T w e n t y S i d e d

So, now we have a new ‘front door’ built onto the side of the house. It doesn’t actually lead inside yet, because in-world, the stairs are still in the way of that. Our couple have scheduled as much as they can to just two weekends, five weekdays. They need the stairs and door connecting to the outside done as quickly as possible, because they live upstairs. This isn’t entirely unimaginable, but it does take some doing. Logan goes to Grandpa’s house, and they bash through that pesky wall.

Technically, they didn’t need to do that door while they redid the staircase. Their old front door is still usable for the time being, but neither of them will realize that until the hammer is already swung. Let’s put in some stairs, that’ll be totally easy with no problems whatsoever.

Okay, so there are a few problems And one of them is the fact that because we have two different foundation levels now, I had to hand place every single piece of wall here. Why? Fuck if I know. EA is notoriously well-reasoned with their issues and problems though, so I’m sure they’ll be emailing me personally to let me know any day..

You may or may not notice that the laundry room suddenly has different wood paneling I’m not sure why you would, there’s no previous picture of the stairs to the basement right next to it to cross-reference, but I’m not you. What do I know? Maybe you’re a siding-spotting maniac who can’t be stopped. I believe in you.. So, that very first day when they started making room for the new stairs, some asshole contractor had to go and point out the mildew in the wall Jackass. Next he’s going to start helpfully pointing to peoples’ check-engine lights.. Luckily, the wall wasn’t load-bearing in any way and they could just yoink it. Kelly and Michael tried to tell themselves for hours after that maybe they could just add a railing? Maybe that would look alright? But by the end of the day when they realized all the cold air their AC was pumping out was going directly into the basement, a new wall became part of the plan.

They have the savings for it, it only hurts a whole bunch, spending so much so unexpectedly.

The downstairs is now quite a bit smaller, and the stairs go up into what used to be Lorretta’s bedroom? Time to bash out some more walls. Whichever of our couple said that it ‘couldn’t be that hard’ at the beginning of their journey is about to feel very silly And they haven’t even applied for a business license yet..

Alright, so, big open upstairs, tiny kitchen, everything has a thin layer of drywall and sawdust on it, but they’ve survived. They’re going to take some time to figure out the best use of their space now it’s opened, and give themselves time to breathe. This project is about to become a long-haul, and something Logan is going to remember for the rest of his life. He’s going to get to pitch a tent in the weird, empty, not-yet-a-bookshop space for at least one birthday sleepover. He’ll be remembering into his forties all the long, restless nights his parents had measuring things with a tape measure as though it would change from one brainstorming session to the next. Whether those memories are a negative, or a positive, is still yet to be seen.

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them