Kem's house...

A modest, one story white rambler with a one car garage on the left hand side, Kem's house sits back from the road a bit. A small yard is in front, with some low bushes in front of it and a slate walkway leading up to the front door. The yard itself is very well kept.

In the driveway is a midnight blue BMW Z4 convertible, with black leather interior and trim. It is freshly washed and waxed, and just as meticulously kept as the lawn.

The house looks fairly quiet and plain, slate-blue shutters against white siding, venetian blinds drawn closed. There's a storm door and a plain white door behind it, and the doorbell has a pleasant chime.

Upon entering, the entire ambiance is one of gentle softness, reminiscent of the desert at sunset. You enter into a small front hall. In front of you, a wide hallway leads directly to the back of the house. You can see through the kitchen to a set of sliding glass doors covered with blinds that presumably lead onto a back porch or straight out into a back yard. Directly to your right is a spacious living room carpeted in plush beige high pile. A blue sofa sits with its back against the very frontmost wall of the house, under the windows. Across from it, in the corner where the living room adjoins the dining room, a 62 inch flat screen TV is mounted to the wall. You look around to discover a fairly high tech sound system is in place, with speakers in each corner. Against the far wall, to the right and perpendicular to the sofa, are two book cases packed with neatly organized books as well as a large collection of DvD's. The book cases themselves are made of wood, polished and finished to a soft gleam. There is a tall lamp in the corner which casts a golden glow over the room. A blue recliner sits in the last, unoccupied corner, with a soft cotton afghan throw neatly folded up and draped over the back. The walls are adorned with desert landscapes and several shots of the pyramids at Giza, both at dawn and at dusk, to complement the golden hues of this room.

Behind the living room is the dining room, which connects to both that and the kitchen. The dining room has a small table with four chairs around it, but they all look practically new... as their owner doesn't often entertain company. The beige carpet extends into the dining room, but stops at the kitchen and gives way to blue-and-grey tiling.

The kitchen itself is a marvel of modernism. The wide marble counters offer ample cooking space. There's an island to one side with two stools, several glass-front cupboards that make it easy to see what's stacked neatly away inside, and an overhead rack above the island for storing various cooking utensils, of which there are many. The appliances are all state-of-the-art and well-maintained, if not brand new. Discreetly out of the way in one corner is a small raised dish-stand, cat sized, with fresh water and high quality dry food.

Back to the entryway... to your left, now, is what appears to be a study. The hardwood floor that makes up the hallway extends to here, but there is a circular rug in the middle of this room in deep blues, reds, and tans. The furniture here is mahogany. A rolltop desk with a personal computer sits against the front wall next to the window. A low set of shelves holds various texts, financial aides, investment news reports and the like. The top of the set of shelves, oddly enough, has a blanket atop it. Closer inspection reveals a few cat hairs. The other walls have shelves as well, but these are higher up and mounted on the walls so that a curious feline would be unable to play with the fascinating array of historical Egyptian knick-knacks that adorn them. This room shares a wall with the garage and opens only out to the hallway.

If you walk straight in, down the hallways, into the kitchen, and then turn left, you see one more hallway. On the left is a folding door, which you can pull back to reveal a front-load washer and dryer as well as a set of floor-to-ceiling shelves that hold all kinds of cleaning supplies as well as towels, tablecloths, and other miscellaneous kitchen items. On the right is a half-bath suitable for guests, with toilet and sink, tiled in rich blue with matching hand towels. Past the laundry room on the left is another door which presumably leads to the garage.

At the end of this hallway, on the right, is one last door which must be a bedroom. Upon opening it, you discover a very generous master bedroom, which extends in length toward the backyard further than the kitchen or living room, giving the house an "L" shape (with the 'foot' of the L pointing back and away from the road). The carpet here is a dusky blue-grey. In the corner of the bedroom closest to the hallway is a king-sized bed. A chest of drawers sits along the wall near the foot of the bed, and in the far corner, a 32 inch TV on a wooden stand. The remote for both the TV and the DvD player below it sit on a small nightstand next to the bed. Along the right wall as you walk in is a closet with folding doors, and in the far right corner another door that opens up onto a spacious master bathroom, with not only a standing shower stall but a deep tub with jets as well.

There is another sliding glass door in this room, and it appears to open onto a porch that runs along the length of the back of the house. The backyard is just as neatly kept as the front, with several small trees that look like they probably bear fruit during the appropriate seasons.

The entire house is bathed in a golden glow from dim lighting and tinted shades, and all of the decorating is done with a tasteful Egyptian motif, not over-the-top, but there if you know what to look for. Most of the pictures denote scenes of the desert, some of Giza in particular, and a few of the sparkling Nile river. Everything is in perfect order, nothing is out of place. The hardwood and tiled floors are shiny-clean, and the carpeted areas are vaccuumed.

You might find yourself wondering why there's a lovely, sleek BMW in the driveway with a perfectly serviceable garage right in front of it. Despite the peacefulness and safety of the quiet neighborhood, one might assume the car would be covered anyway. But if you were to enter the garage you'd find yourself in the middle of what must be one of the most eclectic assortments of odds-and-ends gadgetry out there. Everything here is just as neatly arranged as inside the house, tools, wires, and all. On the tall shelves against the back wall are several projects to be completed, and upon the worktable at the moment is a small remote controlled car. It appears to have been damaged and put back together... with some additions. You're not certain whether or not they work properly (although with further acquaintance you'll learn that everything is in perfect working order), so you might find it best to just gaze from afar.

Depending upon when you're in the house you may or may not catch the small feline that also lives here, a copper-and-cream tabby cat with long hair and a somewhat rakish appearance. She is a very quiet cat, not prone to being an extrovert, and tends to hide from strangers for quite some time until she recognizes and trusts them.

Also depending upon when you're in the house you may catch the primary occupant, a silver-and-tan vampire with even longer hair than the cat's and a far less rakish appearance. He's an equally quiet man but will probably place his trust in you much more slowly than the cat.