The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Grooming

Inside the front door of the big adobe main house is the next stop on the tour. I explained all the updates we have done to it down the years.

"The family got so big we had to bump out the walls as far as we could and leave a driveway that RV's can get by. We also bumped that out toward the small garage as far as we could. All of that was to make room for a bigger family table. We like to eat together as a family. We had the longest tables we could buy at the Amish furniture store delivered and butted end to end to make room for the seating. We try to mix it up when we eat too so that everyone gets a chance to sit near and chat with everyone else. Doesn't always work that way, because Morgan, Nakoma, and I do most of the cooking, and so we tend to get the seats nearest the kitchen. It also depends on if one of the kids is being fussy and seems to want a particular parent to hold them."

"It's like eating in a dormitory." Janie marveled.

"Pretty much. We use the sideboards over there to self-serve whatever the food of the day is. Also very family-style and informal."

"How many food fights?" Mike asked.

"Not too many. The tables have been used after the kids are down for other things. Very sturdy."

"There's a big couch over there in the living room..." Mike pointed out.

I gave him my best deadpan look. "Table was easier than the top of the refrigerator, for sure."

"Voice of experience?" Janie asked.

"Yes. All flat surfaces have been stress tested for safety reasons." I said.

"So: Sign in the pool makes it sound like all the adulting would be out there, but it's in here? All over the place?" Janie asked.

"There too. The one absolutely sacrosanct rule is the kids are not allowed anywhere near such things. They do not need to see it. In the old settler days, the kids in the one-room house watched their parent make more siblings, but not allowed here under any circumstance."

"That's... reasonable." Janie said. "The top of the fridge? Really?"

"Really. But not a popular location. More of a novelty. Moving on with your tour..." I indicated the front wall. "The house looks like adobe, but it is more of a faux adobe. For one thing, it has a steel frame. The only way to make such a thing two-story. My parents researched the heck out of that when they built it. To move that wall required engineering all the load-bearing structures here. The frame is filled with cinderblock, and the adobe-looking material is applied outside of that. It was originally even mud and stray bricks over the cinder block, and whitewashed to be authentic, but not anymore. Too much maintenance. The cinderblock prevented the pressed brick from doing what they are supposed to do, which is keep the house cool via moisture. Inside the cinderblock, there are standoffs to allow even more insulation. This house is snug, quiet, and as energy-efficient, as we can make it. The front door used to be flush to a flat wall, Now it has a bump-out wall on the kitchen side because of the build-out. We leveraged that wall to make the front door have a porch. Re-integrated the design to make it look like it was always that way." I explained with words and gestures.

"Wow! Seems like it would be easier to move to a new house." Mike commented.

"Not really. This is home for us. I was raised here in the original version of this house. When Jessica and I got married, this became our home. Diana was born here. When we added more members of the family, it was all here. Technically? Sure. easier to build a new house. Emotionally? Not so much."

"I love that. The way you all work it to stay in each other's lives and stuff. It's right here, in the way you built the house!" Janie said. She sighed. "I am so fucking envious."