Once I sign, Albrecht excuses himself to have someone send the paperwork over to the buyer’s agent and returns with another folder. “Okay, here we go. I have one house on the opposite side of the same lake I think meets all your wants. It’s a little smaller than you’re looking for,butyou’re probably aware of the zoning around the lake that says you can expand by 30% and have a roof pitch of twenty feet in the lifetime of the property, neither of which has been done. If you’d like to expand, you can.”
He hands us a sheet of paper for us to take a look at the specs. Then he turns a tablet our way and we watch a video tour of the place. When the six-minute video is over, Keno asks, “It’s just missing a bedroom and a bathroom from what we were looking for, right?”
“Correct,” Albrecht confirms. “There are a couple options I think would solve that. If you’d like to expand. You can build upwards, move the guest rooms to the second floor with a full bathroom to share. Then you can combine the three bedrooms downstairs into one large primary suite with the walk-in closet and ensuite of your dreams. That also consumes one of the full bathrooms but leaves one for guests downstairs as well, whichyou could convert into a half bath since the shower wouldn’t be necessary.”
“And this other building on the property?” Keno asks.
“A bunkhouse,” Albrecht explains. “It was built as such and therefore grandfathered in. It needs a little love, but it could definitely serve as guest sleeping quarters without major construction on the big house.”
“I don’t hate this at all,” Keno says and looks at me.
“Before you make a decision, I have another two listings for you to consider. These are further north on the other side of the city. These properties are very reminiscent of Florida living on canals. The houses are very close together. However, you’reright onthe water and there are houses matching what you’re looking for exactly. You have full canal access and can play in the water all you like.”
“Wow, those are stupidly close,” I comment when he shows us the first listing. “They’re practically on top of each other.”
“Yes. This one also gives you a pool in the backyard and it’s surrounded by mature trees to give you some privacy.”
“Well, I don’t hate that one,” Keno says. “I actually like how it’s practically the only one with a black roof on the entire canal system.” I lean over to look at the overview Albrecht provided so we can see which houses he’s showing us and where they’re located.
“It also looks like the one with the most privacy from the green life around it,” I note.
“The roof has lots of fun geometric angles,” Keno says, smiling and turning the sheet to look at it from the side. “I like that.”
“If you’re available tomorrow, I can set up appointments to tour all three houses or just one. Whichever you like.”
“You said the lake one isn’t on the market yet?” I ask.
“It’s not, but it’s a friend of mine who’s selling it, so we’ll be able to get in.”
“Tomorrow sounds good.”
“Morning? Say, nine we meet at your house since it’s close to the other lake property?”
Keno nods. “Sounds good.” He looks at me. “We have an appointment in the afternoon, so that’s perfect.”
“Excellent. I’ll get everything set up and let you know if the times don’t work. Otherwise, I’ll meet you in the morning. You’d like to see all three?”
Keno and I look at each other and nod. “Yes. Why not?”
Albrecht sees us out with the three listings in hand so we can further review them.
“I’m really excited about this,” Keno says as we get in the car. “This is going to sound ridiculous, but buying a house togetherfor realmakes this whole thing feel…” his voice trails off.
I rest my hand on his thigh as I wait for the traffic to clear so I can pull out of the driveway. “Itisreal, Keno. Everything about this is real.”
He sighs. “Yeah, I know. I’m not sure why it feels so much bigger right now.”
“Bigger than getting married, huh?” Glancing down, I see the ring on my finger. I look at it often to remind myself this is really happening. I’m marrying my best friend.
Keno laughs. “I said it sounds ridiculous.”
“No, I get it. Sometimes I think this is a crazy dream that we’re going to wake up from and laugh about, born from our friends teasing about being an old married couple.”
“I know they never meant anything by it, and I was never offended, but yeah. That’s probably why I feel the same way. It feels so surreal.”
Just then, our phones go off with the same notification. Which means it’s from our combined calendar. My stomach flipsin anticipation because I know we don’t have anything out of the house today for wedding stuff. We finalized our wedding invites and put a rush on them, so they’ll be here before break is over. To simplify things, we got our guest’s addresses be printed on labels and tracking says they’ll be here tomorrow. We ordered a stamp with our names and a PO Box address since we weren’t sure about our living situation and didn’t want something to get lost in the mail.
Today we’re searching for vendors and sending out more inquiries.
