Construction budgeting can be as much art as science. Theoretically, it shouldn't be too hard to guess how much lumber, nails and labor would cost. It isn't that hard to chart out and organize the work either. It was not rocket science.
However, when constructing a home for your family, the people who love above all others, emotion can get in the way. The pressure to complete a nursery room on schedule becomes keener when you literally have to get it done before the babies arrive from the hospital.
Couple dynamics can also play a part. As any construction foreman can tell you, getting two bosses who disagree and give opposing orders is hardly going to get work done fast.
And when one changes plans without telling the other….
"JAAAMES!"
Yeah. It gets bad.
"Honey, please keep calm. Its alright. I got all figured out."
Counting to ten and remembering to breath, Anne Possible forced herself to keep her voice sweet and even as she…discussed her displeasure with her husband.
"James, remember our little talk about how we were going to buy that nice house in Middleton with a yard big enough to launch toy rockets from? Remember how decided that it was the best we could afford?"
Anne thought there was a reason why James wanted her to stay another week in the hospital. But even under Samantha's care, another week at the hospital was becoming an ordeal.
There was such as thing as getting too much bed rest and with her leave filed, there wasn't anything for her to do but nurse the twins and stare at the walls.
She needed to do something or go crazy.
Apparently that something was going to be trying to salvage her family's finances.
When her husband asked her to close her eyes for a surprise, she thought it was going to be Kimmie with large welcome sign to greet her and the babies back from the hospital.
Instead, she opened her eyes in front of unfamiliar grounds and her husband's surprise declaration that this site was where new Possible home was going to be.
Great, not only did James overspend, he overspent on property without a house ready to move into!
"There's been a change of plans I'm afraid."
Anne spun towards the voice and was surprised to see Nana there, Kimmie hiding behind her grandmother while keeping a death grip on the older woman's skirt.
Anne felt a small burr of jealousy at the sight, Kimmie should have leapt towards her, arms full of the twins or not.
"I know its sudden but there a great deal recently came up. Had to move fast to buy it. Quite a steal if you ask me."
"But Nana, we can't afford this place!"
"Actually, we, can. Quite easily actually. I've managed to save quite a tidy sum."
Anne blinked at that statement. "But…but…"
"You'll see its for the best really. Can't have an old woman like me living alone all by herself now can we?"
Anne gave an unladylike snort. Nana needing help was preposterous. The old woman was healthier than most people half her age.
"Please mama, can Nana stay with us?"
Anne made the mistake of looking down at Kimmie and straight into a Puppy Dog Pout.
Whatever objections Anne may have had died before the power of the pout.
"Of course she can stay Kimmie. Its just that….its all so surprising to me. That's all."
Kimmie's delighted squeal almost made up for the morning she was having. Practical questions like where they would live while construction was ongoing or how to accommodate her mother-in-law were issues to deal with later.
Right now, she was going to have a long…talk with her husband about making decisions like this without telling her first.
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Construction is organized chaos. Anyone telling you differently either never worked in construction or is lying about it.
The bigger the project, the bigger the mess. The bigger the mess, the harder it was to spot the small details. A nail here, a loose wire there, an entire ton of reinforced girders every now and then.
Really, it was easy to lose track of these things when you work in construction.
Sometimes things get lost even without appearing first. Like an entire roll of high tension power lines or cargo loads of cement can fall of the books.
Some would call this theft, some have too much time on their hands and too little imagination.
A project like a Smarty Mart branch could easily be worth $10 million. Even a small slice of that pie was worth a lot.
It may be a retail giant with cheap bargains built into the brand name but it boasted all the amenities of a mall AND carried inventory variety and volume like no one else.
You could easily build a Smarty Mart with materials you could buy in a Smarty Mart.
And that's where the magic happened. Inventory for stockpiling and construction usage was tricky to check. Who could really say what went where and how things got billed?
