Page 26 of We're One

“Yeah, that’s why I despise living in the heart of the city. I lived there for years and thrived on it for a while, but it changed. I wasn’t going to stay here after Gramps passed, but I found that I was unwilling to leave. I still have my condo in the city, but I haven’t slept there in over a year.”

“Are you going to keep the condo?” The amount of money lost on an empty space in Seattle is incomprehensible to me.

“For now. It’s hard for me to let things go. I might eventually need it.” I wonder what it would be like to have so much money you could afford to have multiple homes not in use. It’s never been my goal to have that much money, but to not have to worry about bills and food wouldn’t be so bad.

I hear a noise, then turn to see Honey making a beeline straight toward me. I give a real smile this time as I drop to the floor and she launches herself into my arms. “Hello, Beautiful, how are you?” I coo. She licks my chin and jumps all over me.

“I’m trying to break her of that. It might be cute now, but it won’t be so cute when she’s eighty pounds.”

“She’s fine,” I assure him. “But she’s already put on a couple of pounds since I saw her last. I hate how quickly puppies grow.”

“I’m more than ready for her to be fully house-trained,” he says with a sigh.

“She’ll learn fast. She’s super smart.”

He shakes his head, but I can see he’s already getting attached to the pup. He looks at her with a fond smile. “Do you have to go outside?” he asks. Her ears perk up and she runs over to him, stumbling a couple of times as most puppies do when trying to get used to their rapidly growing bodies. He turns and walks her over to the door and opens it. She rushes outside.

“I had a nice big fenced area put in for her. She’ll probably play for a little while.” I’m a bit bummed to see her leave so quickly, but she’ll be back soon. I stand and move to the counter.

Zach makes coffee, then pulls out a box of fresh donuts. I close my lips to keep from drooling. He grabs a jelly-filled one and I go straight for the maple bar, barely able to hold in the sigh of pleasure wanting to escape. After a few sips of coffee, I set my cup down while I nibble on the donut, then start pulling out samples and spreading them out on the huge counter in a line.

“You mentioned you want to brighten up the house, and I fully agree,” I say once it’s all laid out. “You’d be shocked at how many choices you have. We need to narrow down the color tones you want. Browse these samples and eliminate what you don’t like. Then we can narrow it down to your favorite.”

“It will be so odd to have bright walls and color in here. It’s looked like this since I was a young boy,” he tells me, fondness in his eyes.

“You don’t have to do this, Zach... to drastically change it,” I tell him, feeling a bit of disappointment at the potential loss of the job. I’m a designer though, and want my clients to be thrilled at the makeover, not sad.

He shakes his head. “No, I want to do this. Sometimes it really hits me that Gramps is gone and won’t ever walk through these halls again. I love your idea of incorporating some of the old with the new, because I don’t want to erase his memory.”

I can’t help myself. I reach out and touch his arm. It’s clear how much he loved his grandfather. These losses tend to stay with a person for years. He’s lost his parents and grandparents which can’t be easy, especially since he’s not very old. It’s tragic. I can’t imagine how it will feel when my parents are gone. I’m already sad thinking about it.

“We’ll do a partial walk-through today so we can mark each of the pieces of furniture and decorations. It will take a couple of days to go through all of the rooms since this place is so big. We’ll do the definite keeps, the definite rehomes, and the maybes. That will help with knowing what else to bring in. Something else to consider as we move through each rooms is that we can move pieces around. So if you like a piece, but don’t like it in a certain room, we can change areas. That can really make a difference in how the piece looks. There are also some fun things we can do with pieces of furniture that don’t work but have sentimental value. For example, we can use window frames to make picture frames, use posts from beds to make end tables. I have an incredible designer — who isn’t cheap, but is a true artist — who takes furniture and makes new pieces, giving a bit of the old a bright newness.”

Zach’s eyes light up at this. “What a great idea. Now I’ll look at the furniture in a whole new light. I love it,” he tells me, all traces of sadness in his eyes evaporating.

My donut and coffee are gone. I eye the box, wanting to grab a second one, but not wanting to look like a glutton. Zach laughs as if he can read my mind.

“These are only good for a day so eat away,” he tells me as he reaches in and grabs a second one for himself before moving to the coffee pot to refill both cups. I don’t need further prompting as I grab another donut, this time a cinnamon glazed twist. It’s soft and sugary and pure heaven.

“Okay, first you have to decide on paint.” I go to the paint samples. “We have soft whites, pale yellows, some light blues, sage greens, and more. Like I said, first eliminate what you hate so it’s easier to narrow down what you like. Once you pick your three to five preferable colors, we can paint large splashes on the walls and you can look at them for a few days to decide which one you like the most. We can do one color throughout the house, or multiple colors. We can do accent walls in certain rooms. The options are endless. You can be as involved in the details as you want. You can leave the final decisions up to me or not. I’ve had clients who give me their initial opinions then want nothing to do with the project. Other clients want to approve every single detail. I can work with both. It’s your home and you’re the one living here.”

“Okay, paint will be tough, but I can already say I hate the blues,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t know why as I love a clear blue sky, but for some reason I hate blues in houses.”

I laugh as I grab all the blues away. “Perfect, we’ve eliminated one category already. We’re making headway.” He plucks out a few more colors, but a dozen remain on the counter. He moves to the curtain swatches.

We chat about patterns versus solids, and different colors. Before I realize it, three hours have passed and over half the donuts are gone. Honey has been running in and out of the house, getting some attention, then off again to chase squirrels or whatever else she can find. She’s quite the little chewer so we’re going to have to consider than when choosing furniture. Animals can destroy a house quickly if a person isn’t careful.

We’ve only eliminated about half the samples I’ve brought, but we’re making progress. We have a very long way to go. With the size of this ranch home though, I’m well aware it will take a while. If we can narrow the choices today, I’ll be satisfied.

“The furniture will be a lot harder. Some designers like to pick everything out at once. I work better by getting the floors, walls, and curtains finished first. Then I can see what furniture in the house still works, and what doesn’t, and find pieces to match. Some people like to pick out their furniture first, then design the walls and curtains around that. It’s really up to you.”

He looks at the furniture catalogs. “I think I like your way better. I want the walls and curtains to be bright. I only want my furniture to be comfortable.”

“We can look at patterns for the furniture. There’s a lot of leather in the house now. I’m not the biggest fan of leather. That might be controversial, but it’s not inviting in my opinion. I think it works well for a den, but I like bright hues: greens and greys along with sunny yellows and maybe a bold print to really accent a room. This works well for men and women, especially with accents like colored frames, plants, and designer lamps strategically placed.”

Zach leans closer to me to inspect a fabric sample, his fingers sliding across the fabric while his shoulder brushes mine, sending butterflies straight to my stomach. “This feels good,” he murmurs, his voice dropping, making my pulse speed up.

A flush creeps up my neck, but I stay focused on the task before us. “This fabric would work well for the living room,” I say, my voice a bit too breathy, though I’m trying to stay professional. Thankfully he doesn’t call me out.

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