“I had to make it match the rest of the house.”
“Nice,” Boon said. “I like the dark green.”
Tempest started toward him as he went up the steps.
He hesitated at the top of the staircase long enough to unlatch the gate of that black picket railing and step onto the porch. He smiled as he looked around. A cushioned glider rocker the size of a love seat was placed against the wall, and several rocking chairs were scattered about as well.
“The porch surrounds the house, and the black picket railing secures it. No one can fall over the side, but you can still see through it.”
“I thought picket fences were supposed to be white.”
“I didn’t think either of you are the type to want a perfect little white picket fence or railing surrounding your home upstairs or down. But I needed something similar, so black it is.”
“Perfect,” Boon said. He made a quick trip around the house, taking in not only the house, but the land around the house.
“I know you wanted it right where your hut was, but it had to be moved back to allow for safety in case of possible flooding, and for soil erosion. Though, I think I took care of that.”
“What’d you do?” Boon asked.
Tempest gestured toward the bayou behind them. “I put in a concrete break to keep the soil from washing away, and there’s also a dock there for your boat.”
“I don’t have a boat — only a pirogue.”
“Regardless, in case she might want to accompany you I’ve put in a dock, and you might want to consider a bigger boat.”
“She’d get into a pirogue.”
“Fine. Don’t get another boat”
“No! I’ll think about it. We might need one. Maybe with kids or something.” He tried to smile at her, but it was clear he was uncomfortable.
“Come on. Let me show you your house,” she said, walking past him and taking his hand as she went. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I put a front door here on the back of the house, and on the front of the house as well. You could have visitors from either direction, so I basically made two fronts on the house. One facing the bayou, one facing the back of the property where anyone on land would approach from.” She opened the door and pulled him inside behind her.
The house wasn’t huge, but it was big enough to allow for a family to live in comfortably. It was basically laid out like an ‘H’, bedrooms against the right side, kitchen, dining, and small sitting room on the left, two hallways with bathrooms in the middle — a small hallway crossing between them. There were hardwood floors throughout the house, and the large family room you stepped into from the bayou side had shelves lining the walls that were already partially filled with books. There was heavy wooden furniture with thick over-stuffed cushions decorating the room. To the left side of the house, sharing thefamily room, was a big kitchen complete with a refrigerator — not an icebox, and a propane oven. Moving down the left side of the house toward the back of it, sharing space with the kitchen was a dining area, and next to that was a smaller sitting room. That sitting room was the space you’d walk into if you entered from the back of the house — the land side entrance. Next to the small sitting room but on the right side was a bedroom, and next to it moving back toward the bayou was another bedroom, and then another that sat next to the large family room. From the large family room and kitchen ran two hallways, from the bayou end of the house toward the opposite end. Between the hallways were two bathrooms. One with a door that faced the left side of the house, giving easy access to the kitchen, dining room, and sitting room. The other faced the right side of the house, giving easy access to the bedrooms. The sitting room took up almost the entire end of the bayou side of the house and was equally close to either bathroom. In each of the bedrooms, and in the smaller sitting room, were rugs on the floors made of the skins of animals Boon had harvested over the years. His bow and quiver full of arrows were displayed on one of the walls in the small sitting room as well. The bedrooms were furnished with beds and dressers similar in style to the furniture in the family room.
After touring the house, Boon turned to face Tempest and just barely managed to shake his head. He had no words.
“I put a cistern on the roof, and a backup holding tank beneath the house under the bathrooms. I put wood burning stoves in each room except the kitchen because I figured if you’re cooking it’ll warm it plenty. And I put solar panels on your roof!” she said excitedly. “It’ll power your real electric refrigerator and a hot water heater too. A girl’s gotta have hot water, and no heating it on the stove like MeMe did. It took forever.”
“Works like your mom’s,” Boon said.
“Yep. And if you want, I can put more solar panels. That and a larger battery bank and you can run a house like Angelle is used to with little to no trouble.”
“What you’ve already done is more than enough. I can’t believe you did all this. This is too much. I was thinking just a living room and a bedroom or maybe two.”
“You’ll want kids, right? What if you have more than one kid? You’ll need at least three, and if I’m making two rooms, I may as well make three.”
“And two living rooms?”
“No. A family room for everybody, and for the kids to play in. Then another sitting room that is really just kind of your place. I put some of your hunting things in it, but you can do whatever you want with it. Make it a play room if you want. But either way, if the kids are playing and shouting and getting rambunctious, you might want an alternate place to sit.” She thought about everything else she hadn’t explained yet, then pointed enthusiastically toward the windows. “All the windows open to allow for cross breezes. All you have to do is make sure the bedroom doors are opened and the windows from the kitchen and dining area and the bedroom windows should start a nice cross breeze. If you open the front and back doors the hallways should allow you to get a nice breeze off the bayou from the opposite direction.”
“You’ve thought of everything.”
“I made it a lot like Grand-Papa and MeMe's house,” Tempest said. “But with a lot more windows so you can see the bayou and the woods on the back side, too.”
Boon shook his head and simply looked at her.
Tempest let go of her excitement and walked over to Boon. She smiled at him as she wrapped her arms around him. “I wanted you and your family to be comfortable. You’ve waited for so long.”
