Leaping for Your Dreams

As Geno drove, following the GPS, to the offices of Mobius Architecture I was getting nervous. I had print outs of the plan we all liked with me, but not even that comforted me. “Relax, loan approved. People happy, house on market.” It had only been 3 days since we found out what Geno’s Ex was trying.

We pulled into the lot a little early. I was shuffling the pages again; yeah relaxed I was not. Still I got out of the car. Once inside my fears seemed silly as our architect, Julie Ashton, was delighted that we’d done some looking already. “This is a nice plan. European style is something we don’t see a lot. So, why is _this_ the perfect plan?”

I looked at Geno who was nodding at me. I sighed and began. “His ex is threatening some nasty things unless we give up the 10,000+ square foot house she wanted. Both of us think that’s too much house and as a family we saw this and liked it. It’s smaller yes but it has everything we want.”

Julie whistled. “That’s a lot of house. You said family, who are we missing?” Her manner put me at ease.

“Our adopted daughter Anna. She didn’t want to come.” I said. I don’t know why I had to qualify how we got her though. “She’s almost 7.”

Julie nodded, making a few notes. “Good to know. Well I went out to the site yesterday and got a look. This plan would fit well on that lot. Seeing that the lot slopes a little, how did you want to have it end up?”

Geno smiled. “Big backyard. Don’t need much in front if it will give more in back.”

I nodded. “We’d also like to terrace around the house if possible. Have the deck and then a patio underneath and around it. We need a driveway large enough for several vehicles at the same time as well.”

Rachel from Eco-Land nodded. “You entertain a lot.”

We chuckled. “Not always intentionally. I hope you both know who my husband is and understand that there are times where we might have half or more of the team over, plus wives or girlfriends and children.”

Rachel and Julie smiled. Julie piped up. “Oh yes we know. Which is why we understand the desire for a large backyard, sacrificing the front to do it. We’ve talked a little bit and discussed having as man native plants as possible. How do you feel about that?”

“I know nothing of plants.” Geno said as I grinned. I’d done my homework.

“That sounds great. I’d also like it as eco-friendly, both the house and the landscaping, as possible. I know this will add to the cost, but we felt that it’s worth it.” We had discussed it and felt that it was needed for us to lead the way with this.

Julie had scanned the plans we brought in, into her computer. "That sounds good. Now that I have this up, if you could change anything, what would it be?”

Geno smiled broadly, he had a few ideas, inspired by Anna. “Yes, have requests from Annushka. Is possible to raise roof to have fewer walls that”

I put a hand on his arm. “Anna doesn’t like how the ceiling intrudes on her chosen room. I’m not a fan of sloping ceilings either. Would it be possible to add a ½ story roof attic to extend the lines?”

Julie mocked up a virtual house and then added the requested attic. “That actually makes it look nicer, not so squat. What else?” She changed to the main floor view.

“I don’t know about Geno but I don’t think we need 2 fireplaces so close together. Can we put windows where there’s a fireplace in the nook?” She did that with a smile.

“Good choice. Do you like the sunken feel of the living and family rooms? If not now it the time to change it.”

Geno chuckled, we’d discussed how the guys were anything but graceful off ice. “Keep on living room, will be used as playroom for kids. One level family room better, clumsy friends.”

Rachel laughed, Juile held hers back a bit better. “Ok one level.” She made it so. “What flooring were you looking at? That could be a factor.”

“Actually we wanted laminate or hard wood floors everywhere except the bathrooms, laundry and the mud room. In those locations we want tile but not ceramic.” There was _a_ _lot_ of things you could look at online for homes.

“I’d suggest the same for wear and cleaning ease. What colors were you looking at?” Julie was inputting the floors.

“Nothing darker than a medium brown, I’d like the cabinets to match the floors if possible, stainless in the kitchen with light gray counter. The bathroom fixtures can be almond, something that’s easy and neutral. We can use accessories to add color.” Yep, I’d been scouring websites in the past 3 days, could you tell?

Julie laughed. “Which website have you been surfing?” Busted.

I flushed. “Mostly Home Depot. Trying to get things out of the way before we leave the country.”

“When do you leave and how can we contact you while you’re gone?” They both looked concerned.

“We’ve got a couple trip we’re taking that are short term, but the second week in July we leave for Russia for a month.” I said plainly. “The short trips we’ll have our phones. Email might be fastest for the month we’re gone.” I sighed.

“Da, Skype video not work. Message works just not video.” Geno chimed in. He was the expert.

Juile nodded, a bit happier. “So you’ll be gone for demo of the current structure and the beginnings of construction. Seeing that you’re going to be back in Mid-August, I’m going to call my construction foreman in so he can give you an estimate of how long it will take.” She left and Rachel took over.

“So you want native plants, how do you feel about colorful ones?” She turned her own computer around with a general representation of the house.

“Color is good. All year round would be even better. I’d love a little terraced space in the back full of plants that attract butterflies.” Geno didn’t care but I did. “Easy maintenance is good too. We’ll be gone in the summers most years.”

“So Spring, Fall and Winter color would be best for your enjoyment. I can work with that. How about some plants for the front too.”

“So like in the front of the front porch and the living room? That would make it nicer.” She pulled over the plans.

“There and in the middle of the driveway too. I’m thinking of a circular driveway that will hold quite a few cars. Do you have a preference for materials?” She looked up at us.

I giggled, “I haven’t looked at that yet. Although not having to shovel the driveway would be great. I’m from Windsor and have spent my entire life shoveling.” Geno snorted.

