Page 12 of Love It or List It
It wasn’tsmart, he knew.Joe absolutely had a point, the same way he’d had a point about Austin’s disinclination to throw away anything that might still be remotely useful.
Joe goggled at him.“Nice ones?”he challenged after a moment.
Austin flushed, feeling defensive.“Everything works.Maybe it’s a little mismatched, but that’s because I wasn’t trying.You can get whole used kitchens at Habitat ReStore, and you can paint most cabinets.If we rip out everything that’s in here”—because even Austin had to admit that the current kitchen did not bear the effort of trying to salvage—“we’d have a blank slate.We could make a lot of different things work.”
Joe’s incredulous gaze turned calculating.“You really hate throwing stuff away.”
The heat in Austin’s cheeks doubled.He hated being so transparent to someone he’d just met—especially someone like Joe, who drove a nice newer-model truck with his business’s logo in vinyl on the side, who had somehow adopted four teenagers and earned their undying mockery and free labor, who was clean-cut and conventionally handsome and unconventionally charming.
He hated the reflexive urge to explain himself, which made him spit without thinking, “You would too, if you grew up with nothing.”
That effectively ended the conversation.Like bringing a gun to a knife fight, Austin thought.Well, anyway—“Come on, we’re almost done with the breezeway.”
Tonight, in his bed, Austin’s body reminded him that he’d been asking a lot of it lately.Long days on his back under a chassis or bent over an engine, long evenings with Joe at the house, sorting through a seemingly endless pile of what even Austin had to admit was mostly crap, and then a half hour drive back to the garage before he could shower and fall into bed, at which point his brain caught a second wind and didn’t want to switch off.
One of these days, Austin was going to drop a transmission on his own head because he was tired.At least then he’d be able to stopthinking.
Would putting in a new kitchen be so hard?Austin didn’t think so.Once they pulled the existing cabinets off the wall, they’d have room to move around.They could flatten out that U-shaped set of cabinets into an elongated L that stretched into the addition, put in some better lighting.There’d even be space for a big island with seating on both sides—plenty of room for family dinners or whatever.
Not that Austin had a family to have dinners with, butsomeonewould appreciate it.Someone would breathe life back into that big, beautiful, neglected house.
Assuming the home inspector didn’t find anything else egregious, of course.Austin flipped his pillow over and rolled onto his side, wondering how much bad news Joe would be willing to hear and still fix the place up.The roof hadn’t leaked yet.The windows were old, but only one had a crack, and Austin had experience cutting glass; he could probably fix it.The basement—God, Austin was not looking forward to the basement, but it was the next thing they had to clear a pathway to before the inspector came this week.The basement could make or break it.If the foundation was crumbling, if the joists were damaged—
And then there was the plumbing, which, what was even going on with that?On Thursday night, Austin had just pulled up to the house when the neighbor, a middle-aged woman named Linda, flagged him down for a chat; she mentioned the farmer to their rear had regraded the field a few years back and DeeDee had had trouble since.
“Something with the weeping beds,” she told him.“Whatever that means.”
Austin hadn’t known either, but it sounded like the sort of thing Joe would know about.Very landscapey.He should ask, he thought hazily as he fell into sleep.
Days later, they had cleared out sections of the house well enough for the inspector, who arrived with a lengthy checklist and a sardonic smile.
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” she quipped as Joe led her up the porch steps.
“Hiya!I’m Rita.You must be the mysterious co-owner Joe was despairing would never be found.”She held out her hand, which was clean and manicured in sharp contrast to her old jeans and boots.
“I usually just go by Austin.Less of a mouthful.”
Rita laughed.“Well, wouldn’t want to strain anyone.”She winked.“Shall we take a look at her?”She stepped through the front door.“We’ll come back outside later.”
Joe and Austin let her do her thing, but kept within shouting distance.Her full tour of the house took a while.Austin was practically chewing his fingers by the time she found them sorting things in the tiny main-floor office.
“So, good news or bad news first?”
“Always good,” Joe said before Austin could even gain use of his tongue.
“You’ve got good bones.The structure is, overall, sound.The basement looks good.The roof looks okay for now, and the house shouldn’t come down on you next blustery day.”
Relief filled Austin.That sounded promising.Like it wasn’t a write-off.
“But?”Joe prompted.
“But there’s a laundry list of repairs that need doing.Wanna go see them?”
They started in the kitchen.
“I’m sure you already noticed this,” she said wryly and placed a marble on the floor.It ran to the other side of the room, gaining speed.
It wasn’t like Austin hadn’t known about the slant, but watching the marble’s race to the extension twisted his stomach.
