Singer 216G

I thought I was making progress on my sewing machine addiction. 

I hadn't even viewed CL for a couple of weeks and wasn't much interested, frankly.  But I think I chalk that up primarily to a general ennui, that is that I'm constantly tired and just plain bored with life.  The house search is stalled and I'm not getting much help from anyone. 

To wit, our first real estate agent turned out to be a jerk.  Good at real estate, bad with people.  We're done with him.  Our second (recommended by our financial adviser, no less) turned out to be incompetent: we found the perfect (and I mean THE PERFECT) house for our very specific needs and at a price that was perfect, we told her this was it, make the offer, and she bailed.  She didn't even get in touch with the listing agent (with an open house in two days) and we then had to call and inform her the following Tuesday that the house had been sold because it was no longer appearing in our searches.  Done with her and still hacked off about it, too.  Our third turned out to be very unprofessional: she brought her baby with her while we were viewing houses and this baby screamed and cried and carried on during our tour and I made an appointment in Seattle to meet her to sell our condo and she didn't even show up, this after I fought traffic for 45 minutes to get there, waiting an hour and 10 minutes for her.  She finally answered my frantic e-mail (I thought perhaps she had gotten into a terrible accident) and she called and informed me that our meeting had completely slipped her mind.  Done with her.

So, back to square one.  My mom is almost useless but we had seen a house on one of our trips that we thought was pretty nice and the price was very affordable.  We had decided to see it again with a new agent and were about to make arrangements to do so and found out it had sold that very day.

So, back to square one yet again. 

As a diversion, I peeked at CL.  I'm allowed a peek, aren't I?  Well, six days later I have four more machines.  And as far as cities with sewing machines, Tacoma is deadly.  I have found more beauties there than any other location and four(!) more while touring that grand town is a little much even for me. 

Case in point, here is my latest Singer, a German-made Haid und Neu badged by Singer when Singer bought the Karlsruhe factory in 1958.  It was shipped from Germany by the seller's grandparents and it now sits on my dining room floor waiting to be moved to a...throne?

Having only seen them online, I knew I had a great deal at $30 but I figured it would need some work and sure enough, a bit of wiring, touch-up paint, and cleaning was in order.  It needs a new belt and bobbin tire, a controller cord (which I think will be served temporarily by the one connecting my Phoenix to the wall), and a thorough oiling and lube.  It's certainly a heavy-duty zig-zag with needle position, it weighs a ton, and looks pretty good for its age.  Even the table is really neat, with its bentwood storage shelves and sliding door bobbin access underneath.  After I refinish it (and it's a keeper), the entire package should be worthy of what will hopefully be a very different location than my current home.