Chapter 10
CHAPTER
TEN
Adam pulled up to the fourth house in as many hours, ready for this day of looking at real estate to be over.
At the same time, he’d seen and learned a lot of good things today.
Number one, real estate in Dog Valley was far cheaper than Coral Canyon, and he got way more for his money.
No wonder Morris had purchased land and built a house here, and Adam had since learned that his twin also lived in Dog Valley, and that Tex lived on the northwest side of town, closer to Dog Valley than the house where Adam lived now.
Luke had also moved to Dog Valley, which meant only Trace and Otis would have to make the drive for meetings, and Adam did not anticipate having very many of those anyway. Yes, Dog Valley had become a serious contender for his new home.
“This one looks great,” he said to himself as he peered out the windshield at the house.
Diane, a woman in her sixties, had been trucking along beside him for the past several hours, going over listings, leading him through houses, sending off texts to real estate agents to get answers to any questions he had.
From the outside, this house definitely looked the nicest. It was two stories and done in a dark brick with black shutters. The front door was also black, and Adam didn’t hate it.
The yard had turned the color of straw, and it ran back along one side of the house, while the other had an enormous cement parking bay for boats, toys, or an RV.
Not that Adam had any of those things, but Diane said the owner of this house had built it specifically for all of the outdoor items he had.
The three-car garage sat extra deep, as the current owner ran a construction firm and a handyman business, and he’d installed a workbench and a woodshop in his garage.
He’d seen pictures of the backyard, and to be honest, this house was far too much for Adam. It checked all of his boxes, though, and he got out of his SUV and joined Diane on the front sidewalk. “First impressions?” she chirped, something she’d asked him three previous times.
“I really like this place,” he said. “It puts off a very….” He paused and looked back to the house. “It feels sophisticated, far more than the last couple of houses we’ve seen.”
“Yes,” Diane said. “I agree. Sophisticated is a great word for this house. You’ll see those touches all throughout as well.
” She continued to talk about the interior finishes, from the soft-touch cabinets that had been painted a pale green—custom, apparently—to the hardwood floors, the quartz countertops, and the classic subway tiles in the kitchen, all bathrooms, and laundry room.
Adam had worked for celebrities in the past, and he understood what luxurious accommodations looked like and felt like. The moment he stepped foot inside the house, he knew he’d just entered a space like that.
Diane had told him in the office that sometimes places built by their owners, as handymen or construction workers, were the most jerry-rigged of all.
But this place seemed immaculate. Every corner perfectly square, the rugs precisely placed and beautifully chosen to fit the decor.
It was a mountain house with wood beams in the ceiling and one wall in the office made completely of blonde pine wood, but also modern, with cream paint on the walls and gray trim around the doors and ceiling.
“This would be the office,” Diane said, and Adam stood in the middle of the room and turned in a slow circle.
“This is perfect,” he said.
Diane shone like all the stars in the sky, as if she herself had built this house for Adam.
She led him through the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and the full bath that sat only steps down the hall.
The master suite was as big as his entire floor in the house he rented now, and he could see himself retreating here with a cat—his pet of choice—and a recliner, a television, and his bookcase full of his beloved mystery novels.
The second floor held bedrooms, another great room, and bathrooms, and they all seemed to have the exact same attention to detail, high-end finishes, and sophistication running through them.
“There’s a basement as well,” Diane said. “It’s unfinished right now. The previous owner used it to store construction materials.” She opened the door and showed the bare wood steps going down.
“Oh, I don’t think I need to see the basement,” Adam said. “I’m not even going to use the upstairs.”
“It’s an additional two-thousand square feet,” she said, without taking a step down. “Completely open. You can design and finish it however you want.”
Adam nodded, though he seriously did not see himself doing that. This house had everything else he could possibly want.
“Let’s talk in here,” Diane said, turning back toward the kitchen. “A storm has rolled in.”
Adam nodded and went with her. The family that had owned this house had already moved out, and thus there was nowhere to sit—no bar stools, no dining room table, no couch.
“We can definitely pull more listings for you,” she said. “It’s a great time to be in the upper market where you are, as things have slowed down there quite a bit, and prices have fallen.”
