it needed to be made fancier since it’s not a full-sized door.
“Oh yeah,” Keno says as he steps into the pantry. “I forgot about this room. Gorgeous.”
One entire wall is filled with shelves to the ceiling above lower cabinets. The back wall is the same. The wall to the left is wider lower cabinets with a countertop where the microwave is sitting. On the other end is a deluxe coffee maker with all the handles and shit that I don’t know how to use. There are also floating shelves with smaller appliances like the handheld mixer, a blender, a food processor, and things I’m not sure we owned.
“This all came from our boxes?” I ask.
“No. I bought a few things you were missing. How did you not have a food processor? Seriously? You’re barbaric.”
Keno laughs.
“Come on,” Edna says, pulling me out of the pantry by my sleeve. “There’s so much more.”
Thereisso much more. The living room with a ginormous couch and art on the walls. Edna explains how all the frames holding just a solid color throughout the house are there for us to add our own pictures. Wedding, honeymoon, family, hockey, friends, adventures. Whatever.
The bedroom suite is stunning. Huge with dark features and a tin tiled ceiling. The chandelier over the bed is incredible. Our old bed looks bigger, too. The closet is probably the size of the bedroom we left at Keno’s lake house.
“Those are the only boxes I didn’t unpack. I don’t want to know what you have hidden amongst your clothing,” Edna says as she leads us out. “Honestly, the bathroom leaves a lot to be desired after the bedroom and the closet. I think they either ran out of money or ambition.”
We end the tour of the first floor with a half bath and a little room off the entry I’m not sure is big enough for anything. Edna calls it a den and has put a chair and table there. It reminds me of a waiting room. Then off the kitchen is the entry into the garage that’s also the laundry room. It has a large industrial sink Keno thinks a single set of gear might fit in to wash. Yeah, it’s that big. I can’t help but wonder what the previous owners needed such a big sink for.
Upstairs we find three guest rooms, all decked out and welcoming. There are two full bathrooms up there as well, but the true feature is the open area that Edna’s turned into a dream. An entire wall is filled with bookshelves and books. There’s a large built-in desk with three big, curved computer monitors and keyboards with puffy executive chairs.
On the opposite wall is a television bigger than I’ve ever seen outside of a movie theater. There’s a variety of seating and a bar. Edna shows us how the coffee tables extend higher and get closer to where we sit on the couch so we can eat at a good height with less chance of mess.
There are jerseys on the wall. Among the books are our trophies and pucks and awards. There’s an elevated hockey theme that doesn’t make it feel like a simple sports fanatic’s game room.
“This is amazing,” I say, and pull Edna into another hug. “You did so much more than I ever imagined or expected, Eddy. Thank you.”
“So, I did good?”
“You did phenomenal. I love it.”
She sighs. Kissing my cheek, she takes a step away and turns to Keno. He’s still looking around in awe. When his revolution has him facing Edna, he asks, “Can I hug you?”
