Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

There was a white Lexus parked
alongside the east wing so Jeff figured someone must be there. He was supposed
to meet the realtor, Ann, and Evelyn Conklin, the decorator, sign some
paperwork and see what progress had been made on furnishings. He wanted to spend
the night there rather than at a hotel in town, so he hoped Evelyn had at least
found a bed. Jeff tried the front door but it was locked, so he tried the
doorbell. “Westminster chimes, nice touch.” Shortly, a handsome women, Jeff
guessed, forty-ish, in a nicely tailored white suit appeared at the door, “Mr.
Grey?”

“Yes.”

“Evelyn Conklin. It’s a pleasure to
finally meet you.”

“Pleased to meet you too.”

“Please come in.” She stepped back
and held the door for him. “I feel kind of silly inviting you into your own
home.”

Jeff laughed, “That’s quite
alright. You probably don’t get a lot of clients that want you to decorate a
home they’ve never seen.”

“No, you’re the first. And it’s a
bit of a challenge, particularly considering the size of this place and the
fact that it was completely empty, a blank slate.”

She accompanied him through the
foyer and into the ‘great room,’ the click of her high heels echoing in the
large, sparsely furnished room.

Jeff stopped and looked around,
“The U. S. Tennis Association doesn’t need to put a roof on Arthur Ashe
Stadium, they could just play in here.”

Evelyn laughed, “It is a ‘great’
room. I’ve managed to acquire a few pieces of furniture here in Newport, but
the supply is, um, limited. I’m looking as far away as Boston and New York, but
it will take a while.”

Jeff nodded, “Understood, but stay
on it. I’ll need this ready sooner rather than later. Why don’t you give me the
grand tour?”

“Alright. Oh, by the way, I have a
line on the piano you wanted.”

“Really?”

“Yes, there’s one for sale in
Texas, like new. But they’re asking $55,000! That seems like a great deal of
money for a piano.”

“If it’s like new, that’s a good
price. Find somebody there qualified to inspect it and, if it checks out, buy
it and have it shipped. Tell the movers not to scratch it. Oh, and find a piano
tuner. After a move like that, it’ll need it.”

“Do you play?”

“Some. Not nearly as well as I’d
like to.”

Evelyn led Jeff off, showing him
around the massive house. He already had the floor plan memorized, but was awed
at every turn with what he saw.

The main floor comprised the great
room, library, dining room, kitchen, pantries, entry hall and two bedrooms,
each with en-suite bathroom and fireplace. On the second level were the ceiling
of the great room, as it rose some thirty feet from the floor, the master
bedroom suite including his and hers dressing rooms and bathrooms along with
two fireplaces, five guest bedrooms each with its own bath; laundry and utility
rooms, and an orchestra balcony overlooking the great room, a leftover from the
days long before high fidelity surround sound. The third level existed only in
the east wing, a bedroom suite with den and bath. And on the lower level,
underground except for portions of the east and west wings were the theater,
recreation room, billiard room, den, wine cellar, furnace room, and three more
bedrooms with baths.

“This place has more bedrooms than
Motel 6,” Jeff mused. “I like what you have planned for the upper floors. Looks
like that’s all on track. Let me tell you what I’m going to need down here. Not
only will I be living here much of the time, but this will also serve as my
principal business site. This lower floor is going to need to be sort of a
giant in-home office complex, serving myself and three or four employees on a
full-time basis. Let’s start with this corner bedroom. I see this as a
conference room. A whole lot of brainstorming will be going on in here. I’ll
need dry-erase boards all around the room, a comfortably large table for, say,
eight or ten, and a counter or buffet, something like that, on this wall for
coffee, sandwiches… whatever. Nothing down here needs to be period correct like
upstairs, but I want it nice; elegant but functional.”

Evelyn nodded, “I see. Will you
want all this carpeted to hold down the noise?”

