there's a glimmer in the distance...is that the end of the tunnel?

Rocky showed up noonish on Friday ready to get the rest of the tile up and we got the next row of pencil tile up and started on the 6” band of wall tile, 2 pieces up and the saw started being balky so he took off to get a new blade and I never saw him again. Just as he was leaving, the old plumbers showed up to work on the water heater. They spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning soot out of it. Leeland and his helper were in the attic, on the roof, in and out of the bathroom. Did you know water heaters are hollow inside? I didn't. There is a long stretched out auger looking thing inside the water heater that they had to pull out from the attic that had mounds of soot caked up on it, the cap on the vent pipe on the roof was covered, and inside the hollow part of the tank but they got it cleaned up and then he tinkered with some other part and then put it all back together with the burner that he had already repaired and fired it up and we have hot water! He's going to stop by Monday to check his work and see if it's still working and I think that whatever was causing the soot has been addressed so they left and without presenting me with a bill...so far. And it's just as well Rocky didn't come back because he wouldn't have been able to accomplish anything, which I'm sure he realized, as long as the plumbers were here.

So, sink is unstopped, toilet is unstopped, water heater is working so now maybe we can actually make some progress on finishing the interior of the bathroom.

I took Marc to the airport Saturday morning for his annual week in Colorado with my brother. My brother skies all day, Marc hangs out at the resort all day and they visit in the evenings, and I get the house to myself for a week.

Rocky showed up Saturday and Sunday and we got all the tile up except for two small pieces which can't go on til the baseboard goes on. 

Still needs to be grouted. Sunday afternoon I got the trim for the doors and enough for around the window because I think I'm going to change that, bought a faucet, a towel bar, and a toilet paper holder though it's all chrome and I don't especially like shiny but the faucet was the style I like best with white porcelain handles.

Last Wednesday was the last watercolor class for the daytime series. I made pretty good progress as you can see but didn't finish. 

There are two more sessions for the Monday night class and those of us who didn't finish have been invited to attend so after yoga tonight I'm going to drop into the class and see if I can get it finished.

In the yard (we got an inch of rain last night so everything is wet), as we flip back and forth from winter to spring, my daffodils are finally blooming and the first amaryllis have opened, 

the ground orchids are blooming 

and the azaleas and they really are that vibrant. 

Redbud trees around town are in full bloom but not the two in my neighbor's yard yet. My little miniature redbud in a pot is putting on some flowers.

End of day, baseboards and the last two little pieces of tile are in and the molding for the window and door is stained. Rocky wants to move the vanity in tomorrow, maybe even get the cabinets back up.

Getting close.