“Well, I met with the city,” Frank says, “and your fish house is a historic property.” He stops and looks at me. “A historic or an historic? You’re a writer. That one always gets me.”

My mind flashes back to college, and I recite the words of a beloved professor. “With words like historic and hotel, we now pronounce them with an audible h, so using a is commonplace today.”

“Told you,” Frank says. “You are smart. As I was saying—correctly—the fish house is a historic property that predates the construction of the cottage. The cottage is historic, too, but since it’s been altered over the years before these bylaws were put in place, the committee can’t do much about your plans. And, since the fish house is located out here on the lakeshore, it falls outside of the city’s historic district, which has much stricter laws on what can and can’t be done with historic structures.”

“My head is spinning,” I say. I look at the thermometer on the patio outside the kitchen, see the windchill and suddenly think of my dad’s long-winded stories. He could tell stories that contained no periods and went on for a half hour—swerving this way and that with no clear direction—no ending in sight. My mom would suddenly yell, “Land the plane, Jon!”

“Land the plane, Frank,” I say.

He laughs. “Sorry. The bad news is we do have to run everything by the city and the Preservation Committee, but we are only required to retain one of the structure’s original walls, and we have to keep what they term as ‘the integrity’ of the structure’s exterior.”

I sigh. “Sounds more reasonable,” I say. “But isn’t retrofitting exterior windows and redoing the wood exterior going to be way more expensive?”

Frank nods. “It is,” he says. “But, here’s the good news.”

“Warren Buffett is waiting to propose to me outside?”

“You like older men?” Frank asks, his bushy face twitching, a mischievous smile now appearing under his beard. “I never would have guessed. Good news is the state offers a tax credit up to 25 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenditures against state income tax or single business tax liability. Unlike the 20 percent federal tax credit, which specifically targets income-producing properties, Michigan’s state tax credit is eligible for owner-occupied properties.”

“Sounds like a nightmare,” I say. “And like I’ll have to spend time filling out paperwork.”

“You can get a quarter of your investment back, Adie Lou, and then it will begin producing income,” Frank says. “It’s worth the time and effort.”

“Any more good news?” I ask.

“Fresh out,” he says. “But maybe some fresh air will do you good. Want to go take a look at the fish house and talk about your plans?”