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Some of the notes were just one or two words. A couple of the drawings were indecipherable, even for me. But Ryan and I laughed our way through talking about all of them. The conversation only got better as he started adding in his own ideas and building on what I'd come up with. He really was excited and as committed to this place as I was, and that only made the future I was looking forward to better. I couldn't wait to be living it right alongside him.
Everything was really falling into place.
"I can't wait to get started," I said.
"Well, then let's start making those phone calls today," he said.
"What phone calls?" I asked.
"Contractors, electricians, all of that. The inspection said the house itself is very sound and built solidly. There aren't any major defects that are dangerous, but like we already said, there are definite improvements we could make. I was thinking that the wiring might need to be upgraded in order to handle the workload of a bed and breakfast. We're not just talking about the energy needs of a single family. We'll need to be able to support a lot of cooking as well as energy usage in all the rooms individually and in all the shared spaces. We wouldn't want anyone to check in and immediately blow their outlets because there was too much electricity being used at the moment. It will also make the entire place safer. The better the wiring, the lower the fire risk.
“I'd also really like to have a plumber determine if the underground pipes can handle the increased use. We should make a couple of lists of the different companies to go over what they can do and get quotes from them."
He seemed to realize he was rambling and stopped, cringing slightly. "Sorry. I went on a bit of a rant there."
"Not a rant," I said. "But I don't see why we need to wait for the professionals to get started. We should get started on the repairs on our own."
Ryan gave me an uncertain look. "I know I said you had experience doing stuff like this, but I was just playing with you. I didn't actually think you would want to take on such a huge project. We can hire people to do the repairs, and they'll be done faster."
"I appreciate it," I said. "But you don't need to do that. You might have been joking, but I wasn't. We really have already done this before."
Ryan gave me an incredulous look, and I laughed when I saw his expression.
"That was just one little house," he said. "This is a bit different."
"I know it's different, but that's what makes it exciting." He still didn't look convinced, so I gave a shrug. "All right. So maybe we can hire someone for some of it. The really hard parts and the parts that might be dangerous if we tried to do them and they didn't go well. But I want to do as much of it as possible."
"Good compromise," he said.
"Good," I said. "For now, I am in need of a taste-tester. I'm making some of the breakfast dishes I've planned for when we open up. There's … a lot of it."
Ryan laughed and brought his coffee over to the table and settled in for breakfast.
27
RYAN
Leo bounced happily in his baby rocker as he gurgled and made noise, preoccupied with a toy that he kept sticking in his mouth and waving around. The bouncer had wheels on it, and Allison and I kept moving it from room to room with us as we took our time working on the house. Leo didn’t seem to mind as long as he could have an eye on his mama, and Allison was in another world she was so excited and happy.
The floors were in surprisingly good condition and for the most part just needed to be cleaned and waxed. That was something we could do ourselves, and I wasn’t concerned about it. The much bigger issues were things we would have to tackle first. Namely, the plumbing.
The house had sat for so long with no one living in it that the plumbing was in need of attention. Thankfully the pipes didn’t need replacing, but the fixtures in the house had either rusted over or were in poor condition before the abandonment and now were in much rougher states. We tackled the downstairs one first, completely taking apart the sink and rebuilding it from the ground up.
When we were done with that, we addressed the shower and found ourselves with another leaky knob that simply wouldn’t shut off. It reminded us both of early in our own relationship, when we struggled with the plumbing in her grandparents’ house. I kept joking that at any minute, she was going to tumble into the shower and get soaked and we would have to go to the neighbor’s house to dry up.
