(There are some great descriptions of this house in other stories but I decided to do some of my own home improvements.)
…
Marissa turned right at the junction of Crescent and Park.
"There it is!" exclaimed AJ practically bouncing in his seat.
Marissa drove up the short gravel drive for the first view of their new home. It was a tall, white colonial style house. It was beautiful. It was also huge. Obviously not as large as the Chandler mansion, but still for only two of them, it was huge!
Marissa parked the car in front of the house and glanced into the trunk of the car at the couple of suitcases and half dozen cardboard boxes they had brought with them; it probably wouldn't even fill one of the bathrooms. Scott was coming with a van later with the rest of their stuff but even then the two of them would probably be rattling around the place.
AJ was already unbuckling his seat belt.
"Come on mom!" he cried, "I'll give you a tour. I really want to see my room!"
"Okay." said Marissa grinning at her son's excitement, "We'll unpack after we've explored."
Marissa stepped out of the car and looked up once more at the tall columned porch, she was beginning to feel a little of AJ excitement at the chance to explore their new home.
…
Marissa unlocked the door with the key left to her by the architect. Apparently she and Bianca had organised a few improvements to the house before moving in. The builders had finished last month but the house still smelt of paint and new carpet. It was also now fully furnished, everything was new and untouched.
"This is the hall." explained AJ.
Marissa nodded,
"I think the staircase kind of gave that away." she said.
The hall floor was a dusty pink marble tile and the left side of the room was dominated by a wide sweeping staircase up to the next floor.
AJ's feet pattered across the tiles as he ran to two doors just right of the entrance.
"This is the mud room," he said pushing open the first door, "For coats and shoes and wellies and stuff."
He them pushed open the next door.
"And this is a washroom." said AJ, "It's green so Gabby wanted to make it the frog room."
Marissa followed her son, peering in through the doors. When she got to the washroom all she could think was, 'I was right - all my boxes wouldn't fill this space.'
AJ pushed open another door to the right of the hall and disappeared through it. Marissa quickly followed him.
"This should have been your bedroom." he explained, still in tour guide mode "But you and Bianca wanted to be near to us upstairs so it's now the nanny flat."
Marissa smiled, 'Of course, we'd have a nanny flat.'
AJ had already disappeared down the corridor through the door at the end, but Marissa pushed open the door on her left. It was another bathroom. It still had the twin wash basins from its time as part of the master bedroom suite.
Marissa found AJ laying on the sofa in a small lounge at the end of the corridor. The room had large French windows which looked out over the drive, so in theory the nanny had her own entrance. There was a small kitchen/diner up one end of the room and another door led to a cosy bedroom.
"That used to be the closet." said AJ helpfully, as he poked his head through the door.
"It's a nice flat." said Marissa.
"Well she's a nice nanny!" said AJ matter-of-factly. "Do you want to see our part of the house now!"
"Sure." said Marissa keen to discover all the wonderful things AJ had been telling her about on the drive over.
…
They walked back across the tiled floor to the large door at the opposite side of the hall.
"This is the parlour." said AJ, leading Marissa into a room dominated two large French windows on opposite walls, one facing out towards the drive, and the other leading out to the swimming pool. The room was also home to a large fireplace and two huge leather sofas which almost challenged Kendall's couch in size.
"Very nice." said Marissa.
"But that's not the best bit!" said AJ
AJ led her to another door beside the fireplace deceptively disguised as part of the panelling. This led through into a smaller room with couches and a large television cabinet, and bookcases lining to walls.
"This is the den." said AJ, once more launching himself onto the couch. "Our own secret place."
Okay this was more like it, thought Marissa. She could imagine herself here with Bianca and the kids, watching movies, playing game; this felt more like home than the large impersonal parlour.
As they headed back to the hall Marissa began to get a better understanding of the architecture of this house. The two wings that made the house look so huge from the front where only one room deep. The right wing held the nanny flat and the left wing contained the Lounge and the den. The rest of the house must be beyond the broad staircase in the hall.
There was indeed another doorway to the right of the stairs which led to large panelled room which was home to a formal dining table, and two gorgeous antique dressers.
"This used to be the Great Room." said AJ, "There was a skylight and it went right up to the roof and I'm sure it used to be bigger."
"We had a new floor put in?" asked Marissa.
"I think it's your bedroom up there now." said AJ a thoughtful look on his face as he struggled to remember. "You kept on saying the room was too big and a waste of space."
Marissa went to glance out of the window, this time the room looked out across the pool towards a sweet white panelled pool house at the far end. When Marissa turned back AJ was disappearing through another door.
"Boring." he said and then he carried on through an archway leading to the kitchen. Marissa peered into the room AJ had just dismissed. It turned out to be a well-appointed office, complete with an antique mahogany partner's desk and another large window with a fabulous view of the gardens.
Marissa guessed she and Bianca had planned to spend a lot of time working together in this room. Now it seemed such a shame. An office like this was wasted on a hotel waitress.
"Mom!" AJ's voice came hollering through the quiet house.
Marissa left the office and followed her son's call through into the large kitchen. It was obviously a kitchen intended for someone who loved to cook. There was a family friendly dining area in one corner of the room, a large gas burner stove and a massive fridge-freezer. Marissa really hoped that Bianca was the cook this room was intended for because nowadays she could barely remember how to boil an egg.
"You yelled." said Marissa when she caught up with AJ by the back door.
"I want to show you the garden, it's A-Maz-Ing." He said taking her by the hand.
They stared with the pool with AJ telling her why this one was so much better than the one at the mansion. Marissa assumed this was largely due to the slide at the top end of the pool. Marissa also had a peak at the pool house; it was a house in its own right with the same lounge with kitchen/diner set up as the nanny flat. There were two large double bedrooms, a wash room and the most amazing shower room Marissa had ever seen.
