Epilogue
Gage
It was finally April, which meant we could start pouring foundation.
Before we did, I stopped by with string and wooden stakes so I could lay out the size of the house and get a feel for it.
I always did this with new builds. I wanted to actually feel out the space and make adjustments before we poured concrete.
It was far easier to change things at this point than later.
Logan was right here with me, my husband more excited to do this chore than I was. He’d gotten up early, made breakfast, and poured hot coffee into two thermoses before practically dragging us over here.
The snow had finally melted, and we were in the low fifties, so the weather was turning enough to make concrete viable. It was definitely nice today—sunny, barely any hint of a breeze. I looked over our lot with satisfaction.
We’d found a two-acre lot just outside of Plymouth, off a country road, that suited us perfectly.
It had lots of mature trees, and we’d placed the house in the middle of them, set deep off the road for privacy and noise reasons.
Our other task today was to wrap ribbons around each of the trees we wanted to keep.
Some would need to come down just to get the heavy machinery in here, but not all, and there were several mature oak trees and pine trees I refused to log.
For a few hours, Logan followed directions as we staked, measured, and tied string to the stakes. It was a chore for sure, and my lower back protested by the time we were done.
I sipped coffee and oriented myself to the front door. “Okay, so front door is here. Walk with me, imagine there’s walls as we go.”
Logan walked at my pace, and I could tell his fertile imagination was buzzing a mile a minute. “This feels…a little narrow, somehow? Didn’t you want to build a shoe cubby and coat closet right here?”
“I do, and I agree, this feels tight.” I measured two feet from the “wall” and grunted. “That’s barely enough room for the front door to open.”
“I now understand why you wanted to walk this.”
“It always looks fine on paper, but it’s hard to judge dimensions through a screen.” Or at least it was for me, despite my experience. “I built in a bit of redundancy, just in case, and I’m glad now. I’ll need to redline this area and give us a little more room.”
“Where are you taking room from, though?”
“It’s actually not that bad.” I pulled up the blueprints on the tablet and showed him. “We can take a foot from either side, widen this foyer symmetrically, and all we lose is a foot of space from my home office and from the game room. Both of which are plenty big.”
Logan moved stakes on both sides, then walked the area again. He grunted. “Yeah, that feels better. All right, so moving past the foyer, to the right is the kitchen.”
We walked the main floor, making adjustments here and there. None of it was structural, so I wouldn’t have to make massive changes to the plans. These were all minor and mostly cosmetic.
By time we finished, it was past lunchtime. I, for one, needed something foodwise. Plus a chance to sit down. Still, before we left, I caught Logan’s hand to make sure he was good with it all.
“Aaaaaanything you want to change? Speak up now or forever hold your peace.”
Logan shook his head, boyish excitement still obvious. “No, I think it’s perfect. Are you happy with it?”
“I am now.”
“Then let’s go get lunch and tell Riggs we’re a go.”
My friends, as a wedding present, had given us a discount on their fees for building our house.
The offer was super sweet of them and I’d agreed immediately.
Logan’s inheritance from his grandfather had bought this land, at least in part.
The old homophobic bastard was likely spinning in his grave over that.
It pleased my evil, petty side enormously.
That wasn’t what I thought about, though, as I walked hand in hand back to the truck with my husband. I thought about how, by winter, we’d be moved into our new house. How we’d be able to host Christmases. How I had the rest of my life to love and enjoy this man.
Logan was the best gift I’d ever received. I loved this man to pieces and hoped I spent every day making sure he felt how much I loved him.
Building him a dream house, well, that was just the beginning.