The best room in the house

Tommy gave the best view in the house to his bedroom.

Not the living room, where a visitor might expect it. Not the room that would make the most sense on a sales plan. The bedroom.

He wanted to wake up to the water and finish the day with it still there. That mattered to him more than what someone else might have done, or what a future buyer might think.

The house itself was modest. An extension to a besser brick place on the island. Nothing grand. The complication was where it sat.

A few metres from open water, salt and wind, not to mention floating out of the ground. This effected every decision.

Which steel. Which coatings. Which windows. How the detailing sheds water. How the fittings survive the air. The kind of decisions that do not show up in a beautiful photograph, but decide whether the house ages well or starts quietly failing.

The view was the easy part.

The salt was the test.

Tommy chose the room. Making that choice last twenty years was the job.

Years later, he still wakes to the view he gave the best room to.

It was never the best room because of the view but rather becuase it was his.