Let's Play A Game

“I can’t believe it!” Zach slapped his fork down on the table, startling everyone seated around the table.

“What’s wrong?” Mary frowned as she stared at him. “Is it dinner?”

“No, of course not,” Zach replied as he shook his head. “Them!” He pointed, accusingly towards Jordan and me. “I can’t believe them!”

“What?” Jordan shot me a quick ‘wtf’ glance. “What did we do?”

Beside me, Chad chuckled. “Go ahead Zach, don’t hold back, tell them what you think.”

“About what?” Jordan was utterly confused – a feeling I completely understood at the moment.

Sitting back in his chair, Zack crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to go into ‘cop’ mode as his gaze locked onto us. “Both of you, your whole lives, we never could get you to keep quiet and now – the one time we want to know what’s going on – it’s like a damn cat got your tongue!”

“I’m sorry….?” Jordan spoke slowly and still seemed to be confused.

“It’s ok,” I slipped my hand over Jordan’s knee as I leaned forward to stare my brother down. “I don’t recall anyone asking how the house hunting was going.” I was purposely bratty and even stuck my tongue out at him.

“I just assumed they didn’t find anything suitable,” Susan piped up with a shrug. “Otherwise, Anna would’ve talked our ears off already.”

“We did find something,” Jordan beamed as his hand slipped over mine under the table. His eyes seemed to light up even more when he told them that we found the perfect house. “I can not wait to move in!”

“For the love of….” Zach groaned as he glanced upwards and mumbled something that sounded like he was asking why he even bothered.

“Oh Zach…” Mary shook her head and rolled her eyes before asking Jordan to tell them more about the houses we viewed. “There were three of them, right?” Suddenly, she seemed to be more excited than normal about the whole thing. “Oh. Oh. OH!” She bounced excitedly in her chair. “Do it like they do on tv!”

Across the table, my nieces seemed to groan in unison but Lindsay was the only one who spoke. “Mom, this isn’t HGTV.”

Mary’s smile faltered a little as she told Lindsay that she knew that. “But that doesn’t mean Anna or Jordy can’t humour me.” There was a moment where she seemed like she was uncomfortable and she did lean back in her chair to rub her belly but it was over before Zach could even react. “Tell me what they looked like – all the pros and cons – I want to see if I guess which one you picked.”

Even though we were a little hesitant and no one else seemed to share Mary’s excitement, despite wanting to know, Zach insisted that we all head into the living room to ‘get comfortable’. Mary started to protest but he wouldn’t listen. “You haven’t stopped since you’ve come back from your mom’s and, knowing you, you didn’t stop while you were there either. I want you to head into the living room, put your feet up and relax.”

****

“I don’t know what you want us to tell you Mary.” I was becoming more and more frustrated with every minute that passed. My whole family cleared out of the dining room almost an hour before to relax in the living room and in that time, Jordan and I tried to tell everyone how our house hunting went but Mary kept interrupting, asking us to explain it more like the TV show she apparently was hooked on.

“Just walk us through the main points of each house - number of rooms, where they were located, size – you know. Then, when you told us the basics, we’ll review the pros and cons and then you’ll let me guess which one you picked.” She seemed so excited about whole idea but everyone else appeared to wish they were elsewhere.

I glanced at Zach; he shrugged and motioned for me to go along with her. “Ok,” I said slowly as I tried to gather my thoughts and present the first house – again – in a way that would make her happy. “The first house, the one that we found while scoping out the one Josh told me about, was a 5 bedroom, 2 bath, 1120 sqft bungalow built in the 70s.”

Pausing briefly, I smiled at Jordy as his hand closed over mine. “It needs some work,” I admitted. “The outside doesn’t look like it’s changed much since it was built besides new coats of paint over the years.”

“But,” Jordan jumped in. “It seemed to be in good repair.”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “Besides needing an update out front, it appeared to be pretty solid.”

Clearing his throat, Chad took all attention away from us. “Appearances can be deceiving; you’ll have to get an inspector in to look it over before you buy.”

Jordan nodded in agreement. “We were hoping that you knew someone.”

Chad told us that he did and he would have him call us as soon as possible, “Since you did choose a house, right?”

“We did,” I confirmed before turning back to Mary. I explained to her how the front door opened up into a long, narrow living room with olive green walls and a huge window at the far end. “From the living room you could walk, to your right, down a hallway to the two small bedrooms and a bathroom or go through the living room to the really small dining room and kitchen.” I went on to tell her that this house also had an ‘in-law suite’ in the basement and a laundry/furnace room. “There is a detached, one car garage with some space for storage.”

“What about land size?”

“The house is on a three acre, mainly treed lot.” I told them how much they were asking and then went on to the second house.

The second house was one Wanda set up for us to view. Situated on almost two acres, the second house was the smallest in land size that we viewed. “It was awesome! And a lot newer than the first house.” Jordan exclaimed, cutting me off, effectively taking over the description of the second house. “We drove up a tree lined driveway towards a huge house with a three car garage attached. Once again, when we walked through the double front doors, we entered the living room. The living room was a half decent size, with hardwood floors, a huge window facing the front yard.”

