Excerpt: have a kid, build a home, and make your stand in the f***ing ghetto

We know our house is too small. We know we can’t move into a house where the schools are better. We know we live in the ghetto. Feeling righteous, we begin to steer toward the idea of making our stand here, making our home bigger, pumping money into our house and thereby our neighborhood. We’re going to be the pioneers, the ones who lead the up-and-come of Richmond, who will look back 20 years from now when the prices of a tiny house like ours hit a million dollars and the schools are all great and the crime has dropped to nothing. We’ll pretend we saw the trend like writing on the wall. Maybe we really do see it.
Sukie doesn’t help. Which is to say she helps too much. Lili’s mom wants us to have a bigger, nicer home, and she wants to do something with a small pool of money she’s been sitting on. It’s no fun to save it for the will. She’d rather use it now, and she’s already bought herself a big, beautiful house in Century City. Now she wants to share with us while she can enjoy our joy. She’s into instant gratification. Our gratification gratifies her. So how can we be anything but grateful?
Since she and Cal know how to do floor plans and building plans, she’s begun to send drafts of how she envisions our house. First it’s just an expansion, knocking out the side or the back of the house to add more interior space. But as long as we’re doing that, why not add a new kitchen, something with room to cook? And how about a second bathroom?
“You’re going to be glad Blanche has her own bathroom when she’s older,” she says on the phone, and there’s no denying that it makes sense.
Soon, Lili is looking for a contractor via word of mouth, and Cal and Sukie are drafting actual elevations in earnest. They are knocking out walls, designing Gheryesque slants, adding color, landscaping. It’s a pretty easy thing to do on paper. The new house is half again as large as the old one. The new kitchen’s there, the second bathroom is in place, and the use of space—still not much by any standard—is a lot smarter. Nothing’s wasted. The kitchen is huge, with an island, which Lili loves. Lili also has requested and received a double-headed shower, something she’s always wanted for when we’re in there together so she can stay warm.
Llil walks through the neighborhood every Tuesday through Friday taking Blanche to school. One day she takes particular notice of the construction on Roosevelt between 40th and 41st. On the way back from dropping Blanche off, she screws up her nerve and knocks on the door. The woman who opens the door is Sandra, and her natural smile encourages Lili.
“I was just noticing the work you’re doing on your house. We’re going to expand soon, so I thought I’d ask if you have someone good that you’re working with.”
“Oh, Mark’s great,” she says and invites Lili in to see. Lili takes in the new living room, the new kitchen, the expanded second story, and the deck. Sandra has two boys, one four and one a little over two—just about Blanche’s age. It’s the four-year-old’s birthday this weekend, and Lili secures an invitation to the party.
That weekend, I meet Sandra and her husband James. We don’t know their friends, and I don’t have a lot to say as much of the conversation among the men is about sports. Again, I wonder if it would be worth following pro games just to have something to say at times like this. But mostly Lili and I talk to James and Sandra, and later Sandra’s dad, about the building. They have good things to say about Mark, and they suggest that their budget was low and that he was able to deliver within their constraints. We leave the party early and Lili calls Mark to set up a meeting.
Of all the several contractors who have sat in our kitchen, Mark has the most game up front. Maybe he’s just hungrier, but he comes on strong and appears to have his act most together. We invite him to sit, but he pops up within a minute. He prefers standing and walking around the house. He whips out a tape measure and brandishes it freely as we tour the tiny bungalow and its surrounds. Mark tells us that he understands the tight budget thing and he returns the complements of James and Sandra when we tell him that they recommended him highly. When he leaves, Lili is determined.
“I like him.”
“Me too.” I cop to my first blush but qualify it. “He at least knows how to schmooze. “
“You think he’s a schmooze?”
“I don’t know. He seems knowledgeable, and he listens. And Sandra and James like him. And I like him better than the others we’ve seen.”
“I like him,” Lili repeats. I let my unarticulated hesitation go unvoiced. She calls him to make a bid.