“Well, after you then,” she said, waving him in ahead of her.
Aaron waltzed into quite possibly the narrowest foyer on the planet and was quick to cover his nose and mouth with his hand. “Oh my goodness, did something die in here?”
Bonnie followed him in, plugging her nose and stepping over the pile of newspapers on the floor. There was no room for her dad to come inside until she moved into the living room straight ahead. Things weren’t any prettier in there. The former tenants must have left in a hurry. That or they realized all their stuff was trash. A broken, ripped-up couch was in the living room, along with piles of garbage. Old soda cans, more newspapers and fast food wrappers were scattered all around, along with one of the reasons it smelled the way it did. “I don’t know about something dying, but I’m pretty sure the last people to live here had a dog that wasn’t potty trained. At least, I hope it was a dog and not something else.”
“I hope I can take this wall down,” Aaron said, running a hand across the floral wallpaper on the wall to his right. “What’s on the other side?”
Bonnie moved farther into the house. She peeked her head into the room Aaron was curious about. “I’m guessing it’s the dining room. There’s a hideous chandelier hanging in here.”
Walls would have to come down to give the place a true open concept. The kitchen was tiny, less than half the size of the dining room, and seemed like some kind of afterthought. It was as if the designer had realized they’d forgotten the kitchen and plopped it and a breakfast nook at the far end of the decent-size living room. Cabinets separated the two rooms instead of a wall. If she stood in front of the stove, she could look out into the living room. Bonnie hated everything about this layout.
“These guys really liked wallpaper,” Aaron noted as he joined her in the living room. “But I like the windows on either side of the fireplace.”
“Gives this room some good natural light,” her dad added. As if immune to the smell, he walked around like normal. He had his notebook out and a pencil behind his ear. He grabbed his pencil and started jotting down some notes. “We could take out all these walls and open this up. I would knock out this side of the kitchen and put in a large island.”
“Let’s check out the bedrooms.” Aaron’s excitement was as contagious as his smile. He took off for the other side of the house and came back shaking his head. “Master bath is way too small. And the fourth bedroom is the size of my walk-in closet. How terrible would it be if we got rid of the supersmall bedroom and made the master huge? Would people be happier with having three good-size bedrooms compared to four small bedrooms? Or is it more desirable to have more bedrooms regardless of size?”
Bonnie made a note on her phone. “I can run some comps in the area and compare the two. Generally, the more bedrooms you can list, the more you can ask, but if you give people three amazing bedrooms, the wow factor might pay off.”
Bonnie and her dad went back there to check it out. The bathroom and the closet each took up a corner of the far end of the bedroom, with a gap in between that served little purpose. There was a window there, looking out to the backyard, but it certainly didn’t add anything significant to the room.
“I think you could definitely knock down this wall, get rid of this little hallway going to the master and make all this a giant master suite. Blow out the wall of the bathroom, make that whole area back up to the closet en suite. We could even come this way into the room and make more space in the closet and bathroom if we’re going to add square footage on this end by adding the fourth bedroom and hall to the master.”
It was hard to picture what he was saying. Bonnie didn’t have the ability to envision changes the way her dad did, but Aaron was nodding along like he could see it all.
With one hand on his hip and the other covering his nose and mouth, Bonnie could see by the way the skin around his eyes crinkled that a grin was back on his face. “I want this house,” Aaron said.
How could he fall in love with this pigsty? What did he see that she didn’t?
“You should really have my dad look at things a bit more, let me check some of the comps in the area and run some numbers for you before you jump all in, Aaron. I know money is no object, but the point is to make a profit so you don’t have to spend your savings on the next house as well.”
“What do you think, David? Do you think we could handle this?”
“I think Bonnie’s right about looking at the numbers. I can do the work, but it’s going to cost a ton. We’d be gutting the place. Who knows what the electrical looks like. We should get a better look at that roof.”
Aaron seemed to hear something completely different than Bonnie did. “There you have it,” he said. “Your dad can help me with everything. This is the house I want. I don’t need to see any others. Its potential is huge, and I can’t wait to get my hands dirty to make it beautiful.” He strode confidently past Bonnie and her father into the living room.
Bonnie wasn’t sure why she hadn’t expected him to act like a typical Cole. Coles got what they wanted because they didn’t take no for an answer. They didn’t have to worry about being wasteful
