Hot Water- Finally!!

Yesterday I worked at the house in the PM after work and got some more woodwork in the living room painted. Working on the windows and the doors was slow going, but I think they are looking good.

This AM went over to the house before work and tried to plant the 2nd beautyberry, which had started looking not so great the yesterday. Originally I was going to plant it just opposite the side door, but when I got digging, the area seemed to be all rocks. I ended up giving up on that spot and moved down quite a ways and found the soil MUCH better and not too hard to dig in. Unfortunately, there were some large roots running through my hole, but I was able to break them up and get them out of the hole. But, at this point, mom had to leave for work and I couldn't plant it myself so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Some branches have leaves that are looking pretty dead, but there are other branches that still look decent, so I'm definately hoping this one makes it for sure. Still have no idea about the other one, but we are soaking it daily.

I went inside to strip wallpaper until it was time to leave for work and just a short time before I would have left, James called to say he was coming over. So, I called in to work and told them I'd be in late. Amazingly, James DID show up and got to work on my power box. I was stripping wallpaper in my room and he was working right outside. He probably had no idea that I could hear a decent amount of his conversation with Norman, including that he needed money which is why he was working at my house.

I ended up calling mom at work to tell her to come to the house and keep supervising when it was getting closer to 4 and they still weren't ready to start on the indoor work (what I was going to pay James for). Finally got power to the AC and heater, the heater came right on, but the AC didn't want to start up right away which freaked me out for a minute, but James said it would reset and it did come on, which was a major relief. A short time later he came back to say that I should have hot water, when I first turned it on, there wasn't any, but then a minute later I had HOT water!

Then all that was left was the original additional work, repairing the non-working outlet in the kitchen and running the water line for the icemaker in my fridge. We also agreed that for additional money, James would add 2 outlets to my bedroom (which currently has only 1). They are also supposed to cut the plywood to fit in the hole where the water heater used to be and said they would attach my dryer cord.

I went to work and mom said. James ran the water line for the ice maker, but somehow the line got kinked and started to leak, so he said he would buy a new line and install it tomorrow. They did get my dryer cord hooked in and tested that the dryer does work. James asked for part of the remaining money, which my mom gave him. At this point, I hope he does come back as I WOULD like the 3 outlets and the water line to the ice maker, but if he is a no show again at least the MAJOR work is done and the rest I can live with until I can hire someone else, and basically I have gotten all the work I paid for now. But, I know he needs money so hopefully this will work in my favor and I will be able to get all the work he promised done.

Still in all, the house is now in livable condition and we can finally do laundry.

On tap for tomorrow after work will be planting the 2nd beautyberry and more woodwork painting. Friday, still more painting and some more laundry. Pretty soon we are going to need to break from working on the house and start working on packing up the apartment.