“Naughty? These two? No, never!” Matty continued playing with the dogs while I went into the kitchen to set our lunch out.
“Do you want to eat or take a tour of the house first, Matty?” I called to him.
“Eat, of course,” he answered, suddenly at the table ready to dig into his food.
“Eww, wash your hands, dude!” I practically yelled, not even jokingly, before he could touch his sandwich. “Do you know where those dogs’ mouths have been?” I started to lather up at the sink and Matty came up next to me to wash up, too.
“Still an obsessed clean freak, aren’t you?” he said as he bumped my hip to scooch me over. Memories of us in the same position but instead at the kitchen sink in my parent’s house flashed through my mind. As twelve-year-olds washing up before eating a snack after we had been riding our bikes around our neighborhood. During the spring break of seventh grade, when we had made a mess trying to tie-dye tee shirts. The summer between eighth and ninth grades when we wanted to earn spending money by helping my dad dig a garden for my mom. And all the times we would wash our hands before sitting down to dinner at my house.
“Being clean is my superpower,” I said, snapping out of my memories as we both finished washing up. “Now, what do you want to drink? I have water, milk, juice, pop.”
“Pop!” Matty exclaimed. “I haven’t heard it called that in years. Everyone in California says ‘soda.’ Makes it sound like they’re drinking Arm & Hammer.”
“Those Californian’s are just weird,” I said with mock seriousness. “We Midwesterner’s are right: it’s POP!”
“Yes, POP! Please, may I have a pop?”
After pouring our cola flavored pop into glasses filled with ice, we unwrapped our sandwiches and started eating. Matty inhaled his turkey club and was starting on his second bag of chips before I had even finished half of my ham and Swiss. We didn’t talk much as we ate, which was just as it had been when we were kids. There seemed to be an unwritten rule around food when we were together: just eat it and be done with it so we could get back to whatever we had been doing.
“Ready for the tour?” I asked when we had finished eating. I wasn’t able to eat my entire sandwich, so I wrapped up the remainder and put it into the refrigerator.
“Absolutely, I can’t wait to see this place,” he said, as I led him out of the kitchen and through the rest of the main floor, which featured a dining room, two room living areas (one casual with a television and one more formal, the latter of which I rarely used), and the sunroom at the back of the house. There was a sliding door leading to a sprawling deck; and I’d had a doggy door installed next to the doors. Since the back yard had a large fence around it that I kept locked, I felt safe with the opening as I wanted Sadie and Jack to be able to go outside whenever they wanted, regardless of if I was home or not.
The main floor also had a guest bathroom with toilet and pedestal sink. We ended up circling back around to the kitchen to grab our drinks before heading to tour the second floor.
“What’s behind that door?” Matty asked as I gestured towards the back entrance that led from the alleyway to the kitchen. He was pointing to an old door that had two locks on the outside of it. It was right next to the door that led outside.
“That leads to the basement, which I will not show you as I don’t go down there myself,” I said. “It’s a maze of concrete and is scary as hell. The former owners didn’t touch it; no need to as the rest of the house had plenty of room. They didn’t even fix that old door. I’ve never even seen the entire space; I went down with the inspector before my offer was finalized but came straight back upstairs after about a minute. I not only keep that door locked,” nodding to the locks on the outside, “but I rarely even come through this entrance into the house as I always park in the driveway and come in the front door. That whole little area just gives me the creeps.”
With our drinks refreshed and in hand, we walked up the wide staircase to the second level, where there were three bedrooms, the largest being the master with a walk-in closet and luxurious bathroom, including both a large walk-in shower and a claw foot tub. The master bedroom also featured double doors that opened to a spacious balcony that overlooked the garden, which was surrounded by the fence I’d had installed after adopting Sadie and Jack.
The two other bedrooms had good sized closets with a jack-and-jill bath between them. There was a fourth bedroom that had been converted into an office; the previous owners had installed dark wood built-in bookcases, giving the room the feeling of an old-fashioned study. The entire house featured lots of nooks and crannies, many with built in shelves. There were even some stained-glass windows throughout the home.
However, even though the home retained its original charm, the previous owners had modernized the place and built a laundry room on the second floor, moving it from its previous spot in the creepy basement. I honestly would have passed on the house if it meant I had to lug laundry up and
