On a fine Friday morning before spring quarter started, I decided it was time to get all of my appliances out of Kevin's garage and to AML. So, I called AML and asked where I needed to take everything; I called a half-dozen U-haul places and finally found one close to Kevin's that had the van I wanted; then I got out of bed, got dressed and jumped in my car to start the 1.5 hour drive from Bellingham to Lynwood.
I was cutting it a little too close for comfort. AML closes at 4:30 p.m. and, depending on traffic, it could take two hours to drive from Kevin's to AML. I left my house at 12:45 p.m. I arrived at U-haul a little after 2 p.m., and arrived at Kevin's right around 2:30 p.m. At that point, we still needed to wrap up a few things and load the van.
Let me give you a little run down on my espresso machine. I found it on Craigslist for $500. It is 10 years old, but it is a good brand, so well worth it. However, a few days before I was going to drive down to Everett to buy it, the owner contacted me and told me that it in fact, did not work anymore. She said that the water pump was broken, so she would sell it to me for $100 if I wanted to try and get it fixed. After discussing it with my mom, we decided to go for it. We bought the broken espresso machine and found a guy who specializes in espresso machines - Russ.
I called Russ, and after playing phone tag for a week, we set up a time for me to drive to Lynwood to drop off the machine. Ya, I have had to do a lot of driving around for all this coffee shop supplies, but it has been worth it. So, when I took the espresso machine to Russ, he took a quick peek at it and could tell it was not the water pump, but he said it looked like the engine could be seized, which happens when espresso machines sit in someone's garage for too long! So as you can imagine, I was not very happy about that. Russ took the machine with the intent to call me as soon as he figured everything out, which thankfully only took him a day and a half.
Turns out the engine was not seized, there was a problem with the boiler and the pressure/temp. gage on the front was blown. Ya, I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but really, I have no idea what the heck a broiler is for an espresso machine. It was $400 to fix the machine, so in the end, it was still only $500 total!
Back to the barge excitement.
Because Russ said the espresso machine could seize if it was in a garage for too long, but didn't say how long too long would be, I became extremely paranoid and made Kevin keep the machine in his bedroom instead of his garage. And, when I was driving down to his house to get the U-haul and take everything to AML, I called him and made him go buy a couple blankets to wrap around the espresso machine so that it wouldn't get to cold on the barge ride up to Sitka. We left Kevin's house a little before 3 p.m., so we had an hour and a half to make it to AML. Thankfully, the traffic was mediocre, so we made it there about 4:10 p.m. It was cutting it a little too close, but in the end we made it, so that is all that matters.
I heard from my mom a couple weeks ago, and her and my dad got everything from AML and put it in storage, except the espresso machine: It is currently sitting in their living room. It will probably still be sitting there, all wrapped up, when I finally make it to Sitka in June. Of course, before my parents told me that the espresso machine was sitting happily indoors, my dad told me they put it in the storage locker. I had a mini panic attack. I guess my mom told him how fussy I had been about the machine, so he couldn't resist teasing me.
Everything is coming together. We still need a sink, but that is it. Of course the coffee shop still needs to be put on location, which will be a huge undertaking, and it still needs to have counters built, water plumbed in and electricity sorted out, but it will happen- I HOPE. I also still need to get the right permits from the city and all the right licenses from the state. I have my business license, so that is step one, but there are still about 10 more steps before I reach the finish line.
Here it is: The Problem Corner Cafe. This was in Sitka, in December when we were lifting it on to the Eyak to be taken to Port Alexander. It is now sitting on a small barge in PA waiting to be lifted onto our property, which I've just recently been told will probably happen in May.
