A SINK FOR THE GARAGE

Art finally gave in to peer pressure and bought a small sink for the garage. When we discovered that we would need to have a larger garage door installed, Mauro had told us that we would have to get rid of the small sink that was in the garage, close to the door. It wasn’t really a big deal for either one of us…the sink was small, and it only had cold water anyway. Art figured as long as he could keep the faucet, he could attach a hose and use it to wash the car if he wanted to. At first, we didn’t even think that it would be necessary to move the sink, but in the end, Mauro was right. Of course.

I think the first person to ask Art about the sink was Gilberto. Art told him all he needed was the faucet. Gilberto said “But what about washing your hands?” Art told him he’d just use the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen…after all, wasn’t that part of the reason we’d put in that bathroom? (And the reason that bathroom had a shower was due to Mauro’s insistence that we really NEEDED shower for when we came in from outside and were dirty. You have no idea what clean freaks and germ freaks the Italians are!)

One of Gilberto’s concerns was that if Art just left a hose attached to the faucet, the faucet might somehow get turned on, and would flood the garage. Art assured him that he would be careful. Just to be on the safe side, the next time Gilberto was by, he took the end of the hose and made sure it was inside the drain pipe. You can never be too careful.

Then our neighbor Armando asked Art about putting in a new sink. He was in the process of installing a new sink in his garage, and once again, he stressed to Art how important it would be to have someplace to wash his hands. Art and I discussed these conversations, and pretty much laughed them off. I know we didn’t put in a bidet when we built the new bathroom, but we DO have three bathrooms, thank you very much…we’re not complete pigs.

Then for some reason, Mauro stopped by one day and asked if we planned to put a new sink in the garage. And Gilberto was only to happy to give Art directions to a place in Marsciano, so Art just caved in and told me we’d have to get the sink and be done with it. Gilberto measured for us, and told us to make sure the sink was no deeper than 35 centimeters from the wall, so that the car wouldn’t hit it.

Art got the directions, and the next time we went to Marsciano, we decided to get the sink. Art said that the place we needed was just past the Polo store. We were supposed to turn left at the next street, and then there would be a circle. After that he was fuzzy, but figured we could take it from there.

Of course, once we turned left, we never saw the “circle”…whatever that was supposed to be. I had assumed it would be a round-about, but there was no round-about on that street at all. We drove further up the street…but it was all residential. At the end of the street was the community swimming pool and sports complex. We didn’t see anything that looked like a plumbing supply place or hardware store.

Art drove around the area two or three more times. No, it wasn’t in the small strip mall where the Conad was. No, it couldn’t be the Dico, that’s just a grocery store. And then it hit me….hey, I’ll bet he means that round BUILDING!!! Of course Art looked at me as if I were crazy. “What round building?” “The one right next to the Dico”, I told him. “They have plumbing supplies, I remember seeing a sign.”

And so we pulled into the parking lot for the round building next to the Dico, and sure enough, there it was. All the plumbing supplies you could ever want, with a few general building supplies thrown in for good measure. Art found just the right sized sink, got the necessary mounting hardware and drain pipes, and we were set! What a team! Now all we had to do was get Fabio back here to install it!

When Fabio stopped by a few days later, Art showed him what we had bought, and he said everything looked good. He could come back later in the week to hook everything up. He told Art “Yes, you really need a sink out there to wash your hands.”

We’re still waiting for Fabio to return, but once he does, the men of the neighborhood will be relieved that Art finally has a place to wash his hands!