Page 47 of Ghost
“I had some thoughts on your kitchen, Mas.”Paul leaned over, speaking across Mitch who was sitting in the middle.
“Oh?What’s that?”Mason turned his indicator on to turn left.
“You should put in one of them breakfast bar type things.It will give you more storage and counter space,” Paul explained.
“That’s a good idea,” Mitch chimed in.“And it would delineate the kitchen from the dining room area.”
Mason looked at Mitch.“Look at you go with your big words.Delineate.”
Mitch rolled his eyes.“I ain’t stupid, ya know.”
“It’s a good idea.”Mason found a parking spot.“Problem is, I can’t spend any more money.”
“I think we can scrounge up enough lumber to get it done,” Paul said as he opened the truck door.“I know we got enough drywall.”
As they walked into the store, Mitch said, “Paul and I can get started on the tiling and you can build that breakfast bar.”
“It’s going to depend on how much of that tile they got left,” Mason said, getting a heavy-duty cart.”
They were looking at the tile and counting out how much was there.
“Can I help you fellas?”
They all turned to see a guy in an orange employee’s smock with Stan written on the front in black marker.He was an older guy and Mason thought he might actually know what he was doing, which wasn’t always the case.
“How much of this tile do you have left?”Mitch asked.
“Well, now, that is the end of a run and it’s taken us a long time to unload it.Black isn’t really in style.”He rubbed the back of his neck thinking.“As I best recall, there’s this bit here, which is about thirty square feet, and I think I may have a partial flat still in back, which would probably bring it up to about a hundred square feet, maybe a bit more.”
“That’s way more than I’d need,” Mason interjected, looking at Paul and Mitch.
“What’s the best price you can do if we take all of it?”Mitch asked.“We’ll also be gettin’ all the supplies, too.”
“Let me go see what I can do.”Stan walked away.
Mason turned on Mitch.“What the hell, Mitch?I don’t need that much tile.”
Mitch grinned.“You do if you redo that bathroom at the same time.There’s enough tile to do both, don’t’cha think?”
Mason blinked a few times.“I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“We all know that kitchens and bathrooms sell houses,” Paul added.
As they drove away from the home improvement store, Mitch was grinning ear to ear, as was Paul.Mason just drove, stunned.Mitch had negotiated the price down on all the tile to the point where it was about the same cost as what Mason had planned on spending in the first place.Black granite was obviously something that they wanted rid of.It appeared that Mason was getting a bathroom renovation on top of a new kitchen.