“I understand. I can do that too, heating a driveway isn’t difficult. It _does_ tell me what we’re using for the main driveway though. I can use color and texture for patterns in to, if you’d like.” Rachel pulled up a few examples. They were nice, but I couldn’t see us wanting a lot of extras.

My husband was on the same page. “No need fancy driveway, just heated. Have patio in back be fancy. No bragging in public space please. Try to fit in, not stand out.”

She smiled. “Ok, that’s a good guideline. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be too flashy. Save the fancy stuff for where you and the family can enjoy it.” He nodded. She then showed us a few patios she’d done as an example. “So what I’m hearing is that you want the front to be nice but blend in and the back has a deck and patio as well as terracing. I’ll have to see the property to get a better idea of how this will work.”

“We actually close on it tomorrow. I’d be happy to walk it with you if you’d like.” Aleks and the Caps had won The Cup so I was now officially on vacation until Mid-August.

“Bring Anna, I go pick up Aleks’ family from airport.” I nodded. Anna was at the Cooke household with Reece and some of her friends.

“That sounds great. I don’t have any meetings from tomorrow so call when you’re ready.” We exchanged numbers as Julie and Gene came back in.

“Sorry about that, I had to hunt him down. Gene these are our new clients…” He cut her off.

“As I live and breathe…” Yep he knew who Geno was. He turned to Julie. “You said they’d be gone a month, I know why now. I think that we’ll finish up with the Addison project next week. We can have the demo crew at the site sooner though. Are we saving anything? I see Rachel here.”

I shook my head. “The current house has a combo of black mold and termite issues. I won’t wish those issues on anyone.”

Gene nodded. “I heard the place on Pine was being sold, at least you’re doing the smart thing. After the Addision project is done, I’ll have about 30 guys that I can throw on this job. Depending on how custom a job this is, I’ll estimate that if things go right we _might_ be able to get her done by Training Camp. Although Halloween might be a better goal.”

4 months, maybe sooner, and tons of decisions between now and then. Geno put a hand on my knee. “This is gonna seem really odd, but when do you need decisions about the interiors and appliances? I’d like to get as much done before we’re 10 hours or so ahead of you with times zones.”

Gene grinned. “I actually can have a worksheet specifically made up for this project in a week if that will work. Sooner is always better as far as those things go. If you can take off with even half of the list done, you’ll be ahead of the curve.”

“So don’t stop looking at Home Depots’ website until all the decisions are done.” I said dryly which had Geno chuckling.

“Home Depot is a great place to be looking, even now. The more things you can check off sooner means we won’t be waiting on you, just the city.” That made me feel better.

“You just give her permission to spend time looking at everything. Tell about Anna’s room, the paint.” That jogged my memory.

“Oh yeah. Our daughter wants her room in the new hours to look as close as she can get to the current room she has.” I pulled out the pictures I had of her room and handed them over.

Julie grinned. “These are great. I can easily make this happen. Do you want all of the walls striped or just the one like here?” She was making notes.

“Just one. Maybe we can add a couple windows to her chosen room due to raising the roofline in the back wall, maybe so they’ll be on either side of her bed? That’s the wall she wants to have striped. I have the color samples and such in the house, I can bring them over if you want.”

Gene smiled broadly. “Jules, I wish all of our clients were this organized. If you can get us the sample color numbers for every wall color you want we can make it happen, even the stripes. How did you come up with those anyway?”

I smiled. “Remember the night of the fight during the playoffs? I had a few of the girls over and Michelle Cooke helped us do them right. They’re 4 inches wide.” Gene nodded and made a note on Julie’s notes.

We discussed a few more things about the house and I set up an appointment with Gene to walk the property at the same time I did so with Rachel. He liked that idea as well, this way both the builder and the landscape artist could be on the same page about things. _I_ liked that idea.

We walked out after signing some contracts and I felt _so_ much better. They liked the home we’d chosen and were able to easily make it more personal for us. Now it was our job to find all the special touches that we wanted in our home; everything from the exterior paint to the wood floors to all of the appliances.

Instead of going over to Cookie’s to pick up Anna, Geno drove us to the local Lowe’s, the exact one I had found the paint for Anna’s room in fact. “I read something that color can be good or bad for a person. We should think about what we want each room to say with the color.” I was astonished. He was thinking about the psychology of color, most guys didn’t care.

“So you’re saying that you want to pick the colors together to make each room _feel_ right. I think we need to choose a finish _first_ and _then_ find the colors we would like in each room. So why don’t we find what kind of finish we want. Anna’s room is a satin finish for example. Then we pick all the colors of the rainbow and we bring them home and tack them on the walls and see how we like them. We talk about how we want each room to feel and find the color or colors we want. Who knows we might come up with some new colors that both of us love.” I looked over to see Geno grinning. I shook my head and we went inside to find our finish. We bought several color wheels of paint colors, giving ourselves maybe too many choices. I knew we’d narrow it down it just would take a few days or more…

When we finally got back to Cookie’s place we both had an even better feeling about the decision we had made. This would give us the chance to get a fresh start after all the changes we’d been through. Michelle and Matt were more than happy to put in their two cents on how well paints performs. We got some settlement on the overall look of the house, mostly a Satin or Eggshell with semi-gloss in areas that would see more moisture like bathrooms and such.

Now the fun really began, creating a home out of nothing. I’d get Geno’s opinion on everything that I could, but I knew that wouldn’t be everything. If he wanted to start with the walls then that’s where we would start. Who knew where this would lead… Only time and patience would tell.