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She sighed and homed in on the house’s downstairs configuration. “Yeah. Those two rooms are swappable. They abut at the corner of the house.”
“So both rooms have windows?”
“Yep.”
“That was the lady’s concern. They’ve got four kids and she said if she was gonna spend half her life doing laundry, she wanted to do it in front of a—and these are her words—ding-dang window.”
Valerie snorted. “Wow, four kids. Yeah, uh…”
House is probably loud and chaotic.
Valerie toyed idly with the band of her watch and let her gaze blear on the computer screen.
She probably chose that.
“Is she happy?” Valerie asked.
Carine furrowed her brow. “Who?”
“Uh…” Valerie flipped through the stack of files on her desk looking for the most recent pending sale. “Mrs. Paulsen.”
“With Shora, you mean?”
“No. In general. She was a lawyer, wasn’t she?” Valerie turned to face Carine. “She doesn’t work anymore. Her kids are her work?”
“She’s still a lawyer. Contracts, which is why she gave us so much hell on the purchase agreement.” Carine’s phone buzzed and she snatched it up. “Hello, Mrs. Paulsen.” Carine winked at Valerie. “Yes, I did find out. Valerie says you can swap the rooms, but also that both have windows. Regular windows, Val, or those tiny fixed windows?”
“Full-sized windows that open.” Valerie turned her focus back to the screen. “If she’d like another option, I could probably get approval to convert the three-car garage into two stalls and use the extra space to accommodate a laundry room large enough for folding tables. That would be located right beneath one of the bedrooms and the kids’ bathroom upstairs. Could probably put in a laundry chute.”
Carine relayed the information to Mrs. Paulsen.
Valerie clicked around some more.She’s still a lawyer, Carine had said.How is she balancing everything?
“Mrs. Paulsen likes that idea but wants to know what would go into the void space where the smaller laundry room would have been.”
“We could either bump out that narrow wall and add a shower so she gets a three-quarter bath instead of a powder room or she can use the little room as a mudroom or, as my grandmother used to call it, a mop closet. Someplace to get all those mops, brooms, buckets, and whatnot out of the way that isn’t the pantry or garage.”
Carine relayed Valerie’s comments.
Valerie closed out the document on her computer and pulled the Paulsen file closer. She leafed through the pages reading the scant notes Carine had taken during the consultation. There were notes about what premier tier of finishes the Paulsens wanted, but nothing about how they lived or what their lifestyle was like. In semi-custom homes, that usually didn’t matter so much. Clients picked what was available and just lived with it.
It mattered to Valerie, though.
“Carine, ask her if she works from home.”
Carine did. “She says yeah. From her kitchen table on weekends and after the kids go to bed on weeknights, usually. Why?”
So that’s how she does it.“Um…well, there’s no dedicated office in that space.”
“Yeah, needing rooms for that many kids, she’s used to not having one.” Carine quickly amended into the phone, “No offense, Mrs. Paulsen.”
“Do they plan on using the formal dining room? The part that runs into the living room space off the foyer.”
Carine asked. “She says nope. They don’t entertain. You want to talk to her?” She mouthed,“So I can go get dressed for tonight.”
Valerie held out her hand.
Carine gave her the phone and the charger, which Valerie dutifully plugged in.
