I was standing in line at the hardware store. It turns out that I didn’t have any construction adhesive and was a bit short on 1/4round and trim will go better when you have some. The people in front of me had 3/4 inch plywood and 5 2x4s. The cashier was trying to charge them for 5/8, which would be great because it is cheaper, but was also wrong. I suppose it’s only 1/8th of an inch, but it is noticeable.
I looked over, as the cashier was arguing and said that no it was 3/4 inch and pulled a measuring tape out of my purse (I needed it to buy the 1/4 round).
The older gentleman smiled and said “Now there’s a girl who knows her dimensions”.
This weekend I installed trim in my back entrance: around the windows, the door laid baseboard and quarter round, used up some decorative trim to go around the ceiling.
I hate assembling Ikea furniture so very much that I hauled out 2 saws, a sander, the cordless drill and the brad nailer to use up some spare lumber from the garage to build a bench, which I painted white.
When I was still married, I held the nails, the dumb end of the tape measure, did the painting and decorating. I didn’t build stuff. To be fair, it wasn’t because Owen didn’t let me. He was often hyper critical, but he absolutely didn’t ever stand in my way. I had no need to build things, he was so much better at it and I was never going to measure up anyway.
The nice thing about being alone is your realize how much you’ve passively learned over the years. I had to google how to use the brad nailer. The caulking gun and I nearly came to blows, but in the end, I’ve done a passable job on the trim.
More than that, I really enjoyed it. I planned it out start to finish, bought the supplies, did all the measurements, glued and hammered and screwed things. I enjoyed figuring out how to make things work. The bench fills me with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. The corners on the window aren’t quite right, even with caulk. It was an amateur job. I still got it done. All on my own.
That’s an amazing feeling. I’ve learned my dimensions.
Way to go!! I have never done any of that stuff, and power saws do make me a bit nervous 😉 but I think there’s a lot I could do if I just put my mind to it.
I recently connected on Facebook with a woman I used to work with, and asked about her daughter, who had a bit of a rough time growing up, but would now be in her early 30s. Apparently she now has her own business building custom furniture (specializing in harvest tables) & she also runs classes to teach women how to build stuff with power tools!! (It’s called “Build Like a Girl,” lol.) I thought that was awesome!
Wow. I love it! What a great hall piece! When I was a kid, my dad never let me drive anything but a standard or work with power tools. It wasn’t sexist, but he knew my capabilities with such things. I have tried and we all agree, Ikea is a safe place for me. Have screw driver, will travel. I do own a power sander and a really chinzy power drill for screwing stuff that goes into framing in the house or predrilling holes. And it usually works ok, so long as thing don’t need to be drilled straight.
I haven’t read here in a long time. I’m happy to see you are still posting and still such a positive person.
Thanks