“No, the hardwood is fine, but you
might want to make generous use of area rugs. The billiard room here, as much
as I’d enjoy using it as such, is going to be an office for three people. I’m
not big on the idea of cubicles, so let’s avoid the dividers, but try to
arrange it in three distinct clusters of personal space, but all facing one
another to promote easy communications: desk, file cabinets, credenzas, the
usual. Once they’re settled in they may opt to rearrange things so we may be
getting back to you, but let’s start with this. Oh, and good lighting. Not
overhead fluorescents, too… industrial, but plenty of indirect lighting that
can be turned up or down to suit.

“I’ll get back to you on this
recreation room. The character of this will probably change regularly depending
on our operational phase. The theater here will need to serve both it’s
intended purpose and as a, well, giant-screen computer display. Have you lined
up computer and audio-video folks yet?”

“Sort of. There’s not much here in
Newport, but I’ve arranged for a consultant from CORE Business Systems in
Providence to come down this afternoon. He should be here around one. I don’t
know about the audio-video side, I’m hoping that CORE may have some
suggestions.”

“Okay, that’s a start. I’ll talk to
them and we’ll go from there. There’s going to be a lot of cabling done
throughout the house, but particularly down here, so you’ll probably want to
coordinate that.”

“Mr. Grey, you told me you’re in
the aerospace industry but, if you don’t mind my asking, what is it that you
do?”

“Space exploration mission
planning. Specifically, we’re working on a manned mission to Mars.”

“Good grief! Alright, well, that
does explain a few things.”

“Uh huh. This tower room suite back
here will likely be an environmental systems lab, but I’ll leave it to our
flight surgeon to sort out what will be needed in there, so we’ll get back to
you on it. This den will be another office, secretarial type, and let’s leave
this adjoining bedroom just that. It’s small, so make it very comfortable. Some
poor soul I haven’t hired yet is going to be spending a lot of time down here.
And that about covers it, for now. Do you have any idea where Ann is? She was
supposed to meet me here this morning.”

“I spoke to her on the phone
earlier, she had another appointment but should be here pretty soon. I think
she’s also bringing a contractor.”

“Ah, good. Okay then. Well, I’ve
been doing all the talking, did you have any questions for me?”

“No, I think I’ve got all I need,
as you say, for now. How long will you be staying?”

“I have to go back tomorrow.”

“Oh dear, that’s a short trip.”

“Yeah, unavoidable. But I’ll be
back in a week or two for a considerably longer stay. Thanks for finding me a
bed; it looks far more comfortable than the floor. But anything you can do over
the next week to expedite the master bedroom will be greatly appreciated.”

“That is right atop my list.”

“Good.”

As they exited the elevator on the
main floor, Jeff quipped, “That’s a kick. I’ve heard of homes with elevators,
but never thought I’d be quite so bourgeois.”

Evelyn laughed, “It’s a nice touch
and convenient. This house has a lot of stairs.”

“It certainly does.”

Approaching the front door, it
suddenly opened and in came Ann and the contractor.

“Ah, perfect timing,” Evelyn
observed.

Ann introduced herself to Jeff
along with the contractor, Bill Walton, and Evelyn trotted off to locate more
furniture.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet
you,” Jeff said. “Why don’t we get this paperwork out of the way and then I can
show Bill what I’d like to have done.”

Ann pulled a stack of papers from
her briefcase and handed them to Jeff, “Nothing earthshaking in here, just a
few things for escrow and the title company. I would imagine that escrow should
close quickly, probably two weeks or so, not that it makes a lot of difference.
As the funds are already in escrow and we don’t foresee any issues with the
title, you’re pretty much free to do what you want with the exception of
physical alterations, since you will need clear title to get plans cleared. Oh,
and did you bring the minutes for the title transfer to your corporation?”

“Yeah, right here. My lawyer
drafted this, says it should do the job.” Jeff signed and initialed where
indicated and returned the papers to Ann. “Okay, then. Why don’t we wander out
back here and I’ll show you what I’d like. It would certainly be convenient to
have a garage.” Jeff talked as they strolled to the north side of the east
wing. “My first thought was to put one on that flat on the west wing, but this
looks like it would make a lot more sense, particularly given that existing
door into the hallway adjoining the kitchen. And these parking areas in the
drive over here would seem to indicate that somebody already had that in mind.
Ann, are these parking areas here and running out back there, new?”

