The Tale Of Two Sinks

It is the best of stories, it is the worst of stories....try not to judge me after reading this.

Last July I took a little trip to Washington and Oregon to do some shopping.  I was looking for specific items, and one was a vintage enamel over steel double sink with drainboards and a backsplash. Here is an idea of what I was looking for.....except without the cabinet.

 I knew exactly what I wanted and had been hoping to run across one at a garage sale or something here in Sitka but never did. I love vintage things and they are hard to find here and I figured I never would find one, so since I had saved up enough money I headed south to find one and do whatever it took to get it up here. 

You have to understand how expensive and difficult it is to get things shipped here....it is an ordeal!  Well, I didn't find a sink while I was down there, but as soon as I got home I found one on craigslist that was in Portland, Oregon.  Here is where the ordeal begins.

1.  I ask my sister to give my niece and nephew (who also live in Portland) the money to go and buy the sink, pick it up and take it to their house where they store it for 4 months..

2. I mail a check to my sister who lives in Albany, Oregon for the cost of the sink plus extra to pay for her gas and a hotel to drive to my nieces house, pick up the sink and drive it to the crating company in Seattle, Washington.  That way she can take her friend along and spend a couple days in Seattle and have some fun.
It rained alot while they were there.

3. The crating company (for a fee) crated up the sink to ensure that it doesn't get damaged by the barge line.  I could have taken the risk and shipped it on a pallet, but the barge line would not guarantee its safe arrival in Sitka undamaged.  The crating company then took it to the barge line (for a fee).

It was at this point in the story that I went to dinner at a friend's house here in Sitka.  At the dinner there where several other friends that I know, and one, Wendy Alderson, asked me what I had been up to.

 I started telling her about my summer trip and how I had wanted this particular sink and had been determined to get one here even if it took money and effort.  She started to get an odd look on her face and asked me to describe the sink again and then said.....get this....."I HAVE ONE OF THOSE IN MY BASEMENT THAT I WOULD JUST GIVE YOU FOR FREE".    What?  You have got to be kidding me!  I felt kind of sick......but it was too late to stop the whole process.....my sink was on it's way.    Well, over the next couple of days I got thinking more about it and decided that I wanted that sink too!  One for in the sunroom and one for outside in the garden... so a couple of days later I called her and said I'd take it.

4.  The barge line puts the sink on the barge and about 5 days later we get a call saying it had arrived in Sitka.

5. Dale drives to the barge line and picks up the sink for me.....it's here at last!

6.  About 4 hours later there is a knock on the door and there is Wendy.  She brought me her sink.  Not only did she give it to me, she delivered it to the door.

Now, how would you feel?  It's easy for me to be irked and think I paid too much and wish I had waited longer before going to all that trouble, but when I told the story to Levi he just lit up and said, "Cool!  Now you have 2 sinks....2 for the price of 1!  I think that is the way I am going to try to look at it.