Page 37 of Without You

I huff. “Fine! It’s awful. How is the rest of your house so well done but your kitchen looks like the sixties threw up all over it?”

“It’s next on the list, I promise you.”

“The list?”

We walk into the eyesore of a kitchen and he pulls out a kitchen chair for me to take a seat. I do as he pulls out a bottle of water and a Coke from the fridge, offering both to me. I point to the Coke and he grins, handing it over. I pop the top and he grabs one for himself before closing the puke green fridge door and coming to sit next to me. “I’ve renovated the entire house. It was built in 1962 and I bought it from the original owners. They moved to a retirement home here in town. You should have seen the place when I bought it.”

“How long ago was that?” I ask, taking a drink.

“Three years.”

My eyes widen and I choke on the carbonated soda that I just tried to swallow.

“You’ve lived with this kitchen for three years?”

He nods. “That I have.”

“Why?”

“Like I said, you should have seen the rest of it. The guy was a hoarder. One of the bedrooms was in such bad shape, it was almost to the point of condemning the rest of the house.”

“Oh my gosh.”

“Yeah. It was disgusting. It took me six months to clean it up.”

“So you gutted it?”

Another nod. “Completely.”

“How’d you even find this place?”

“Friend of a friend of a friend. You know how it goes. I mentioned that I was looking for something cheap because I was sick of paying rent.”

“And I take it this place was cheap?”

“It definitely was. But the bones of the house are good. Solid. It just wasn’t well-loved over the years. The lady, she was not in great shape mentally. Dementia, if I understand correctly. The guy was afraid if he got rid of anything that it would set her back.”

Well, darn it, now my heart is kind of breaking for them. “Aww. That’s rough.”

“Yup. I agree. So I can’t really blame them. The kids tried to step in a few times but they couldn’t convince him otherwise.”

“But they must have eventually?”

He shrugs. “I guess. I mean, they’re living in the Friendship House where she’s got round-the-clock care and he can live without feeling like he has to constantly monitor her. I’m not sure how the kids got in there and made him realize it was time to move her somewhere safe and that the way they were living wasn’t healthy, but they did.”

“And you’ve done the work yourself?”

“For the most part, yes. I pulled up all the flooring, and in the one bedroom had to even lay new subfloor. All the windows and doors have been replaced as well as the heater, air conditioner, and water heater. I repainted the walls and the outside, replaced the roof, and added on the trim around the windows. I also built the breezeway between the garage and the house.”

“Holy shit. That’s a lot!”

“Yeah. It probably would have been easier to just build a house.” He laughs.

“Uh, sounds like it.”

“It’s been fun, though. I like seeing the progress and knowing I’m the one who did the work.”

“How’d you know how to do it?”

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