“It has some charm. It never snows, which I appreciated. The culture is different. I don’t know. I needed a change in scenery when I moved out there, and I was getting more clients on the West Coast, so LA seemed like a smart place to be. But I never quite acclimated, I guess.”
“I’ve actually only been on a plane once. Well, twice, since I went and came back. Family vacation to Disney World when I was ten. That’s the one and only time.”
That surprised Nolan. Grayson was young but seemed worldly. Nolan again had the sense that there was something ugly lurking in Grayson’s backstory, something that contradicted the happy-go-lucky facade Grayson put on most of the time. He figured Grayson would tell him when he was ready. No need to push now, even though Nolan was curious.
“I’ve actually never been to Disney World,” said Nolan. “Although Ricky and I used to go to Disneyland all the time. He loved roller coasters.”
“Me too. When I was a kid, we went out to Six Flags New England once a summer.”
“Cool.” Nolan closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them again, a smoking-hot guy who looked a little like Ricky went by. The man was jogging in just a pair of very tiny shorts.
“Hello,” said Grayson, his gaze following the man. “People watching here is the best.”
Nolan laughed. “All right. I’m ready to go back now.”
“Perfect.” Grayson leaned across the table and gave Nolan a kiss on the cheek. “Let’s go, babe.”
NOLAN DROVEthem out to the Cruz house in New Jersey to meet with the contractor. A camera crew trailed them just in case anything interesting happened.
A very handsome man wearing a navy-blue hoodie and a well-worn pair of jeans with a tool belt slung around his hips was standing out front, examining the house’s exterior, when Nolan pulled into the driveway. Grayson hopped out of the car. “Are you Mike?”
The man turned. “Yes, hello.”
“I’m Grayson, the cohost. That guy getting out of the car is Nolan.”
Grayson and Mike shook hands while they waited for Nolan to walk over. Nolan introduced himself as he and Mike shook hands.
“Yeah, I’ve seen you on TV.” Mike looked back at the house. “The exterior could use a coat of paint. It looks a little rough.”
“You think this is rough, wait until we get inside,” said Nolan.
The front door had a keypad lock, so Nolan punched in the code and let everyone inside.
“Uh,” said Mike. “This place has no walls.”
“Yeah,” Nolan said. “My understanding is that they started updating the plumbing and electricity and then discovered there was asbestos. So the good news is that this place has no more asbestos nor any pests, and allegedly the plumbing and electric are up to code.”
“I’ll double-check that,” said Mike.
“And the bad news,” said Nolan, “is that there aren’t any walls.”
Mike grimaced.
Grayson ended up leading the walk-through, because he seemed to have a better sense of the floor plan than Nolan did. Nolan struggled to visualize what the space could be; when he walked into the house, all he could see was a jumble of wood, not a series of rooms. Grayson had made copies of the floor plan, though, and he handed one to Mike now. Mike put it on his clipboard and pulled a pencil from his tool belt. He scribbled notes on it as they walked through the house.
“Are you taking any walls down?” Mike asked.
“This is a young couple who don’t really need a formal dining room,” said Nolan. “Here’s my thought. I think the front of the house should be one big open space. So….” He pointed to the floor plan Mike had on the clipboard. “We basically destroy the entryway and take down the walls on either side of the staircase. Then we also take down the wall between the dining room and the kitchen. As a result, we have a huge eat-in kitchen that flows right into the living room. Both Lara and Jason have big families, so this will give them plenty of space to have everyone over and have them all interacting together.”
Mike nodded and looked around the front of the house. “Well, the good news is that I can see right up to the roof because this house has no ceilings.” He looked up. “Okay. There are joists going this way.” He gestured. “That means the wall between the kitchen and dining room can come down, no sweat. Actually, it looks like the wall between the living room and the vestibule could come down too. But this wall between the vestibule and the kitchen is load-bearing. So either we get creative with your budget, or we have to keep at least part of it.”
Nolan nodded slowly. “Okay. I’ll think about that. Let’s go look at the bedrooms.”
Mike examined all the plumbing and poked at the electric. “This looks up to code, but I’d want to get a plumber and electrician in here to verify.”
“The only other wall I’ve thought about,” Nolan said when they were in the master bedroom, “is adding one about here, and creating a walk-in closet.” He traced what he was thinking with a finger on Mike’s floorplan.
“Sure. Like this?” Mike sketched a wall on the floorplan.
