Strictly Professional

58: Bachelorette

Through the dining room, she showed us the fenced in back yard. I didn't know the house even had one, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was spacious enough to provide an outdoor space we could easily use during summer for family and friend gatherings, and I liked how private it was. Next on our tour was the living room, which we had skimmed over earlier. It wasn't as big as most living rooms we've seen so far, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The highlight of it was a grand stone fireplace, which I was excited about. I always liked the idea of having a fireplace in my house. Niall was aware of that, and he instantly nudged my elbow with his at the sight.

"Now, the dining room can be converted into a spare bedroom or an office if that is something that works for you better. The living room should fit a dining space with not much of a problem." Clarice pointed out. I took a few seconds to think about her proposition. It seemed doable. After all, the couch used at that moment seemed excessively large.

"What do you think, darling?" Niall smiled down at me, giving me the reigns on this one.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Though I'm not too thrilled with the door to the backyard being in that room." Clarice smiled, waving her hand.

"Oh, don't worry about that. The door can easily be moved to the living room instead. Shall we move upstairs?" Clarice proposed with the same wide grin that made her blue eyes crinkle. She led the way once we agreed, taking us up a flight of wooden stairs and into a wide open space. Looking around, I counted down three doors.

"So, the floorplan right now includes a master bedroom with an en suite and two more rooms conjoined with a Jack and Jill style bath." Clarice pointed to each corresponding door before ushering us towards the master bedroom first. It was very nice, though excessively large. But I guess that was good, since it provided us with enough room to make the necessary changes we wanted. The other two rooms were pretty spacious too, with their own walk in closets as well.

"This entire top floor can be configurated to your liking. We can take a look at the floorplan on my computer." Clarice's offer was definitely a relief, because we'd get to see how the space could potentially look like before making any decisions. So we returned to the kitchen, stood around one corner of the kitchen island as she pulled up the floorplan on her laptop.

"I was actually thinking of having the office upstairs and using the dining room as a guest room, make it a bit more private that way." I explained as briefly as I could, Niall nodding along from next to me.

"Okay, so that means we're looking to have three bedrooms, one with an en suite, an office and a hall bath upstairs, correct?" Upon our agreement, she took a few seconds of focusing on the computer screen before turning it towards us. She showed us the floorplan to a different house that fit what we asked for. It was a bit bigger, but it still gave us a good idea of what the top floor could look like. As she went on explaining what changes would be made and how things would work, I glanced at Niall. His focus was on the computer and I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he tried picturing everything the agent was saying. There was a ghost of a smile on his face, which had my heart skipping just barely. I was starting to like this house and the potential it had. I was relieved to see he seemed pleased with it as well.

"How long will construction last after purchase?" Niall's sudden question caught both me and Clarice by surprise. The sentence she was in the middle of got cut off and she stammered for a second before gathering her thoughts again.

"Well, the skeleton of the house is already done as you can probably tell. Construction will begin after the first payment and it'll approximately take about five months to be completely done, including the installation of the flooring of your choice and the painting of all the walls. When were you looking to move in?" I remained silent, letting Niall take over since he seemed eager to do so.