“Sink’s about here, and the stove.” Dante stands back, letting everyone get a good look at his representation. It looks accurate to me.
Ollie places his chin on my shoulder as he considers the drawing. “I likethe idea ofputting in an island, especially if we can openupthat wall, then we wouldn’t even really need a table, we hardly ever use one anyway.”
Dante makes a few X’s where the wall is, showing how much to open it up.
“If we extend the cabinets all the way along this wall, it would add a lot of storage.” Milo traces his finger along the cardboard.
“We’ll need to allow for a larger fridge and possibly stove too, these are ancient,” Ollie adds.
“That we can do when we decide on the actual cabinets, this is just a rough estimate.” Dante makes a few more adjustments, his head tilting left and right as he studies his work. “Island would be best here.” He makes a fairly large rectangle opposite the stove.
“Laura, anything you can think of you’d want to add?” Ares questions.
“Maybe a dishwasher, and a microwave?” I don’t even know how I’d get along without a microwave and I’ve already gotten used to the convenience of the washer.
“Definitely,” Dante mutters and makes a square above the stove to have one built in like the one they have at Rosa’s house. “Where should the dishwasher go?”
“Close to the sink,” Linda informs him.
“Here, or here?” Dante points to either side of where the sink is.
“I would say there, but it’s your kitchen.” Carolyn then points to the rectangular shape for the island. “You could even put it here.”
“Any preference?” Ares steps in a little closerto me,Ollieis still looming over my shoulder.
“Not really, as long as we have one,” I answer honestly.
“What about adding something over here? If we don’t have a table, won’t it will feel off balance if it’s too empty over here?” Dante uses the end of the pen topoint at the area near the stairs to the lower level. “We could do lower cabinets for more storage, and it would balance it out more.”
“Looks good, now what kind of flooring are we thinking for down here?” Ares turns and glances around.The living room floor is covered in a dark burgundy carpet, and you can see patterns of heavy wear. A silver bar connects to the kitchen flooring as it changes over to some kind of light tile, and much like the carpet, it looks worn. The grout lines are darker in some areas and lighter in others.
“I say hardwood on this whole floor, even the master. We can always add rugs and stuff if it gets chilly, but our bed will take up most of that room as it is,” Ollie answers, removing his chin from my shoulder. He was getting heavy anyway.
“Agreed,” Milo chimes in.
I have a second whereI’m embarrassed about them talking about our bed with their moms here, but it doesn’t last long. It’s not like it’s a secret.
“Probably have to use the upstairs bedrooms like closets.” Ares’s eyes narrow in thought. “Unless we do something downstairs, we could make the laundry room like a big closet. That way we aren’t losing the extra bedrooms if someone needs a break.” Ares’s eyes land on mine, and heat rises in my cheeks then.
“Speaking of that, I don’t like how you can come from the garage and right into the house. I think we should close off the area at the bottom of the stairs.Make a real entrance, maybe a mudroom. We would losesome of the garage, but we don’t really need it anyway,” Milo suggests and settles back against the counter. He is the last one I would expect to want to change the basement. I know he likes the area down there for a gym.
“Seems like a simple enough fix,” Ollie agrees, and clapping his hands together he adds, “Now that we have a game plan,we’ll need to find a contractor that can get started right away.”
“I know someone, I’ve worked with him before. He’s from our community so that won’t be an issue. I’ll also have some of my team here to install a security system.” Ares folds his arms over his chest, his eyes scanning the room like he’s already planning.
“Wellsounds like you guys have a good handle on things.” Carolyn picks up her bag from the counter. “We’ll get out of here. We’ll still see you tomorrow for dinner, right?”
“Yeah, Mom said to be there at two,” Dante replies. I almost forgot tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We’ve had so much going on lately between the house and the party Saturday to announce our Infinity. A storm of butterflies fills my stomach when I think about how fast it’sapproaching.
Carolyn and Linda say their goodbyes, quick kisses and hugs all round, before leaving out the front door.
“I’m hungry, are we going out to eat, or just picking something up to bring back here?”Not surprisingly it’s Dante asking, he’s always hungry.
“Let’s get out of here for a little while. I want to sit down and eat.” Ollie looks around the empty kitchen.
I glance down at my oversized t-shirt and jeans. I hope they aren’t goingsomeplace nice. “We can check out the downtown area, seeif anythinglooks good.We’ll need to find some new places,” Milo adds, leaning against the wall.
“Sounds good, ready?” Ares looks at me.
