beam

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The builders had pretty much gutted the house, and put beams up where supporting walls used to be. It's an open area concept, they'd told him, for all those cocktail parties, Ed. You don't have to worry about your guests all congregating in the kitchen anymore, you'll only have one room now. Isn't that great?

Yeah, yeah, Ed nodded, not wanting to admit that he'd never called his company 'guests'. The guys came over once in a while, grabbed a beer from the cooler. Maybe they played a hand or two. He felt that admitting that now would make him less. But what was wrong with his way, anyway?

Ed was having serious doubts about his choice in architects. Maybe he shoulda stuck with asking a couple of his buddies to help him with the insulation, and Jean could have helped him pick out new paint. And he was just fine with supplying the beer and pizza.

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