Chapter 10
The next few months were crazy. Our house closed six days after we signed the property offer. Construction on the kitchen immediately after possession. Ranger used his contractor to install the security fence around the perimeter of the property. I cried when he covered the cost of materials and installation. He called it our housewarming gift from him.
Manny, Junior, and Cal designed and created our kitchen. I had no idea my Merry Men were so talented. We told them what we wanted and let them plan the details. When we attempted to pay for materials and their labour, they claimed it as their housewarming gift.
"Nobody will let me pay for anything," I complained to Diesel.
"They love you, Sunshine," he reminded me.
"It's too much, but our kitchen looks beautiful. Did you know Hector, Tank and Lester paid for the cameras and computers?" I asked him.
"They may have mentioned something to me. At least the men let me pay for the basement renovations," Diesel added. Hal, Zip, Zero, Bobby, Vince, Ram and Diesel worked in the basement to create a gym.
"You may have paid for the renovations to create the gym, but the guys paid for the equipment," I reminded him.
"We paid for the addition on the back," he said to remind me of the current construction project. It's Saturday, so our construction crew was home spending time with their families.
"I'm amazed they let us," I joked. "How many bedrooms are we adding?"
Diesel grabbed the plans to show me the layout. We were adding three bedrooms upstairs, three on the main floor and a large entertainment room in the basement. The master bedroom was a little too small for us. I want to combine our bedroom with the one across the hall. It would add another fifteen feet to the width of our room.
Grabbing a pencil, I sketched in lines joining the two rooms. "Could we do this? If we're already adding extra bedrooms, can we make our room larger?"
"They haven't constructed the interior walls between these two rooms yet. We could make this our master bedroom," Diesel suggested. It would push the master bedroom to the back of the house. I wasn't comfortable being that far away from the other rooms.
"If we do this, we could have our bedroom in the middle of the house. Then if we have children, we're not too far away from them," I countered.
"Okay, Sunshine, you win. Manny and Cal can help me with the repairs," Diesel stated.
"What are we doing, wifey?" Manny asked.
I showed him the plans I modified. "Remove these two walls between the doorway and the front of the house. If we build a new wall starting at the door opening on each side, we can add a new doorway in the middle," I described what I wanted to accomplish.
"Since we're building the wall at the doorway, do you want us to keep this smaller room as a walk-in closet?" Cal suggested.
Tapping my finger on my chin, I thought about what he was showing me. Diesel raised an eyebrow when I looked at him. It would give us more than enough room for our clothes. "I understand what you're saying. If we make this into a walk-in closet, I want the opening to be larger. Then we could remove these walls from the smaller walk-in closet in the master bedroom to extend our room and increase the ensuite washroom size," I thought out loud.
Manny took a red pen to mark the drawing. He outlined everything I suggested. "This would work, wifey. It's the least amount of work, but it gives you the best options. We could make a custom door for your closet unless you want it open," Manny stated.
"Leave it open," Diesel stated. His large arms wrapped around me. I felt him kiss the spot behind my ear. He whispered into my ear, "I have to leave for a few months." I nodded, letting him know I heard. "No time for a proper goodbye."
I turned around in his arms. He kissed me until my toes started smoking. The pop noise indicated he left. "Where did he go?" Manny asked.
"With my bra," I replied as I laughed. "Off to save the world."
"Did he seriously take your bra, wifey?"
"Yup," I answered. "If you'll excuse me for a minute, I need to find another one."
After I replaced my missing bra, we discussed the renovations I added to the project. Cal and Manny had a few days off, so they started on the demolition immediately. They reluctantly let me use the sledgehammer to smash the wall between my bedroom and the hallway.
We used a Sawzall to make the doorway across the hallway wider. Instead of a three-foot opening, it was now six feet, leaving a six-foot wall between the wider entrance and the front of the house. "This walk-in closet wasn't part of the original construction," Cal yelled from my bedroom.
"How do you know?" I asked as I entered my room.
"The stamp on the wood is from a few years ago. They created the larger closet when the master bathroom got renovated," Cal explained.
"Barney Quinn said they renovated the washroom last year. He didn't mention the closet," I stated. "Why didn't he say something?" I wondered.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he replied.
As Cal pulled on the bottom of the wall frame, the hardwood floorboard lifted. I waited for Cal to finish detaching the base so I could see what was under the floor. Inside the space was a small wooden box hidden. When I removed the lid, I smiled. I reached into my back pocket for my phone.
"Hi, Baby granddaughter," grandma Mazur answered.
"Hey, grandma. Guess where I am right now?" I asked.
I heard grandma move her false teeth around her mouth before she replied, "In my childhood home."
"You got it. Can you come over?" I asked.
"Sure. I'll have Frank give me a lift," she replied. I wondered why she didn't want mom to drive her, but I wasn't going to ask.
Cal's face paled when he heard me invite grandma Mazur to the house. "Please tell me you didn't invite your grandma," Cal begged.
"Sorry, I can't," I said. "This was my grandma's childhood home."
"You're joking, right?" Cal asked.
"Nope. See for yourself," I replied as I gave him the box.
He gently lifted the lid and smiled. "Your grandma will be happy," Cal replied.
"I know," I agreed.
"Woah, grandma," I heard Lester shout from the main floor. Grandma must have grabbed his package. His voice sounded a little high-pitched.
"Stephanie's upstairs in the master bedroom," Hal stated before he squawked from grandma pinching his ass.
"Grandma, stop pinching their asses and grabbing their packages," I shouted from upstairs. "Hi, Daddy. Come upstairs."
