CHAPTER 1 #2
“It shouldn’t be a problem. There’s nothing load-bearing in there, so it’s just knocking it down.
I might be able to save some of it and make it a bit smaller to still get you the chair and the bookshelves, or I can also draw up a couple of different versions of the shelves for you.
Maybe you’d like a different configuration, and we keep the closet.
The bigger question is, how are you going to keep Kyle from buying the chair for herself now so it’s still a surprise? ” she asked.
“Oh, I’m going to buy it for her for her birthday or maybe for Christmas; I haven’t decided yet.
She’s spent a month looking up furniture she wants and finally found something she likes, so I don’t want her to not have it until the wedding, but the rest of the space will be a surprise.
My soon-to-be wife is getting more and more successful by the day, and I want her to have a real office.
She has one employee now, but she’s thinking about a second and maybe another one. ”
Myra looked around the apartment then and had an idea she hadn’t thought of before.
She wasn’t sure why it hadn’t hit her earlier, but maybe it was because the apartment was someplace where she and Melinda only met to keep the plans for the office a secret from Kyle, not because she had ever really considered the apartment at all beyond that.
“Have you thought about this place?”
“What about it?”
“Well, we’d be building Kyle a home office, but she’s going to have employees.”
“The one employee she has now is in Portland, so she doesn’t come to the office or anything,” Melinda replied. “I assume she’ll probably keep hiring remotely.”
“But would Kyle ever want to have an office outside of the house? If she adds other employees, would they need a place to sit? Or is she only hiring remotely?” Myra asked.
“You know, I don’t know that we’ve talked about that officially,” Melinda replied, looking around, too, now.
“This isn’t technically my building. The owner of NOLA Guides left me the business, but she still owns the building.
I know I don’t live up here anymore, but I’ve always expected her to rent this out to someone else.
She’s losing money by just leaving it up here vacant like this.
I mean, I love it because I can use it for secret meetings about my future wife’s home office, but it’s not really mine to make over. ”
“Got it,” Myra said. “Well, if anything changes, just let me know. This is a nice space. Kyle’s office could be in the bedroom, and there’s room for at least three desks out here with some nice open space as well.
The kitchen makes an instant break room, and this building is already zoned for business, obviously, so it’s just getting a permit or two and making a couple of changes, really; not much to build or fix. ”
Melinda looked around again and said, “Let me try to stealthily ask her if she ever plans to hire locally or work out of an office, and I’ll get back to you.
If she’s into that, or I get the vibe that she might want this place, I will check with the owner.
Ky could pay her rent to lease it, which would be more than she’s making now, no matter what the amount is. ”
“Sounds good,” Myra said, and soon after, she packed up her things, and they headed back downstairs .
Having said her goodbyes to Melinda and Jill, who was working the counter, she made her way back to her own office, which was small and had just enough space for herself, her bookkeeper, and a break room and bathroom.
The rest of the space was mostly the warehouse, which wasn’t overly large, but it held their supplies and the trucks parked there overnight so that she could close the garage doors and keep them safer from thieves.
Normally, she would have let the bookkeeper, who also worked the phones for her, answer the calls and book the jobs, but when Myra noticed that she was already on another call when their second line started ringing, she picked up the phone herself, not wanting to possibly lose the business.
“Davies Contracting,” she greeted as she sat down at her messy desk.
“Hi. I’m looking for a quote on some work,” a female caller said. “I bought a house a few months ago, and there’s some old hurricane damage, I think. I talked to someone, and they said you were the one to call here.”
“Oh. Yes, we do that. What kind of damage is there?” she asked as she reached for a Post-it note and pen.
“So, there are some wood issues in the kitchen, I think. I did an inspection, and they warned me about some mold. I got that taken care of before we moved in, but it’s back, and I think the wood might be damaged.”
“Wood in the kitchen,” she said as she wrote.
“In the pantry. But that wall connects to the plumbing, and I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not.”
“You had a company treat the mold, right? Did they tell you about the damage?”
“I watched a YouTube video on the mold at first,” the woman replied. “My mistake.”
“Bleach?”
“Yes. And I know it doesn’t actually get rid of it, but it was the fastest option.”
“We don’t remove mold. You’ll need to call someone else to remove it for good,” Myra replied .
“Oh, I did. I finally gave in. They came out already and took care of it. It wasn’t that bad, and they didn’t mention any damage, but I think the guy they had come out was in a hurry, so he just left without giving me any information.
On top of that, there’s the roof, which they told me needs fixing. ”
Myra wasn’t specifically a roofer, but they did roofing jobs from time to time, especially after hurricanes, and she knew people whom she could sub-contract out to if that was a requirement.
“How bad?”
“It doesn’t need replacing,” the woman said.
Myra checked her computer and the calendar already on the screen.
“I can do an inspection for you and get you a quote, at least. I might not be the right one to do the actual job, and I’ll let you know if that’s the case, but my pricing is fair, so you’d have something to compare it to if you need to get an estimate from someone else,” she said.
“Really? That would be great,” the caller replied.
“Let me just take your information. Name?”
“Elisa Benedetti,” the woman replied.
“Email and phone?”
Elisa gave it to her.
“And the address?”
When Elisa gave her that , though, Myra’s ears perked up.
“White-and-blue house?” she asked.
“Yeah, white with blue shutters and doors. How did you know?”
“Um… I think you might be my next-door neighbor,” Myra replied.