Unnecessary things

Today we bought a coat stand. You may say that a coat stand is not the most important thing when there are so many other things in a new house to fix, but it is important. It is something the guests see first, and it is also something you use every day. In the old country, we had inherited clothes racks with the house and never changed them. I tried when we had major repairs, but Staffan said they were perfectly fine, and I guess I had other battles to fight then. So we lived over twenty five years with exceedingly ugly clothes racks that we got used to and took no notice of. I wonder what our guests thought.

At Water Street we had no hallway, so I put up hooks for our winter clothes by the front door, but I didn't have my power tool then, so the hooks soon fell down, and I didn't bother to put them up again. We had our coats thrown over a stool.

Any piece of furniture is subject to negotiations, and sometimes we end up with a compromise, that is, something neither of us particularly likes. But I don't want any temporary solutions this time. There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

We go to a store that we have passed by many times, and lo! there is a coat stand in the window, exactly the kind I want, like we had when I was a child, with curved athlers for hats. And apparently Staffan also had one in his childhood home. We look at each other, then at the price tag and back to each other, and nod.