Talk to the potential contractor.

Around noon, I start making lunch as well as some pie dough for tonight. I'm planning on apple pie for dessert with some store-bought ice cream and a caramel sauce. I saute veggies, pickle other vegetables, boil some instant noodles, and eggs. I save three-quarters or more of the vegetables and eggs and serve us a bowl.

"Just sit down. After this, we need to check what the app considers bright light. Is TV off the table or not? What settings will we need for you to be able to work at your old job? Do we need Anne to fix us a special program? Can you use an electrical device that doesn't produce much light, like an e-book? We need to know how to plan our lives in the future." I dictate as I place the bowls down and start eating.

Roos nods. "What if I faint during testing?"

"You will just have a nap. I will go to the contractor alone, and that is fine. But like it, I want to test it by building up, not starting from something we don't know for sure." I say kind of lazily. Somehow, it comforts her. "We would best do it on the bed so that if you fall ****, there is no risk of concussion."

"Seems like a plan." She says hungrily munching down on the ramen as if she hasn't had any food in weeks.

"You have only been in the hospital for 2 days, and you had me cook your dinner. How can you be this hungry?"

"I am eating for two now." She said with a wink.

"We both know that is not how that works. Glad you enjoy it nonetheless." I say with a broad smile on my face as we are finishing up a simple lunch.

Afterwards, we return to the bedroom, now with clean sheets atop the bed. I grab an e-book from my bundle of electronics, which I hardly use anymore. I open it and find it still has a charge. I hand it to her, and she can read through all the books. Cool, so an e-book is okay. Next, I grab her phone, unlock it and set all settings to minimum. I pause for a moment. "What would you rather test now? Phone or computer?" Both of those are almost mandatory for modern life, but it is worth what she wants to test.

"What do you think has the highest chance of succeeding?" I shrug in response. "Phone, you have that ready, and it is not like a computer screen is less bright than a phone or tablet." With a nod, I give her her phone and unconsciousness. So all of this means we need extra help.... I will ask Anne. She is the most experienced coder out of the two of us.

Opening my phone's messaging app, I find three texts. The first I had received was from Jullia saying: 'I will eat at home even if your meals are the greatest. I am not comfortable introducing myself as your ****/girlfriend to a friend of yours, even if they are a prospective participant.' Fair, completely fair.

The second was Anne with the following: 'See you tonight. I think it would be bad if it were just Roos and you broaching the topic. But with me, you will have another person's perspective there, Master. I am already looking forward to the wonderful meal.' I decide to answer her while I was on the app anyway. 'Hey, Roos is out. We tried the minimum brightness settings. We need a way to help her while on her phone and computer. Can you make a program that we can tinker with her phone and laptop to set the max brightness per pixel? And maybe have it so text is always in white/dark yellow, and the rest is dark blue/black. I remember that screens are functionally just tiny LED cells, so that means black might not be the best choice. The same goes for white, for example, as there needs to be compensation. But a program that allows us to tinker with max values and the sum of these LEDs should be a great start.'

The last was from Madelon. 'Hey, I asked Sara out, and she had time late this afternoon until late in the evening. But I have no idea how to take the lead on a date. Can you give me some advice?' Simple but good question, my answer is complex though. 'Well kind of depends on your budget. If you have enough to spare, it is nice to do something that costs money, like bowling, minigolf, swimming or going to a zoo. It gives you something external to talk about. If that isn't the case, staying in and doing a shared hobby or a hobby to learn is fun. Going bird watching is another option. Geocaching is another. Still staying with the theme of doing something you guys can talk about. I guess movies serve a similar function in that context; however, if you go to a theatre, you can't talk about that movie without inconveniencing the people around you for a while.' After sending the messages, it is time when I would rather leave for the new place. No hurry, no worry.

I arrive 15 minutes early, even with some stoplights turning red at the most inopportune times and stopping to grab some bottles of water and soda that I put in a cooler filled with cooling elements. Not that it is necessarily needed with the chilly temperatures outside. I park my car and step outside to be greeted by Marianne. "Hey there, Pieter, right? What brings you here today?"

"Yep, to meet with a potential contractor. Marianne, grandkid of the elderly couple two doors over? I will hand you or your grandparents an invite, but one of those girls moving in with me is my fianceé now, and another friend has said they wanted to move in, and another is mentioning interest as well. So I am glad I bought a big house, we can add some more rooms if needed." I can tell what she is thinking. 'What a weird man.' "Just be honest about what you are thinking."

"Sure, why do you want to move in with so many 'friends'?"

"Honestly, have you seen the price of a house? Especially slightly outside of town? The prices are ridiculous. I trust my friends enough to share my home with them. It is not like we would lose out if one of us buys a place and we share it. It might be different if we had issues with one another, but we used to be in shared student housing for so long that it is likely fine for us. This is going to be cheaper for everyone involved compared to rent."

