Leaping for Your Dreams

***All Dialogue between Mari and Geno is spoken in Russian but for ease is written in English***

Something was wrong… I felt the bed searching for my wife. It was empty. Sighing I got up and padded out to the living room. Sure enough she was out there and on her laptop typing as well. I moved and sat next to her without speaking. “Sorry I woke up with a feeling I needed to check my email. I was right.” I looked at what she was replying to and sighed. The builders had a question that could not wait. “Turns out they can’t find the flooring we had chosen so now I’m having to look for it so I can have someone triple check that it’s the correct product and if it isn’t I have to find something else.”

I stilled her hand with mine. “Stop. Go to the Home Depot website, we check that everything we wanted the last time we looked, we can still get. If not we send the builder the new things after we find them.” She laid her head on my shoulder and sighed. I kissed her forehead. “I know, you want it perfect when we get back. If they are looking for the correct flooring, we should be close to needed color on the walls too yes?”

She moved from typing to her browser and brought up what we liked. “This is what we originally liked. I don’t know how much we will still be able to get though.” She brought up the flooring and tile we had originally liked; of course it was out of stock. “I guess we get to look at new things huh?”

“Yes, keep these up and let’s look.” We started with flooring. Decideing that we needed to have wood flooring or Laminate in the house we looked there. Who knew there were so many choices? “Ugh I don’t want the house to be dark and feel small.” I griped when I saw how many dark flooring choices there were.

“Me either, let’s just look at the light flooring and not the hard wood flors either, those have to be periodically sanded and refinished. Laminate flooring doesn’t.” We looked at the laminate and found a couple we liked. “Let’s look for tile for the bathrooms and mud room and see if we can find one that looks good with any of these.” We found a grey tile set that we liked the pattern of and as we looked further found it in a beige tone too. Nice and neutral giving however she decorates the house a nice pop of color.

Once we had found the flooring, Mari called the builder and was lucky enough to get him on the phone still on our site. “I’m sorry to be calling so late for you guys.” She apologized, even though it was 3:30 a.m. for us.

“No Mrs. Malkin I’m fine with you calling me to get this done with. I just left the house actually, making sure the rough ins for the tubs were done correctly with the inspector. Please tell me that you got my email and are calling with new flooring options.” I had to chuckle, he wanted this done to our specifications as much as we did.

Mari smiled into the phone. “Yes that is why I’m calling. We’re also double checking everything else we’ve shown you and are finding other things that are out of stock or discontinued. We’ll email those changes to you as soon as we have them all.”

I heard him sigh. “That’s wonderful. Hopefully you aren’t going crazy looking at flooring and tile. I know there’s a lot out there.”

My wife chuckled. “No once we settled on how light we wanted the floors it was much easier. We’re going to go with Laminate floors instead of true hardwood. Less maitenence from what research I’ve done. The tile we like now is a mosaic and goes well with the flooring, we even looked at grout although I will trust your judgement on that if it needs to be changed.”

“Well let me pull up the Home Depot site and we’ll get cooking with gas.” We waited while he pulled up the website and sighed. “Ok give me the model number for the flooring you want.” We told him what we wanted. “Now that’s everywhere but the bathrooms, mud room and laundry right?”

“If it would make it easier then it can go in the first floor powder room too. Here’s the number for the tile we found.” Mari rattled it off and he looked it up.

He hummed in approval. “Those will look nice together. Trust me on the grout color; go a bit lighter than the tile so it pops. Ok what abaout counter tops for the kitchen and bathrooms?” We pulled up what we had wanted and looked for something similar in the color family we wanted.

“Would they do all of the counters, even the bathrooms? That would be great for a unified look. We’re thinking the solid surface Corian, Witch Hazel.” She was cycling between the flooring, tile and counters we’d chosen. It looked good to my untrained eye.

We heard a knock on his end and then he spoke up. “Can I put you on speaker? Julie Ashton just came up to check how things were going and I’d rather have you on when I tell her what’s going on.” We quickly assented and were put on speaker. “We got some bad news from Home Depot, some of the things they were wanting for the house aren’t available for one reason or another. We’re going over what’s needed right now, flooring, tile and the counter tops. We’re about to check that the cabinets they want are close to what the Depot has and can get. Take a look at what we’ve found so far.” We heard him show her and she whistled.

Julie looked through the pages. “That’s a nice backdrop for whatever you do with your decorating. Subtle movement in every surface. I like it. I see that your chosen vanities are a very close match to the floor and come in several widths for the various spaces, but your kitchen cabinets are not.” We clicked through to the cabinets and found a set that would match the flooring closely and gave them the info they needed.

“Those look close. Of course online who knows for real. You guys did remember that we wanted a whirlpool tub in the master bathroom and just soaking tubs in the rest right?” Mari was trying not to panic, I rubbed her back and discreetly checked the time, ugh 4 a.m. now.

Julie laughed. “Not only did I remember but I’ve been working with our interior guys to make sure that you have the same tubs throughout. I hope 6 foot tubs are good enough. Now that I know what tile you’re going for we’ll make the tubs and vanities match. We’re actually looking good on this end. We’ll have a couple different plans for you for kitchens, pantry and laundry room when you get back in 2 weeks. Really the only hiccup we had to solve was the flooring one, everything else is looking good for now. The guys will get going on this in the next day or two with the flooring and then we’ll be able to get the tubs in place. You’ve chosen lovely tubs too. The tile is good for all over too so we can use it in the bathrooms around the tubs and such too. After the flooring is in they’ll be doing the master shower. By the time you get back, we should be ready to make sure the appliances are good to go and install those once the kitchen has been approved.”

I felt Misa relax into me and then she spoke. “That’s great. Would it be possible to get some cabinets installed in the study too? I can look and see what I might need from here. It’s going to be my office.” She was getting tired again.

“Of course, I’ll let him know and we can mock up some options for you for there too.” She must have done the math as the next thing she said made me chuckle. “It’s after 4 a.m. for you guys. We can table this for now. Everything is going well on this end aside form this hiccup and you’ve solved that easily. We’ll talk to you when you get back.” She hung up the phone and Misa hung up and curled into me.

I closed her laptop and carried her to bed. There was more than enough time for her to stress over the house, for now, sleep was more important.