He nodded, because he’d heard all of this at their meeting on Monday.
“I still think you’d be happy in the lakeside community,” she said.
Adam shook his head. “I don’t want to be behind a gate,” he said. “I’ve lived my whole life behind gates.”
Diane pursed her lips but nodded. She had short blonde hair that had started to turn white, and sharp eyes that missed nothing.
She made a check mark on her clipboard. “Well, there’s definitely more houses here in Dog Valley, but I have to admit, this is probably the nicest one.
Now, we could go up several hundred thousand dollars, and there are two or three homes here that are real showpieces. ”
Adam shook his head yet again, starting to feel a bit robotic “I can’t imagine I’m going to need more house than this.” He swept his arms wide. “This is too big.”
She frowned and tilted her head. “It is everything you wanted, though. Big garage, front office, roomy spaces. You wanted mountains combined with contemporary charm. This is it.”
“Yes,” he said. “I did like the first house we looked at as well.”
She looked back at her list. “That one seemed very ‘neighborhoody’ for you.”
“Yes,” he agreed. The neighbors were quite close, and he didn’t mind, but he also wanted to have plenty of parking for when the Young brothers came for their meetings, and Adam really enjoyed his privacy.
He wanted to sit on a back deck and sip coffee in his boxer shorts if he wanted to, and put in a hot tub that he sat in all winter long—and maybe he wouldn’t wear a swimming suit at all.
He grinned at his scandalous thoughts, and then smiled at Diane too. “I think this is it.”
“You want to put an offer in on this place?” she asked. “Now they’ve got it priced….” She flipped a page. “It’s actually really reasonable—right at market value. I’m not sure I could get them down anymore, though it has been empty for three months.”
Adam put his palm over her clipboard. “Diane, all cash. I want to move in as fast as possible.”
She blinked at him, surprised. “You don’t want to wait for an inspection even?”
“How long will an inspection take?” he asked. The window above the sink rattled, and both Adam and Diane looked at it. Yes, a storm had blown into town. He’d known it was coming as they’d been out and about, and he’d watched the sky darken and foam with every passing minute.
“I can usually get an inspector to come the very next day,” she said. “I could probably have someone here tomorrow. I don’t think you should buy a house without an inspection. Things can look really good on this side of the walls.”
“Okay,” he said. “I still want to put in an all-cash offer so I can move in as fast as possible. So if that means we speed along some aspects, then that’s what it means.”
“Well, they’re not living here,” she said. “So I can’t imagine that they’ll care when you move in. And you won’t need a bank loan, so as soon as we can get things underwritten, you should be done.”
“How long, do you think?” he asked.
Diane sighed and shook her head. “It’s impossible to know, Adam. Some people aren’t as motivated to get deals done, but I’d like to say…two weeks.”
“Two weeks,” Adam said, his impatience already rearing inside him. “I suppose I can wait two weeks.”
“I’ll get the offer in,” she said. “Right at asking….” She glanced at him, her eyebrows raised.
“Do you think that they would be more motivated to take an all-cash offer?” he asked. “Perhaps we could go lower because it’s cash.”
“Let me text Jonathan,” she said, turning half away from him to do that, and Adam turned to survey the house again.
It had beautiful bones and a pretty face, and Adam could already feel it seeping into his soul.
He wasn’t sure what that meant, because he’d made very few decisions with his heart in the past. He did trust his feelings, and he’d followed his gut a lot.
He once again thought of dinner with Joey’s grandparents.
He wasn’t sure why that single experience had made such an impact on him, but it felt tattooed in his heart.
Adam had not given much thought to prayer or religion or church in a great many years, though his mother was devout and attended services every week.
He’d been brought up reading the Bible and serving others, but he’d given all that up the moment he’d left home.
A yawning, yearning hole opened up inside him, and Adam had no idea what it meant. He wouldn’t know the first thing about going to church, and yet, something inside him pointed him in that direction.
“Jonathan thinks we can knock fifteen thousand dollars off if we go in with all cash,” Diane said, and Adam turned away from his thoughts, glad for the distraction.
“Let’s do it, then,” he said. “I don’t want to be moving while it’s snowing.”