“Yes. Originally, the drive came up
the hill and ended in the circle here. But since there was no garage, during
the renovation, the owners had these parking areas created so as not to bottle up
the drive. Then they had it all resurfaced, or at least back to where the drive
crests the hill.”

“Yeah, I thought so. I’m not crazy
about this light-colored gravel. This would sure look nice all in flagstone.”

“Oh, that would be beautiful. But
very expensive.”

“Yeah, probably save that one for
later. So, Bill, what do you think? Could we put a garage here, just extended
out from this wing?”

“Well, I don’t know. I don’t think
anyone would have any heartburn with it – from a historical design perspective –
so long as the architecture looked like it belonged. The problem is these
windows here. You’ve got a rear window in the kitchen and that window down
there in that small corner bedroom on the lower level. The Building Department
is not going to be at all happy about the idea of covering those. They just
don’t like the idea of covering windows, particularly on bedrooms, bathrooms
and kitchens. You may be able to get a variance, but I kind of doubt it.”

“What about the other side?”

“Same problem. You have a bedroom
and bath over there on the main floor.”

“What if we were to just
re-designate that bedroom as… something else, and take out the bath? It’s not
like this place has a shortage of bedrooms and baths.”

“That’s a fact. No, they’ll just
argue that you could change it back as soon as the work is done. Remember,
you’re dealing with a government bureaucracy here that has absolutely no sense
of humor.”

“Is there one that does?”

Bill laughed, “Nope, not that I
know of.”

“Well, what about something like a
carport, maybe on that parking flat out there, with a covered walk that winds
around to the kitchen door there?”

“That could work. Again, they’re
going to want to see something that looks like it belongs here, but that
shouldn’t be too hard. You might want to think about getting an architect to
take a look at it and draw up some elevations. See what it might look like.”

“That’s a good idea. Alright, guess
we’ll put this part on hold for now. How about we go out front and see if we
can do a little better with a pool. I’d imagine that there would be rioting in
the streets if I did anything to mess with Olmstead’s landscaping, but out here
adjoining the back patio is nothing but half an acre of grass. I can’t imagine
anyone being too emotionally attached to that.”

Bill laughed, “No, I wouldn’t think
so. Other than putting one down in that ravine on the west side, this is your
best bet. And it would be a lot more convenient. I wouldn’t expect a permitting
problem, but you’d probably want to consider a design that’s in keeping with
the overall look and feel of the place. You probably won’t want to just dig a
hole and drop in a plastic liner.”

“Uh, no. That’s not exactly what I
had in mind.”

“We don’t do pool work, but there’s
an outfit up in Providence that does real nice custom in-ground work, and we’ve
subcontracted a number of jobs to them over the years. Good folks. But here
again, you might want to get an architect involved, and maybe even a good
landscaper. One of the glories of this place, unlike all the big overstated
mansions over on Bellevue, is this place looks like it belongs here. It looks
like it just grew out of the ground. It all fits. Between Hunt’s architecture
and Olmstead’s landscaping… I dunno, this place is just remarkable. It was a
stroke of genius. And if I were you, I wouldn’t want to change that any more
than is absolutely necessary.”

“No argument there. Sounds like
you’re pretty familiar with the place.”

“Yeah, we were the lead contractors
on the renovation. Boy, that was a job and a half. This was a wreck. It would
have brought tears to your eyes. All boarded up, broken windows, roof leaked,
rotted paneling everywhere, the floor there in the big room had collapsed into
the lower level, graffiti all over. Oh man, it was hideous. The folks that allowed
that to happen should’ve been shot.”

“Huh! I had no idea it was that
bad. Sure looks great now. You did a beautiful job.”

“Thanks. Yeah, the last owners put
an awful lot of money into it. They did it right.”

“Okay, well thanks for coming out.
I don’t want to take up any more of your time. And Ann, thanks again for
everything. Do you have some keys for me?”

“Yes, right here.” She gave him an
apologetic smile as she handed over a large ring with about thirty keys on it.