He told them about the stairs at the far end of the living room that went down into the basement where there were two large, separate rooms that Wanda said were the downstairs living room and a games room. “There were two large sized bedrooms there as well.”

“Upstairs, off the living room, the kitchen had amazing cabinetry –“

“The kitchen was awesome!” It was my turn to cut him off. “Oh my God, I couldn’t believe it. The kitchen was so spacious, with dark cabinets, and black appliances that just made my day. But,” I sighed. “The dining area wasn’t as big as I hoped, given the size of the house.”

“It’s not that small,” Jordan insisted. “Besides, who cares, just off the dining area, there are doors leading out onto a covered, enclosed back deck that overlooked the large back yard.” Grinning, he told my family that there was a fire pit. “Made me wish for summer and barbeques.”

“Sounds like a nice house,” Susan commented. “What about the last house? The one that Josh told you about a few days ago.”

The third house was situated on a 5 acre lot about 10 minutes from town and approximately 5 minutes from Zach’s house. “The house is owned by friends of friends of Josh’s parents, they are older and their kids have all grown up so they no longer see the need for the four bedroom, three bathroom house renovated within the last ten years.”

“When she says renovated, she’s not doing it justice – it looks like a brand new house!”

“Wow,” I laughed as I watched his face light up. “All this talk of houses and you are like a kid at Christmas Jordy.”

“Can you blame me Babe? Today, we found the house that will be our home.”

“Tell us about the third house,” Mary urged. “So we can guess which one you two picked.”

“Ok.” I paused, trying to recall where I left off. “So, the house has been renovated – very nicely I nice admit. The front door, instead of leading into the living room, like the rest, it opened to reveal a stair case, a closet and two other doors. One door, the one of the right of the entrance, led into a two car garage. The door across from the front door and to the right of the stairs led to stairs to the finished basement.”

“The basement,” Jordan jumped in. “Contained a bedroom, bathroom, under stair storage, laundry room, furnace room and a playroom.”

“Up the main stairs,” I picked up when Jordan stopped. “To the right was a huge open living room that overlooked the front yard. To the left was a fair sized living room with French doors that opened onto a deck that ran the front of the left side of the house, ending under the kitchen window at the end. The kitchen itself was just as amazing as the second house, if not more. It boasted of maple cabinets and granite countertops with a matching island in the middle. The fridge, stove, built in microwave and dishwasher were all black – and we all know how much I love that!”

Jordan chuckled, “And lucky you, two of the three houses had black appliances.”

“I know!” I exclaimed. “How cool was that?”

“Very,” he replied. Turning to everyone, he told them he had to damn near drag me out of both kitchens to see the rest of the house. “The rest of the floor consisted of two regular sized bedrooms, a main bathroom and the master bedroom.”

Having described all three houses, we sat back and watched Mary recap all three houses and then she asked us what we thought were pros and cons of all houses. So we told her.

“House #1 was in need of many repairs and most of the rooms were smaller than we really hoped but it does have potential and we could work on it together – make it what we want. Plus the price tag was really low so we’d have no problem buying it and doing the renovations that we feel it needs.”

“House #2 was awesome and move in ready. We didn’t have much that we would change or want to change but it was further from town than we really wanted and the price tag was the highest of all three.”

“House #3 was just as awesome as the second house but still a little pricey.”

“But,” Jordan added as he stared across the room at Zach. “It’s way too close to family, they would be over all the time!”

Zack snorted. “More likely you two would be here all the time!”

“Whatever,” I laughed as Mary shushed us all.

“I’m thinking here.”

****

It was very late when Jordan and I said ‘good night’ to Zach and Mary. “We should’ve left earlier,” he commented as he jumped into his seat after securing Jenna into her car seat.

“Yeah,” I sighed as I stared out the windshield at the blanket of new snow that had fallen with the last couple hours. “Zach did say we could spend the night here, if you weren’t up to driving home.”

“We should be able to get home Anna; it’s not that bad out.”

I didn’t agree with him but since he was the driving, I didn’t want to argue or take his attention away from the highway. Thankfully, it only took him a couple kilometres to admit to himself that it wasn’t such a great idea to be driving around in the snowstorm. “It’s crazy for us to bother driving home,” he told me. “Zach did say that Jenna and I were welcome to stay.”

Relief washed over me when he slowed down and turned his truck around. “I’m too tired to drive anymore, anyway.”

Whatever reasons he gave, I didn’t care, all I cared about was getting back to Zach’s where it was warm and cozy. And my bed! It may have seemed strange but I was excited about the prospect of sleeping in my bed again, it was the most comfortable bed I’d ever been in – I was hoping to talk Jordan into using my bed when we moved, instead of his. It seemed that Jordan shared that same thought, for he told me that he couldn’t wait to go to bed. “We haven’t been in your bed together since we started our relationship.”