A friend in accounting and a word with the engineers was all that was needed to make sure that name brand prices were being applied to bargain basement materials.
And the beauty of it all was, any investigation was going to lead straight back to Smarty Mart. Exposing them would cost Smarty Mart more in terms of prestige than the crew could take in dollars if it went to the courts.
It was a golden opportunity and as long as everybody got a slice and kept it quiet, things were great.
Course, the trouble with working with a bunch of crooks was they were all greedy, conniving sorts that would find any way to cheat the system.
Like you.
Jack Hench. Businessman. Visionary and right this moment, a den mother a bunch of petty miscreants who couldn't stop whining long enough for the headache to go away.
"Let me get this straight. There's now an incident report about a brawl and several hundred dollars worth of damages because you idiots think someone stole a bueno nacho meal?!"
The ensuing silence was damning and once again Jack wondered why he bothered with petty stuff like this. Sure the money was good but was it really worth the aggravation?
A quick pat to check his fat wallet told him the answer: Yes it was.
"But boss, I ordered a bueno nacho supreme with extra cheese and…"
"I. DON'T. CARE!"
The trick with dealing with minions was always making sure authority was never in questions. Being a good boss was more than just making sure everyone did their job and had a cut, it was of vital importance that the help don't realize just how delicate your situation with them really is.
It wasn't just that if it came to a fight, Jack Hench wouldn't last 2 second against them.
But as a boss, they needed him to be their brains. Cause honestly, if they had brains, they wouldn't be his minions.
His health care coverage was lousy and didn't have dental for one.
Being criminals meant that reporting a crime would attract the attention of the law, and the law was never a good thing to have around unless you bought it off first.
It hurt the bottom line either way.
"We are sitting pretty on a good thing here and all I'm asking in return is to keep your noses clean and don't attract attention!"
Jack pointed to a singled out pair. "Because of you two, we're going to have to cut things short and break up the gang. I hope you two are happy."
The angry growl and grumbling that emerged told Jack that the situation would soon solve itself as he left the staff room.
10 to 1, those two would have an "accident" and wouldn't be showing up to work tomorrow.
If they went to the cops, well, he and the gang would be long gone before charges could be pressed.
While the lost profits were regrettable, making sure nothing led back to him was more important than squeezing every last cent out of the Smarty Mart Job.
A clean record was a priceless commodity when you were a "businessman".
Sighing and thankful that he still had time to eat lunch before the next shift, Jack sat down his usual spot out back near the bulk receivables bay and dreamed of making it to the big time one day.
Owning his own company, having a great big office with view a nice suit while people threw money at him for the things only he could get.
No more scrimping and saving, no more having to pretend he was important and no more cheap sandwiches….
Wait…where was his sandwich?!
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Cheddar cheese and soggy cucumbers. Ugh.
Some people have no taste.
Ron gave the sandwich disappointed look before pocketing it.
He hadn't been exploring the lair for long before he stumbled upon a nest of conspiracies in the bad guy's lair.
It shouldn't have surprised him really but he was still new to the whole crime fighting thing.
Being as silent as the shadow and swift as the night like the Fearless Ferret had led to Ron learning all sorts of interesting things.
He knew a bit about Hench's ploys (there were more than one). He knew that Grace from sales was cheating (with what test, Ron didn't know but it sounded serious) and he knew that he could fit into most vents.
And he knew that vents went everywhere in a lair.
What he didn't know was where his mom and dad were.
And where did Rufus go?
Shaking his head and deciding to focus on problems he could solve for now, Ron crawled back into Den # 3 and fired up a Grandma Crocker Bake Oven play kit he managed to steal from the bad guys and tried to salvage the sandwich.
A quick toasting, application of wild honey dollops and some spiced basil and mayo made it better but without cinnamon, there was only so much he could do.
Now Ron was a good boy and good boys don't steal but he didn't see any other alternative. He didn't have money and as long as he stole only from the bad guys, Ron figured it was alright.
