THE GPStook them on a journey down a lot of short one-way streets, but they soon they found themselves in the parking lot rendezvous point. Helena was already there and ran up to the car before Nolan or Grayson had time to get out of it. “I sent a camera crew and my assistant to the house already. The situation is that this is a quasi-ambush. By that, I mean that the family knows they’ve been chosen for the show and that a TV production team is coming today to film. But they don’t know you guys are coming today too. What we’re hoping happens is that you surprise them, they’re excited, and everyone exchanges hugs. The wife is a fan of yours, Nolan.”
Grayson smiled at that. He was still a nobody, but of course the families who submitted tapes had done so hoping that Nolan Hamlin would be designing their home. Nolan was the expert they knew. Well, Grayson would just have to prove that he could do this job too, that he’d be an asset to the team.
“So we just barge in while filming is going on?” asked Nolan.
“Yep. The house is number 528, about a quarter mile down this road. You can’t miss it—the camera crews are parked out front.”
Two minutes later Nolan parked in front of a two-story Colonial deep in the New Jersey suburbs.
Before they got out of the car, Grayson turned the camera back on and said, “What do you think?”
Nolan looked at the house. “Not bad from the outside. A new coat of paint wouldn’t hurt it, but the shutters are cute and the roof looks like it’s in decent shape.”
“Shall we go in?”
Nolan smiled, which nearly knocked Grayson over. Nolan had a tremendous smile, though he hardly ever showed it. Grayson knew he was probably smiling because he knew he was on camera, not because of anything Grayson was doing, although Grayson would take the scraps. His desire to impress—and attract—Nolan was overwhelming sometimes.
“Let’s go,” said Nolan.
A cameraman followed them as they walked through the unlocked front door and tiptoed through a small foyer, down a narrow hallway, and into a very retro living room, where the Robertses were being filmed as they talked about their house. Nolan paused in the doorway, then turned around to Grayson and held a single finger to his lips. He listened to the Robertses—still oblivious to Nolan and Grayson’s presence—talk about the wood paneling in their den for a moment. Then Nolan stormed forward, so Grayson ran after him.
Thatgot the Robertses’ attention. Carol Roberts turned toward Nolan and her mouth fell open before she shrieked, ran toward him, and threw her arms around him.
So. Surprise, hug. Exactly what Helena was hoping for.
“You guys are here to help us!” said Carol.
“Yes!” said Nolan, his enthusiasm sounding genuine. “Let me introduce you to up-and-coming designer Grayson Woods.” Nolan put a hand in the middle of Grayson’s back and steered him forward. “We’re going to work together to make this your forever home.”
For what felt like the next three years but what was probably only ten minutes, Carol and George fell over themselves to thank Nolan for coming to help them. Grayson didn’t quite know what to do with his hands while he stood there, waiting for some direction for what to do next. Finally Nolan said, “Do you want to show us the house?”
Carol smiled, still looking a bit starstruck. “Well, my father passed away two years ago and left me this house.”
“Did you grow up here?” Nolan asked.
“No. Dad moved here after my mom died, when I was in my early twenties. But he got this place for a song, and when he passed, George and I decided that we should move in, since it’s paid for and bigger than where we were living. So we gave up our rental. But this place wasn’t quite ready for us—there’s a lot that doesn’t work.”
“Show us,” said Nolan.
So they spent the next half hour walking around the house with cameras trailing them as Carol and George took turns explaining what was wrong with the house. Grayson mentally cataloged everything, although the most offensive thing to him was that the design was so outdated. On top of the wood paneling and late-seventies color palette, most of the first floor was covered in hideous beige shag carpeting that had definitely seen better days.
When they got to the U-shaped kitchen, which wasn’t really big enough for the four of them and a camera crew to be in, Nolan stood in the middle for a long moment and said, “This really is a terrible layout.”
Grayson saw the aesthetics. The maple-colored cabinets and the ugly gray Formica countertop practically yelled that the space hadn’t been updated in many decades. The appliances looked old and dirty too.
“I’d want to reconfigure this whole layout,” Nolan said, obviously not as daunted as Grayson. “Take out a wall, maybe. I’d run the cabinets all along this wall into what is now the dining area and put a big island here with stools.”
“That sounds amazing,” said Carol.
Grayson mentally berated himself for not seeing that, of course—this kitchen was tiny and inefficiently laid out. They weren’t just here to update the house’s surface design. They had to actually make the space more functional.
And, well, considering the kitchen in Grayson’s apartment had about a single square foot of counter space shoved in a corner, Grayson didn’t have a ton of firsthand knowledge about how to make a kitchen functional. His roommates mostly used the oven to store pots and pans, which Grayson recognized was not a sign of people who cooked… ever.
Was he in over his head?
For the rest of the house tour, he mostly just went along with Nolan. When they finished, Nolan said, “Grayson and I are going to meet at our studio to hash this out. Then we’ll present you with a few design plans and we’ll take it from there. But before we do, we should talk numbers.”
They had a brief discussion on camera. The Robertses had a healthy budget, and with the extra money the network would be providing, Nolan and Grayson could do some pretty amazing things in the house. So that was good at least.
