Page 573 - WhyAsInY

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The French doors and patio, etc., were done immediately, without any hitch from the local departments and to our satisfaction, cost aside. Thus, once I was back in New York from the RTC, we turned with Keith to the renovation of the kitchen and the construction of the family room, a project that we had postponed because of the events that had been forecast in the Rothman phone call. We were excited. This would be fun!
But it turned out, at least for a long time, that fun it was not. We liked Keith, and because the ARB was his thing, we gave him the go- ahead on that project (while I still kept up my habit of drawing diagrams of the anticipated family room and how we would best extend it into the backyard). A few months after we gave him the job, we reenacted our first scene, sitting on the living room couch while Keith unfurled his proposal—this time, however, without distractions, except, perhaps, those provided by Gus.
Even though I pride myself on my spatial sense, not to mention on my ability not only to read but also to comment on architect’s drawings, when Keith unfurled his first drawing, a footprint of the project, I had absolutely no clue what I was looking at. And it was minutes before I gave up my attempt to read it before, with acute embarrassment, I turned to Keith for an explanation. What the drawing showed was a plan not to build a room to the rear but to convert the existing two-car garage into the family room! The existing garage, as converted, would flow into the kitchen, which we would modernize. This would create one large and very workable area for the family. What was the downside? Well, the garage was at the end of the long driveway, which terminated in a black- top area for the turning of cars into it; it was here that we had installed a popular basketball court for the kids (the one that brought us our first visit from the local constabulary). We would have to lose the court, but we felt that the prospective installation of a very large television screen and comfortable couches would calm the waters.
It did, but what about the garage? Where would the cars be parked? And here is where I faltered in trying to read the plan. Once Keith explained it to me, I could see that the drawing showed that we would construct the garage on the left wing of the house and forward, toward
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