He was slowly building his base of operations day by day. Taking things only when he was sure he wasn't seen was a fun game but the real prize was going to be finding out where his mom and dad where.
That meant information.
And information was kept in computers.
Smacking his lips, Ron cleaned up Den # 3 as best he could and slid back into the vent system, ready to pounce the moment it was right.
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"And that is how you make a lemon square."
Kim Possible looked at the lemon square in Nana's hand and then at the…lemon square?...in hers.
It was…somewhat square shaped.
Probably tasted like a lemon square too. Maybe. Kinda. Maybe if you took small bites and drowned out the taste with a lot of tea?
"Ewww!"
No, it did NOT taste like a lemon square! It didn't even taste like food at all!
How could she do everything that Nana did and still make something that tasted so terrible!?
"Hmmm….perhaps we should have started out with a simpler recipe. I know just the thing, a little buttermilk tart that was your Uncle Slim's favorite…"
"Nana, I don't think cooking is my special gift!" Kim said with a pout. Her face was streaked with flour and she looked extra cute wearing an oversized apron and chef's hat.
Nana insisted that she had to wear proper attire whenever possible. Looking cute for her grandmother was just a happy coincidence.
"Kimberly Ann, how could you say that! We've only just begun. I certainly never would have learned how to make delicious lemon squares if I didn't practice, practice, practice!"
While smiling encouragingly, Nana felt she was fighting a loosing battle. Kimberly Ann's spirits needed raising and by golly she was going to do it!
First order of business was correcting her perceived flaws.
She had managed to get the story out of Kimberly, probably not the whole story mind, but enough to paint a rather nasty picture of her time in the Rockwaller Institute for the Gifted and General Educational Disciplines.
Damn her son and daughter-in-law for not being able to see the gilt for the rot beneath.
Being a pariah was never fun, and quite damaging to the spirits of a child.
It was vitally important that Kimberly's pride be buttressed if she was ever going to grow up and be a proper lady. A steely core and inner fire was key to Kimberly's character after all.
"Did I hear someone say buttermilk tarts?" A tall, muscle bound man with a handle mustache came in and surveyed his kitchen. While his ranch style home certainly didn't need to feed a mess of cowpokes, it certainly could if it had to. A big kitchen was important to man with an appetite like his.
If his wife didn't cook up a storm for him all the time he'd probably end up looking like a scrawny teen again.
"Unca Slim!" Kim leapt off the stool and embraced her uncle, getting lifted and twirled into the air.
"Watcha got there little missy?"
"It's a…lemon square….but it don't taste too good." If Kim's pout could have its cuteness measure, it would have been over the legal limit.
"Shucks, little missy, it looks better than my own cooking at any rate. Here, let me have a bite." Slim smiled, opened his mouth wide and completely missed his mother furiously shaking her head beyond Kim's vision.
As Kim jammed it in, Slim got a conundrum.
It was AWFUL!
He could spit it out, but he'd hurt his niece's feelings. He could be a man and choke it down but that would mean eating….it. And while he was stuck deciding what to do, he had to TASTE it!
Eyes tearing up, he at last caught sight of Nana and the look in her eyes.
Well, no man could do anything less in the eyes of his mother so Slim found the gumption to chew and swallow while keeping his face pleasant.
Years of playing poker working in his favor.
"Not…not bad squirt. You should keep practicing and you'll be baking as great as Nana one day."
Kim giggled happily while his mother gave him a warm smile. He put her down, pat her head, and left right quick.
Slim had to go lay down somewhere. After throwing up in the bushes and getting something for his stomach. He'll deal with the horses some other time.
"Come on Kim, lets put these things away and them you can play with your cousin Joss."
"Ok Nana!"
Well, if nothing else, Kim certainly loved little Joss. The baby sister she didn't get but could help take care of was the most interesting thing on the Lazy C for Kim.
If only mommy and daddy could be here.
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