I heard Dad say, "After you, Edna." He must have issues with her pinching his ass too.
"What do you have for me?" Grandma asked. I passed her the box. She was grinning as she removed the lid. "Where ever did you find it?"
"Under the floorboard where Cal is standing," I replied. Grandma cried as she lifted the scroll wrapped in a gold necklace from the box. The chain had the Baros family crest stamped on a charm.
"I thought they lost it," grandma mumbled as she unwound the chain from the scroll. The end of the necklace tucked into the bottom of the scroll had an old safe key attached.
"Diesel and I renovated most of the house. Where's the safe?" I asked. I was trying to recall if we found any old-fashioned safes built into the walls or floors. Nothing came to mind.
Grandma grabbed my hand to drag me across the hall to the smallest bedroom. "This was my room," she announced. "There used to be an attic hatch in the closet. It opened to an area above this room. You could only access it from here."
Manny grabbed the ladder to knock on the ceiling. We heard a hollow noise near the front corner of the closet. Cal passed Manny a hammer to break through the drywall. Behind the patch was the hatch for the attic space. Manny opened the hatch and peeked into the dark area. Cal pressed a flashlight into his hand.
"There's a safe up here," he announced. "We need someone lighter to open it. It appears to be attached to the joists across the space."
"Let me try," I said as I grabbed the key from grandma. Cal strapped a flashlight headband across my forehead and turned on the light. I climbed into the space and carefully crawled across the joists. When I opened the safe, I found it full of jewelry and cash. I tucked my shirt into my pants and shoved everything into my top.
Grandma was getting antsy from waiting. I could hear her grumbling in the room below us, willing me to hurry. I peeked through the opening. Manny was standing on the ladder smiling. "Did you find hidden treasure?" he joked as I descended the ladder.
"I did," I replied as I opened my top to show him.
"That's a mighty fine treasure, wifey," Manny said as he looked into my top. Grandma cackled from our banter. Reaching into my shirt, I removed the jewelry and cash.
I ordered Pino's subs and pizzas for dinner. Manny left to grab the food while Cal ran out for the beer. They returned within 30 minutes.
We counted just over 200,000 in cash. With the jewelry, we figured grandma has over a million dollars. "I want to auction the jewelry," Grandma announced as we ate dinner.
"All of it?" I asked. There was a gorgeous blue diamond ring among the jewelry. I would be willing to pay grandma the fair market value for it. I've never seen such a stunning ring before. "Where did great-grandpa get this ring?" I asked grandma.
"It belonged to his mother," Grandma replied. I wanted the ring, but I didn't say anything to grandma. She deserves to make money off the sale.
Manny saw my expression as I looked at the ring. He knew I wanted the ring to keep as an heirloom. Cal and Manny exchanged a look. I rolled my eyes at their silent communication.
Grandma was watching me closely. She could see I wanted the ring. I need to work harder to control my facial expressions. Maybe my Merry Men can teach me the blank face.
Dad got ready to leave soon after we ate dinner. Mom called and demanded dad to bring grandma home. "Thank you for coming over tonight, Dad," I said as I hugged him.
"Cal said you need some help watching the workers," Dad said as we waited for grandma to put on her shoes.
"We could use some help. The guys take turns, but we have a few new workers to train to start on Monday," I confessed.
"I'll come over at 0700 Monday. See you later, Pumpkin."
"See you later, Dad, Grandma," I said as I waved from the front door.
Manny and Cal finished tearing out the walls before quitting for the night. They stayed in the guest room, insisting on keeping me company in the house. With part of the back open, they wanted to make sure I was safe.
On Saturday, Manny and Cal worked to install the wall to enclose my new master suite. I love how big my bedroom became with the changes. We worked together to get everything finished.
Lester and Hal joined us on Sunday to install the new hardwood floors throughout the upper level. Cal placed the flooring order when Diesel and I decided to renovate our bedroom. "Thank you, guys. The floors look amazing."
"It's our pleasure, Beautiful. You know we'll do anything for you," Lester stated.
"I owe you guys so much," I said as tears entered my eyes. My emotions seem to be a little too close to the surface lately.
Cal and Manny said goodnight before retiring to my guest rooms. Lester pulled me towards my kitchen to talk. "Beautiful, what's going on?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. Seeing my great-grandma's ring Friday night made me realize how lucky I am to be living in her home," I answered.
"You want the ring," he stated.
"Yes, I really do. It's so beautiful. Do you know I look exactly like my great-grandma Baros?" I asked. He shook his head no. I used my phone to retrieve the black and white photos grandma sent to me yesterday.
He took a close look at the pictures, then at me. Lester flipped through a few more photos before returning to the first one. "You're right. You look just like her. She's beautiful," Lester said. "I bet she had a rebellious streak too."
"According to grandma, she would let loose once in a while. It got worse after great-grandpa passed away," I shared.
Lester laughed, "Like mother, like daughter."
"Yup. I hope Diesel knows what he got himself into," I joked.
"Beautiful, you were never repressed as much as your ancestors. I doubt you'd be more adventurous than you are now."
"Thanks, Les. I needed to hear that. When Diesel and I get married, we'll be related," I reminded him.
"You want to marry Diesel?" he asked, making sure he heard me correctly.
"Yes," I confessed. If Diesel asked me to marry him today, I would say yes.
My Merry Men friends took turns watching the construction crew. They wanted to make sure they completed the work on schedule. Having dad around every day would ease some of their responsibilities.