#architetto

Their new daughter Chiara was born just time for Beatrice to start elementary school.

Roman starts school that year with her... as a teacher, which is a step up from being the school handy man.

During that time, he and Amica also decide upon their property.. an older lot that definitely needs some work.

Someone had bought the property, started building and then the project fell through.

Roman spent a lot of time researching what they should invest in, asking the hard question of "what did Melino need?"

The answer came in the form of a random comment, overheard by Amica, while she was in the general store. There, she heard two neighbors talking about the lack of a hotel, or a place of any kind, for people to come, visit and stay.

"There used to be that boarding house, back in the day," one of them said to the other. "Mayor Gloomberg's great aunt Mitsy used to own it. But after she passed, it just fell away like everything else..."

The boarding house, Amica learned through a quick internet search, was their new property.

She couldn't wait to tell Roman all about it!!

It turned out, Roman very much agreed with his wife... and they began construction on what would, they hoped, become the new Melino Boarding House.

It is a long process, and during that time...

Amica became pregnant again... this time with a little boy... baby Enzo, whom she gave birth to in the kitchen of their beach house.

Enzo :-)

However, with the edition of Enzo and Chiara soon to be starting school... the question arose ... was the little beach big enough got their growing family?

Beatrice would soon be a pre-teen. Both girls deserved their own rooms.

She loved their house by the beach, but the needed room to grow.

By the time the boarding house was complete, she and Roman had come to a new decision...

The first night in the new house, Amica snuggled into her husband.

"I have such a good feeling about this house, my love."

"Do you?"

"Truly. We will raise our family here. It's peaceful. Not like the city."

"You used to like the city," he pointed out, kissing her cheek. "If you are happy, Ami, then so I am," he promised.

Amica was indeed happy. She watched their efforts grow into a cozy little cottage overlooking the sea. Sometimes she sat on the beach behind their house and watched the waves roll in and out. Dreaming of the days when little Beatrice could splash and play.

And that day was soon coming.

Beatrice was growing, every day a little more curious and more adventurous.

Soon enough, she was toddling around on her legs, following Amica and Roman around as they spruce up the house and browsed Interent for new properties to invest in.

She attended day care while they worked their other jobs, and came home babbling happily about friends, toys and games.

The timing couldn't be more perfect! Roman had received not one, but offers for the house they had just finished renovating.

Time seemed to be on their side...

Until...

It wasn't...

Amica was working on one of thetown requests for the community boards, just talking to a new neighbor about her problem... when she went into labor.

And lacking a speedy ambulance service, gave birth to their daughter, Beatrice, in the park, while Roman was at work.

Instead of a nursry in a beach house, they had to set one up in the hallway of the house they were trying to sell!

Amica admit to Roman that she has been dreaming about a little house near the beach and in her dreams, it has a nursery.

"A baby?" asked Roman as he held her, listening to her dreams like her always did. "Do you want one?" he asked her.

Amical grew quiet because neither she nor Roman had discussed expanding their family before.

"I think... yes, it would be nice," she admitted to him.

"I think so, too," he agreed. "A little girl , beautiful liker her mother..."

This house, the one they are finishing up, doesn't have a nursery, but does have a small, decorative yest still functioning outhouse.

"Why an outhouse?" Amica asked her husband when she showed her his work.

He shrugged. "It used up the wood?" he explained. Neither of them liked unused resources anyway.

"It's adorable!"

In between their jobs at the restuarant and the school, and the renovations on the house, Amica still finds time to do odd jobs around the town. There are a lot of them posted on the community bulletins.

She is surprised one day to learn that she and Roman have earned places of honor in the town library. For their services to the town.

But the biggest news of all came one day after both of them fell ill.

Roman came home from the school, having caught a cold bug from the students.

Colds are for sharing, so naturally, Amical fell ill as well.

They both went to see the doctor.

Roman was given medication and told to rest.

Amica... they gave her medication, told her to rest... but also took more tests. They waited for the results, nervous because they didn't know what it meant.

Finally, the doctor called Amica back for the results.

"I'm pregnant," she told Roman when they were finally alone. "About a month along."

"Our baby!"

Roman hugged her tight, and then kissed her.

"We'd better started on that nursery then," he reminded her.

"We need our house by the beach first," she reminded him.

"I know the perfect spot," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. When he took her there, Amical knew he was right... this was place, the exact place, from her dreams.

Our happy couple scoped out their next property, always thinking one step ahead while they worked out the final details of the townhouse. Amica had a goal to see it sell for over $40,000, so they lingered there, fiddling and tweaking until they drained their funds.

As a result, they decided to pick up part time work to help fund their efforts, at least until they started making more money on the houses.

Roman got a job as a janitor at the elementary school and Amica became a server at Chez Maurice. Through her work at the restuarant, Amica gradually began to learn more about Melino, it's people and the things they stood for. She also began to pick up that there were a lot of odd jobs which could be done for extra side cash.

Thus began the Architettos' era of exploration.

Life was not all work, though. Roman often showered his wife with affection.

They even went out to lunch together, although they wound up sitting at separate tables!