"So you and your future get a house, and the rest get to pay for the shared cost of living, and that is how you guys will live until they find a better place to live?"

"Yep, until they find a place where they like it more to live. I don't think that will be soon. I am a great cook." As we are finishing up the conversation, another car arrives.

An older, wrinkly man steps outside. "Which one of you is Pieter Visser?"

"Me and I assume you are Johannes?"

"Yep, this girl related to you in any way?"

"Neighbours' grandkid. So mildly. Do you want to have a tour? You already saw what I would like done, but a second pair of eyes to assess what needs to be done is useful."

"You ain't afraid I would mark you up a whole bunch?"

"I know the price of labour. I can see in a quote when it asks too much for that. Materials I can ask my fianceé to check. I will also take into account that there needs to be profit."

"What is your business if I might ask that you know all that stuff?"

"Co-owner of a catering business. I just bought in, but my boss had asked me months back, so I decided to look into things. I double-checked our books for foul play or risks. That does require knowledge of salaries, wear on machines, how much material costs, and how to calculate profit."

"Good, you are not one of those people who work for ASML. I hate them; they take everything for granted. None of them appreciates physical work. Give me the tour." I give him the tour and show all of the rooms. "Do you want to make one or two of those large rooms upstairs into two?" He suddenly asked.

"Sure seems like a smart move. I plan on having kids, so more rooms seem smart."

"For some of the things you want, we would need to excavate the floor throughout the house. Do you want a basement to store root vegetables and other stuff that is best stored in a cool, not damp place?" I think for a moment. Seeing that I won't have an immediate response, he continues asking questions. "Lastly, one of our contracted electricians asked me if you were into crypto mining or building a small server or something with that much power. I think it might have been a misunderstanding on your part that more is not necessarily better."

"No, I just liked the idea of producing more than we needed, honestly. I might not benefit directly, but it will mean that there will be less need to burn fossil fuel for the equipment we use at the catering company or any company for that matter. If you guys could recommend any batteries so that we can store some, that would be nice. Also, a friend of mine asked if she could make a large server if I had the space for that, so yes, there will be a server here. Sure, add the basement, I think it will be worth it."

We sit down at the old coffee table, and he grabs a laptop out of his bag. He starts doing calculations and making estimates. "With what you want, we can do it for this price." He shows me basically a spreadsheet. I look at the price of the labour, which is correct. The others I am less sure about. However, he was trying to get me to back off on the solar mildly. Maybe because of the large amount of plumbing we need to do, but that is a large expense. The same goes for wiring. Machine costs follow that, but it is all within reason, I think. 2 million, fack, but I can afford it with the extra income I have gotten recently.

"All looks fine. What is the estimated time for delivery?"

"Well, maybe May, more likely September, or worst case scenario, November."

"Half a year to a year. Seems like a small time frame for what I am asking, especially since you are also replacing the roof and the entire plumbing of the building. When could we use the garage here in theory?"

"The repairs there are simple. If you want all of the power measurements done there as early as a month. For the solar panels to be on as well slightly longer, but the roof was recently replaced."

"Sure, can we then sign separate agreements for the garage and the rest of the works. With the end date for the garage works in January and the house in November next year. I might not be able to hold my wedding here before my kid is born here, but we can still use the fields for it anyway. I was planning on doing that anyway. Can you have a toilet running somewhere, for example, in the garage, before the end of April, early May?"

"Definitely, not a big wedding, I am guessing. If you are lucky, the house might be done."

"We are only planning on inviting 2-3 dozen people, so no not that big of a party. Close family, friends, and to prevent noise complaints and for neighbourliness, the new neighbours."

"Always a smart move to invite your neighbours when throwing parties like that, yeah. You don't happen to have a printer here, do you?" I shake my head. "Would you follow me to my office?"

"Sure, where is it?" He gives me the address, and I notice the address is in the same industrial area as where the catering is. "Sure, I might have driven past there to work," I say with a chuckle before driving away.

Traversing the familiar streets only to end up maybe one exit of the main road later, a right where you take a left away. As you get out to see many big vans loaded with equipment. Having not been to work for outside work the entire week, it feels nostalgic. I wander into their office and tell them I was supposed to meet Johannes. He walks up to me and hands me the contracts. One quote for 500 thousand euros and one for one and a half million. Both with 200 thousand as an upfront and each having milestones on which I was supposed to pay, and if the contract is not completed by the specified day, or of an adequate quality according to a housing inspector, the company will pay me double what I have paid them at that point. Not a bad deal. I sign both. Wish Johannes good luck. I know this place, they have been here for a while, the logo is the same as on the site, and the receptionist knew Johannes. I double-check the KvK (Chamber of Commerce) registration in my car. Johannes is the owner, good, the bank account is listed here as well, and it is also the one on the bill. More transparent, you can't have it. I head home to prepare for what is arguably a date night.