Heart & Soul’s Grand Opening

Winter 15, Sunday (Mar 2)

The day of moving to Nordhaven has finally arrived!

Using my upgraded Dr. June’s Weather Contgrol Machine’s Advance Seasons feature, I switch the season from Day 15 of winter to Day 1 of spring.

Spring 1, Sunday

Once I’m finally packed, I move to Nordhaven, unpack, sell any excessive stuff, and proceed to furnish my home and the Heart & Soul Studio.

Next, I invite over Juwon to ask him to be my roommate then hire him as an employee.

Watcher’s note: I spent six rl hours yesterday unable to get Juwon to move in as a roommate. I tried it with mods, without some of my mods, and without any mods/cc, but he wouldn’t move in because he "needed more space around the bed." (I also tried a different homeless  NPC but got the same response. Finally, I installed LittleMissSam’s Roommates mod, which solved the rommmate issue in 5 minutes.

Nia Sarpong: A Tomarani greeting? Did you think I’m Southeast Asian? Tae: You’re not? (This is awkward. NIa: No, Sarpong is a common family name in Ghana. I can’t join you in an “Asians Represent” cheer, but how about “Sims of Color Unite!”? Tae: Works for me.  Actually, I came to ask if you’d be my mentor. 

Back home, I open Heart & Soul for the first time with a 0% Price Modifier. Once foue sims arrive, I start a Pottery Class which starts out with 3 attendees who are soon joined by a fourth.

Juwon vanishes immediately after my class starts. According to Watcher, he’s jogging around our neighborhood. He's assigned four employee tasks: Clean, Repair, Scrap Crafts, and Papercrafting. I added Papercrafting so he’ll have something to do when there’s nothing to clean, repair, or scrap, but I guess he’s not feeling any of those tasks?

I had a hobby class goal to Craft a Ceramic, so I had to displace one of my class attendees. Juwon didn't help matters by sitting at one of the pottery wheels later to chat.

How great that Summer Holiday is using one of the flower arranging tables. I’m thinking of alternating between pottery classes and flower arranging classes. I also have that class area for skills that require no skill objects.  Maybe I'll teach a Romance class once a week after all.

My pottery class automatically ends after about six hours, earning a gold medal while I’m mentoring Kasem Bun Ma. I know giving gold-medal classes is required for the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration, but I’m starting with Master Mentor.

Heart & Soul does really well on its Grand Opening, thanks to the sales of my flower arrangements at 0% markup. I’d make more by selling them from a vendor table or on Plopsy, but I’m not sure yet whether high profit positively influences my renown.

I’m feeling a bit salty for Juwon’s complete lack of work ethic. Staring at a wastebasket for 30 minutes, does not count as cleaning! After closing, I boosted his hourly wage from §20 (standard pay) to §32 (high pay). I’ll give him three more workdays while tweaking his Employee Tasks. If he doesn’t step up his game, I’ll hire someone else in his place. It's no big deal; Juwon would still be my roommate.

Once our last customer leaves, I rearrange the studio. To make room for my new layout of six pottery wheels and three kilns, I make my already-small retail area even smaller. Hmmm, maybe Juwon would prefer to craft items to sell in the studio on his own schedule, rather than work with me in the studio as an employee. Also, if I add mentoring to Juwon’s Employee Tasks, does his mentoring count toward my Hobby Class progress?

Important Question: Which of my besties is offering hobby classes. If only one of Da Ladies would offer classes in Papercrafting...