“Sally dropped off the estimate.” Emily handed Andie a piece of paper. It was early morning, and they were sitting at the table on the Thompsons’ porch.
The paper was a mass of scribbles and drawings with one big number underlined at the bottom. “Twenty-five thousand? That’s all?” It was quite a bit under the amount they’d budgeted.
Emily looked excited. “I know. Isn’t that great?”
Andie wasn’t quite as excited. She was no expert on renovations, but this didn’t seem like enough. Had Sally and Shane cut their prices? They needed to earn a living, too, and she didn’t want any favors. But this wasn’t for her. It was for Emily and the Thompson family. Maybe she should just gracefully accept it. “It is great. Let’s call and ask when they can start.”
Andie felt awkward about calling Shane. On the one hand, it would be a good excuse to talk to him, but did she really need an excuse? She’d be working with him every day soon enough. She called Sally, who assured her the price was plenty for them to make decent money and they could start right away.
Andie hung up and turned to Emily, excitement welling up inside her. She hadn’t realized how much she was looking forward to turning the old dilapidated Thompson house into something better. To make it useful again. It was the same feeling she’d had when she’d helped Jane with Tides. The feeling of doing something good.
“Sally and Shane are going to be here after lunch hour to go over the plans and figure out exactly what supplies they need to start, which means we better get busy cleaning out that area. I figured we should do the renovation in the units first then move to the outside. James said the bank won’t be around to inspect our work for a few months.” Andie opened the screen door to the kitchen. There was no time to waste.
Two hours later, they’d managed to move most of the smaller items into the living room. They’d sorted them into piles; one to keep, one for auction, and one to use to decorate the rental units. They were moving a heavy oak dresser inch by inch and stopped to rest in the middle of the hallway.
Emily blew her bangs off her forehead. “I really appreciate this help. I know I’m not paying you enough. We need to discuss that. And I want to apologize for how I treated you when we first met.”
Andie waved off the apology. “Forget it. You were only reacting to what you had heard.”
“I should have known not to listen to my mother. One day she feels one way, and the next day it’s the opposite.”
“I can relate to that.”
“Funny how they keep going from friends to enemies.”
Andie secured her long hair in a ponytail at the top of her head so her hair was off her neck. It was sweltering, and her hair on her neck felt like a wool blanket. “Seems like they have a lot of good memories. I wish they could just focus on those.”
“Me too. It’s weird, they still remember details from when they were little girls, but not what they had for breakfast. Mom sure does love this place.” Emily pressed her lips together as she looked around. “I hope making these rental units doesn’t upset her.”
“It’s necessary to keep the house.”
“Yeah, well, hopefully it will actually serve that purpose. I’d hate to do all this for nothing.”
“Don’t worry about that. I got some tips from Jules on how to advertise boutique motels. There are specialty places we can advertise where people are looking just for this exact type of vacation.”
“There are?”
“Yep. I have the links to some online magazine we can check out. I wanted to go over those after we talk to Sally and Shane about the renovations.” Andie picked up her end of the bureau. “Come on, let’s get this thing moved. I want to get the rest of the furniture out and have lunch before they get here.”
They managed to get everything moved out with forty-five minutes to spare. Emily made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and they sat on the porch to eat them. Andie’s muscles were sore, and she was soaked with sweat, but it felt good to do honest work.
The sandwiches were on old-fashioned white bread, and the combination of the salty peanut butter and the sweet jelly along with the view of the ocean reminded her of being a kid and sitting on the back deck at Tides with Jane, eating sandwiches their grandmother had made.
Andie and Emily were six years apart, so they hadn’t known each other as kids. Emily was curious about what life was like in New York City. Andie filled her in on her job as an antiques appraiser and living in the city.
“Everything’s more fast-paced, less personal.” Andie glanced out at the ocean. “I think the quality of life is better here. Have you been here your whole life?”
Emily nodded. “Moved to Kennebunkport for a while, but then when Mom got older I came back.” Emily continued on to talk about her career as a teacher and her hopes that her adult daughter would get pregnant with a grandchild soon.
As they chatted, Andie realized something was happening. They were becoming friends. With Andie’s friendship with Claire, Maxi, and her sister Jane and now Emily, she actually had more friends in Lobster Bay than she’d had in New York. Not to mention more time to nurture those friendships.
They were discussing Jane’s advice on the advertising, and Andie had just started showing Emily the websites for boutique hotels when Shane’s truck pulled in.
“Sorry we’re late. I stopped by the town hall to see about the permits,” Sally said.
Emily’s face clouded. “Is there going to be a problem?”
“Nope.” Sally pulled some official-looking papers out of the top pocket of her overalls. “The permits for the work are all set. Since you’re renting it as an Airbnb, you don’t need any permits or zoning changes. All you need to do is register as a short-term rental and pay the fee. It’s twenty-five per unit. Plus there’s a sales tax on the retail money you collect.”
“That’s great. Thanks for looking into that for me.”
“Ayuh.” Sally turned to Shane. “Well, why are we all standing around? We have work to do, don’t we?”
“I have some ideas about how to proceed in the units,” Shane said. “Let’s hash that out first, and then we can get to work.”
Emily led the way to the partitioned space.
Sally stood, hands on hips, in the middle. “Looks bigger without the furniture.”
“You guys did a good job getting all of that out.” Shane smiled at Andie, and her heart did a ridiculous flip.
“Thanks.” Emily’s amused gaze skipped from Shane to Andie.
“We’ll do the hallway for the entrance first, of course.” Sally walked over to the door and drew an imaginary line on the floor. “Put it right here and leave that nice paneled wall with the chimney going up at the end.”
“That’s from the original house. It’s hand hewn,” Emily said with pride. “And the chimney goes down to a fireplace in the cellar. I guess they used to use it for cooking and laundry down there.”
“In the cellar? Glad that was before my time,” Sally said.
“Just barely,” Shane teased.
“The paneling and chimney will be perfect when guests come in. It will give them exactly that antique feeling right off the bat,” Andie said.
“Ayuh.” Sally moved to the right part of the space. It was split up into three rooms. A large dining room, a large parlor, and another smaller room that looked like it had once been a library. “I figure we’ll try to keep the existing walls as much as possible. The wallpaper and moldings are still good and give that antique ambiance. We’ll put the dividing wall here and run the plumbing through that. Double insulated wall for safety and noise reduction. Then on each side, we’ll put the kitchenettes and bathrooms.”
Emily nodded. “Sounds good. We want it to look as antique as possible, so keeping the walls is a good idea.”
“And saves you money,” Shane said.
“Sure. So if you agree, we can get started.” Sally looked at Emily expectantly.
“Yeah, sure. I agree.” Emily glanced around. “How long will it take?”
Sally scrunched up her face and looked around. “Could probably do it in a week or two, right, Shane?”
Shane nodded. “If we haul butt.”
“Two weeks?” Emily sounded shocked and a bit rushed. “You mean I could be renting it out in less than a month?”
“Yeah, but then we’d move on to the next unit. Gonna be noisy,” Sally said.
“Oh, right.” Emily sounded relieved. “I need some time to get things like sheets and towels. Some of those remote digital locks for the door.”
“And we have to have it inspected,” Shane reminded them.
Emily’s expression clouded over. She was probably thinking of the auction inspection from Damien. “Let’s hope that goes smoothly.”
“It should,” Sally said. “We don’t do shoddy work, so there’s no reason it won’t pass.”
Emily nodded. “Of course. Okay then, looks like we have a plan.” She turned to Andie. “Guess we better get going on that ad.”