A few months ago, my clothes dryer developed a problem. I called to see if it could be fixed. I was told to buy a new dryer.

Since the dryer still worked (it still dried clothes) despite its problem, I decided to see how much more life I could coax out of it. While it occasionally left black marks on clothes, it was not really a big issue – I have a lot of clothes that are already black. And I found the marks that did show washed out with the next washing.

Last week, as I was doing clothes, it seemed I was putting half the newly washed and dried whites back in the wash pile. It seemed the time had maybe come to buy a new dryer. The final decision-maker was when I had to pull with both arms to get the dryer to let loose of a pillow. I thought if this was a good shirt I was pulling on, I had probably just spent a shirt keeping a broken dryer. It was time.

The next morning, I thought through the options. Should I get a matching washer and dryer? Many people replace both when one stops working. While the perfectionist and the designer in me screams “matching”, I quickly came to the conclusion that there are better ways to spend or give money than on having matching appliances in the basement.

Then arose the question: Should I buy new? I decided I didn’t need a NEW dryer, I simply needed a WORKING dryer. A new dryer is a used dryer after the first load anyway.

So, having given up the desire for both new and matching appliances, I started looking on Craig’s List. I quickly realized a problem with this approach – delivery. Craig’s List dryers did not come with delivery and there was no way I could fit a dryer in my small car. Even if there was a way to somehow attach it to the top of the car, there was no way I could get it down the rock path to my house and/or into the basement by myself. Or get the old one out.

Then I remembered my sister, Lisa, and her husband, Rod, were coming through The Cities that weekend. I emailed them to see if I were to buy a dryer if they would be able to help me get it to my house.

Well, it “just-so-happened” that they had just received another “dryer email” from another sister, Jane, the day before – the day I decided to buy a “new” dryer. The email:

We are getting a new dryer and was wondering if Rod could use our old one. It is one I got from a gal at work last year and still works good, she just got a stackable one, I do not think it is real old. Let me know.

As Rod and Lisa did not need another dryer, they offered it to me. And while they could not fit it into their vehicle, their son, Andrew, was coming through The Cities that weekend with a truck and was willing to bring it up.

So, that weekend, Andrew delivered the dryer complete with getting it down the rock path and into the basement. He even helped get the old one out to the garbage. He would take no pay. I gave him a broken lamp.

Yesterday evening, Rod and Lisa stopped by and Rod commented on how the dryer seemed to be “of God”. I said, “And, you don’t even know the best part.”

What he did not know is that earlier that day I finished hooking up the dryer and slid it into place next the the wash machine. As I looked at how it looked, I thought, “Wow, the dryer looks good with the wash machine – same height, panels look the same, knobs are even the same design.” I wondered what the make was. I looked and found “Kenmore” – the same as my wash machine! I looked for the model number. “70 Series”. I looked on the wash machine. “70 Series”!

So this dryer that I found out about through a fluke/of God (depending on your perspective) e-mail, a dryer that became available the same day as I decided to buy a “new” one but which was free and which came with free delivery is the matching dryer for my wash machine.

And it works like new.

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