Marissa could have spent longer poking around but AJ was getting impatient.
"I want to show you the play park." he said tugging on her arm.
AJ led her across the lawn to the foot of the garden. There was a swing-set, a climbing frame and a slide and just beyond was a tree house; everything a child could hope for.
"Is that your run away refuge?" asked Marissa.
AJ looked suddenly guilty,
"Yeah." he said quietly.
"Well I think you were very brave to stay here all by yourself in the dark..."
AJ stood a little straighter at the compliment.
"…Foolish," added Marissa, "But still very brave."
"Do you want to see?" asked AJ hurrying towards the ladder.
"Sure." said Marissa, an indulgent smile on her face.
At the top of the ladder Marissa found a cosy little room. It smelt a little musty but that was because of two very rotten apples still sitting amongst a pile of candy wrappers. The last mementoes of AJ's two days as a runaway.
…
When she climbed back down the ladder Marissa glanced at her watch. They had been exploring for almost an hour and they hadn't even started looking at the upstairs rooms. Scott was due at five with the rest of their stuff and Marissa still had no idea where to put it.
They came back into the house and then climbed the stairs to the first floor. Clearly the bedrooms originally just took up the first floor of the two wings on either side of the hall, the rest of the space taken up by the Great room. There was a passage shooting off left and right from either side of the landing. The new addition which was to be Marissa and Bianca's bedroom suite, must be behind the large door with the high pediment which dominated the middle of the top landing. Before Marissa could really get her bearings, AJ hurried down the left hand corridor into the furthest of two doors. Slowly she followed him, pausing only to glance in the first room which turned out to be a family sized bathroom.
AJ had clearly found his bedroom. Marissa found him lying back on the soccer pitch quilt that covered the bed. The room wasn't quite as yellow as the picture he had shown her at the hospital but it was still very bright. The yellow was contrasted by royal blues, reds and greens. It wasn't subtle but AJ seemed very pleased with it. The bedroom also had a huge closet, which had been partly converted into a playroom.
"Very nice." said Marissa, after a quick inspection.
"Yeah." agreed AJ proudly, "I get my very own wing. Miranda and Gabby are on the other side, come and see."
AJ grabbed her hand and pulled her across the landing to the right side of the house. The first room was unexpectedly plain. The furniture was all pale oak and the colour scheme a muted forest green. What made the room special was the large mural that covered one wall showing a farmyard full of animals.
"This is Gabby's room," said AJ, before pushing through the door in the murals wall, "This is the bathroom," he walked across to an opposite door as Marissa followed, "And this is Miranda's room."
The far bedroom was fit for a princess; pink walls, white furniture and a beautiful brass four-poster bed. There was a closet at the far end but it was much smaller than AJ's.
"They let you have the biggest room." said Marissa, "You're very lucky."
"I am." said AJ, "but I do have to share the playroom with Gabby and Miranda."
Marissa looked around the room, she could imagine Miranda in this room, just as she could imagine Gabby in the smaller room. Everything was just so perfect.
"Do you want to see your room now?" AJ asked after a moment.
"Sure." said Marissa; her stomach was doing little somersaults at the thought of the room she was to share with Bianca.
Marissa step through the door into the most beautiful room imaginable. The whole room was lit by a large domed skylight, and just below was a huge bed, super king sized, or maybe even super-duper king sized if there was such a thing.
"Wow." gasped AJ.
Marissa could only nod, unable to speak. She was too busy trying to get her head around the size of the bed.
AJ was already off exploring. He opened a door on the right.
"Closet!" He cried and then moved to the one opposite. "Bathroom… oh wow."
Curiosity at AJs exclamation drew Marissa out a daydream of her and Bianca in the bed, lying out under the stars... She walked into the bathroom and gasped a 'wow' of her own. There were the usual bathroom accoutrements, all well-appointed and beautifully fitted but the room was dominated by an enormous Victorian roll-top bath standing solitary on its own little platform at the far end of the room.
"That's a big bath." said AJ
"Yes it is." agreed Marissa, daydreams of her and Bianca swept over her again.
"You could have one serious game of battle ships in that tub!" added AJ unexpectedly.
Marissa held back a laugh, her thoughts suddenly grounded once more.
"You could indeed." she said, putting a hand on her son's shoulder.
"Do you like the house?" AJ asked.
"I love it." said Marissa, "So what do you say about us starting to unpack?"
"Sure." said AJ.
…
Marissa handed AJ one of the wheeled suitcases from the back of the car and picked up one of the boxes.
Marissa looked from the boxes in her trunk and the big house and suddenly an unsettled feeling descended on her once more. Following AJ into the hall the house felt suddenly like it wasn't ready for them yet. Like there was something missing.
AJ turned back to his mom. Marissa noticed there was apprehension on his face as well.
"Do you think it's alright to live here?" he asked.
"What? Why?" questioned Marissa.
"Because it doesn't feel very fair to Miranda and Gabby to be here without them. We should all be here not just you and me."
Marissa smiled. Clearly AJ was feeling it too. This house wasn't complete unless they were all here together making it their home, it was still waiting for Bianca and her girls. But what could they do, they had to live somewhere and it was here or the yacht club.
Then a new possibility struck her.
"AJ," Marissa asked, "How would you feel if we didn't move into this house?"
"But where will we go?" asked AJ.
"Well, I was thinking that the pool house would do us both very nicely. It is plenty big enough for the two of us. That way we can leave this beautiful house as we found it, waiting to become a home for all of us; waiting until we can all be together again."
…