“The wiring and plumbing in the place was old and shitty, so it all had to be redone. That wasn’t so bad, though, because it meant they could work on Remy’s while they were here. Some pipes needed to be extended over to his place so he had water and gas after they’d updated them at my place.”
“I think Nonna’s was probably a similar situation for the original owners. Why she bought a property that was split in two and way more space than she needed, I don’t know, but I guess it’s worked out well for me.”
“It was definitely the same thing. Mrs. V’s place was meant to be where the hands from the ranch lived, but we have some cabins and a large bunkhouse toward the back of the ranch they prefer living in, so I decided to sell her place after it’d been renovated. We’re lucky a new construction company had just set up shop not long before the sale went through, because it meant we booked them to do all the work without any schedule clashing and delays. Otherwise, I’d probably still have Remy living here.”
“Whoa, you owned Nonna’s place?”
Taking in her surprised look, I nodded. “Yep.”
“I don’t know who came up with the renovations to it, but both sides are pretty amazing. I love the wet room in the en suite in my bedroom and the glass brick wall separating the bath and shower in the family bathroom. But my favorite has to be the ceiling to floor glass windows in the bedrooms with the glass balconies attached to them.” I nodded, knowing exactly what she meant because I’d loved the same features when the place was finished. “Although, my side’s better than Nonna’s.”
“Why’s that?”
Her nose wrinkled. “My walls are either painted white or light colors, and my ceilings are bright white, so the rooms are airy and open. She’s painted all of her walls deep, dark colors and put the same paint onto the ceilings.” She shuddered. “It makes me feel claustrophobic.”
Thinking she was joking, I burst out laughing until she grabbed my arm. “No, swear to God, Marcus, I get claustrophobic. It feels like the room’s closing in on me! We had to sit outside because I couldn’t breathe in her dining room when we had dinner last night. And don’t even get me started on her kitchen.”
“What did she do to the kitchen?” I couldn’t remember off the top of my head what it’d looked like when it was finished, but I was sure I’d liked it.
“She’s painted the walls a dark blue and the cabinet doors matt black. Before I came, she got my uncle to retile it with black mosaic tiles with a muted iridescent sheen on them. All of her appliances are black, too, so with the countertops being black granite, the only feature that stands out is the sink, but I’m sure she’ll swap that out for a black one as soon as she can find it.”
The description made me feel slightly claustrophobic, too, so fuck knows how standing inside there would feel. All my walls were bright white, and the floors had been re-stained a light color to keep the place light and airy.
“I didn’t have Mrs. V. pegged as a lover of dark stuff like that. The last time I was there, she made us lunch to thank us for helping her with a leak in her roof. I remember thinking her plates and bowls were cool because they were all painted with brightly colored designs.”
“Yeah,” she nodded, “they’re from Italy. That’s about the only color she’s got in her kitchen, though.”
“You’re not going to tell me she draws pentagons on the floors and slaughters chickens, too, are you?” I joked.
Addy snorted. “As a joke, my sister got me an Ouija board for my fourteenth birthday and Nonna was there when I opened it. As soon as the paper was off it, she screamed, snatched it away from me, and threw it in the fire Dad had lit in the backyard. After that, she yelled at everyone to get in their cars, and we had to drive to the nearest church and ask the minister for holy water.”
I could picture Mrs. V doing that clearly, and I burst out laughing. “Did he give you any?”
“He did after she told him a ‘Devil’s board’ had been brought into our house, and we’d all touched it. Then we had to stay at a hotel until the gallons of holy water she’d bought off Amazon arrived the next day.”
“What did she do with that?”
Rolling her eyes, she replied, “Put it in big spray bottles and made us go into the house with masks on so we could spray it in every room. After that, we used the rest of it to spray each other down because we’d been inside the place with ‘the Devil’s juju’” —she air-quoted—“around us.”