Macover Manor

When the Macover Family learned of the death of their 'beloved' great great grand-aunt, they were torn apart. Only to realize that she was someone they had never met. She had bequeathed to them, as her only remaining relatives by default, the tidy sum of 200,000 Simoleans. And a piece of property along the coast in a little town by the Sea. And I do mean little. Population 3. This didn't exactly sound like a 'dream come true' place to live, but being the fortune hunter sims they were, they decided to pack everything up, and move. Opportunity only knocks so many times you know. So Weston Macover took his little family consisting of himself, his wife Ivanna, his teenaged son Dewey, and his very young daughter Yanita and traveled toward their new future.

However upon arrival, they discovered that the place was a total dump. Completely uninhabitable. And infested with vermin of all kinds. Or so they thought. For days they argued about what to do with this 'inheritance". Ivanna wanted to raze the place to the ground, but Weston disagreed. He did a little research and discovered that this place held a lot of his family history, plus everything in him screamed that it would be a waste of resources. He had learned young the value of simoleans, and couldn't bring himself to destroy the perfectly sound foundation, and structurally intact exterior walls. That, and he was cheap.

After taking Ivanna out to dinner, and not just a quick cookout at the local park, which is what he would have prefered to do, and some serious whoo hooing that knocked Ivanna socks off, he finally won the argument, and implemented his plans for the property. They started by clearing all the land and leveling the terrain, and re-sodding the yard, and removing the doors and windows.They stripped the old shingles off the walls of what was left. They tore up all the sidewalks and then began on the inside. They knocked out all the walls, ripped up flooring and tore out all the plumbing and electricity. Finally they removed the roof. Strangely enough they didn't find any of the vermin they kept hearing. All they had left was the basic structure and the driveway. Not much to go on, but such is the way of thriftiness.

The next few weeks became a flurry of activity. The sound of hammers, the fumes of paint, and the sight of chaos greeted them each morning. But soon beautiful wooden floors were laid, and a fresh coat of paint covered the inside of the walls. Already the interior looked much better. And then began the construction of the outside. A grand patio emerged. Multi-leveled, with balustrades and Roman columns. In both front and back. Doors and windows were replaced, then siding was added to the original walls. During all of this, they called in exterminators to take care of the vermin infestation, but unbelievably the exterminators couldn't find anything. Weston thought that was such a waste of money, but Ivanna was really bothered by the thought that creepy crawlies were present.

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By the end of the month, The yard had been landscaped, including a little garden, and some orchard trees. The garden was small, indeed, but after all they only had so much room left to work with. But it consisted of some plots for vegetables for Weston. And some flowers for Ivanna. They added a couple of ladybug posts and some scarecrows to keep the birds away. That's when they noticed that the noises they had been hearing, had moved. They were no longer coming from inside the house, they were coming from behind the house. This led Weston and Ivanna to believe that it had been vermin after all. Namely raccoons and such. But Dewey wasn't convinced. He began his own investigation into the noises. He was positive it wasn't raccoons. But he didn't say anything to his parents. He didn't want to hear the lectures he knew would be coming his way. What he found was definitely out of this world.

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Knowing his parents wouldn't believe him, he set about obtaining more proof. He wanted to be sure that there was no dispute. Meanwhile the Macovers' reconstruction was moving along at a very fast pace. Weston and Ivanna decided on a fireplace as the focal point of the downstairs, and built everything else around it. Then replaced the stairs inside and began the upstairs. Things were really beginning to look nice. And Ivanna could almost see living here for the rest of her life, even tho' she was a city girl at heart. Very pleased with how the downstairs had turned out she was beginning to look forward to seeing what Weston would do with the upstairs. He had somehow managed to "talk" her into not going upstairs until it was finished and the children were forbidden to mention it to her. Needless to say she was having a hard time controlling her curiosity. And Dewey continued his investigation.

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Another month passed by, with all the confusion that only re-construction can bring, the upstairs was finally finished. And to say the least Ivanna was so very happy with the outcome. To think that this place had been so neglected that she had been ready to tear it all down. It had turned out beautifully. Truly now it was a 'dream come true' place to live. The property had been valued at just under 25,000 Simoleans but was now worth a whopping 153,000. They had converted it into a 2 bedroom plus nursery, 1.5 bath, raised sitting area. A family room, a compact kitchen, and a wonderful multi-leveled patio to spend the evenings on. They furnished all the rooms with the best that they could find in the little town, and settled in to enjoy their very first winter.

As for what Dewey found? Well, seeing is believing.

Authors' note:

This little short story was spawned by a contest on the SimTales Writer's Forum, of which I am a proud member. For more wonderful and fun contests please check out the site. The more the merrier so don't be shy about asking to become a member!!!

http://www.simtales.net/