Calming Tempests in Teapots and Toasters

“Are you at the fun stage yet?” I was asked by more than one person in the months after an arsonist set our house on fire. At first I had no idea what they could possibly mean, but soon I understood they were referring to the opportunity to buy all new things. I’ve never been much of a shopper, and after losing all our possessions, I was really clear on how little we needed. The last thing I wanted to do was rush out and buy a bunch of stuff.

And yet, there were little pockets of interest where my mind would go and rub its hands together in gleeful anticipation. One of these was small appliances.

This kitchen was one of my inspirations when we were rebuilding.

As I planned my new kitchen, I thought carefully about my counter real estate. I was going for something like a galley with one “wall” being a large island, which I planned to keep clear.

In the house that burned, one of the only things on my counters was a jadeite-green KitchenAid stand mixer. My old kitchen was all white, and the pop of color of green was so pretty and cheerful. But try as I might, I could not find an exact replacement for my KitchenAid mixer.

Research revealed it had been a special shade offered for a limited time. I am not a frequent baker, and I decided, if I did replace my stand mixer, I would store it on a cart in the pantry. With the new kitchen I was going all white again, and I knew I would miss that pop of my favorite color.


Dualit 2-Slice Toaster, Mint Green - $254.85Waring had a blender in a jadeite green that was just beautiful, but we didn’t use a blender regularly, and there was no way I was going to give up precious counter space for something I used infrequently. This brought me around to toasters. It wasn’t long before I found the Dualit in a lovely minty green.

Hubba hubba!


I did hesitate at the price, but I was too busy wrangling with insurance and worrying about whether we were going to have the money to buy any appliances to take the time to justify this purchase. And then one day the mail carrier delivered a large box addressed to my husband, Paul.

I was so excited, I called him at work to ask if it was OK for me to open it. He said it was something he had ordered with airline miles. I felt an immediate sense of foreboding, which was confirmed as soon as I pulled this bad boy out of the box.


Cheese and crackers! What was this thing? It boggled the senses. It took me a moment for me to realize it was a toaster with a … was that a goiter?

Yes, my friends, it was.


OK, it was merely a goiter-like plastic appendage and it served a purpose: It was an egg poacher. See the steam gathering?


Now Paul is a good, good man, and I would like to tell you I remembered this and also took into account the fact that someone had recently burned down his house.

I want to say I was thoughtful and understood he was probably looking for simple comforts, and that I accepted that if he wanted to poach an egg in a plastic goiter whilst toasting his bread, I should just let him.


I’m sorry to say, when Paul came home that night, I ranted about how I wanted a pretty toaster with four slots, not this black plastic bulbous-nosed, two-slotted one.

Paul said I was welcome to buy the Dualit as well, but I knew I wouldn’t. It would have taken all my someone-burned-my-house-down-and-I-have-earned-this capital to justify spending so much money on one small appliance, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to summon this when we already had a toaster, albeit one with such unusual aesthetics.

I complained about all the space it took up on our small counter. Paul suggested we store it in one of the nearly empty cupboards, and — finally — I saw I was being a jerk and apologized.

We kept the toaster. Paul happily made egg sandwiches almost every morning for the whole family. They were delicious. At the new house I found the perfect spot for the toaster in a drawer at the end of the island, just above the one where the bread and peanut butter and Nutella live. It’s like it was meant to be.

While it’s great to have a beautiful home filled with useful and attractive things, what does any of it matter if we withhold the small applications — appliances, if you will — of generosity and compromise with the people we live with and love?

It’s all so clear in the abstract. Remind me of this the next time a large package addressed to Paul shows up on our doorstep.

URL: Calming Tempests in Teapots and Toasters http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-23642.html