by Wendy Scheel | Feb 7, 2017 | DIY
I love me…. and my tools.
Being home alone, the only accolades I get are the ones I give myself. And today I praised myself above and beyond what is probably normal. đ
Let me explain.
Last night when I was Face timing with Wade, I was telling him that I was going to put up the trim piece above the wallpaper in the bathroom, and needed to know what kind of nail to use.
Before answering, he asked if I was âreadyâ to buy a nailer yet.
I wasnât.
And I wasnât because I wanted the trim piece up right away and I didnât have a clue how to use a nailer.
He explained the process of putting up the trim piece, without a nailer, by saying that I would need to drill a pilot hole in the trim and all of these other things, which sounded much too complicated, so I decided to go to Home Depot and buy a nailer.
I love me. HeeHee
I picked out the Ryobi 18V straight finish nailer with AirStrike technology. Just like the box says, “There are no compressors, gas cartridges or hoses needed.”
This doesnât seem super exciting, but let me tell you, a quick review of the easy to use directions and I was nailing!
But wait, thereâs more. I also used my miter saw! Wade bought me the saw for my birthday last July and between you and me, I was kind of chicken to use it.
I had an old, no bells and whistles miter saw and it worked fine.
Except for those couple of times when it didnât. Â đ
I pulled up my big girl panties and gave it a whirl. And let me tell you, it was amazing!
I had some fancy angles to cut (thanks Dad for the help from Texas on that) and it did not disappoint. The other thing this miter saw has that my old one didnât is this Ghostbusters-like Laser Beam.
All I had to do was line up that laser with my mark and it was a perfect cut.
Now, since I was so full of self love and confidence, I decided to continue this cutting streak in the morning and put a wood frame around the bathroom mirror.
Using these four wood blocks and liquid nails, I simple squiggled some liquid nails on the back of the wood and stuck one in each corner of the mirror.
Although this will adhere fairly quickly, I still used painters tape to hold the top blocks in place.
From here is was a matter of making straight cuts on the boards that go between each corner block, squiggle and stick.
The only things left to do on this project are filling the little nail holes made by the nailer, sealing the edges of the wood around the mirror so it is waterproof, touching up the paint on the boards, re-hanging my towel hooks and of course cleaning up my mess.
Iâll have the full before and after reveal for you on Thursday.
And I promise to be done with the self praise, but not until I look at the bathroom one more time.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 4, 2016 | Life
Last we chatted, I explained that this was the year I was going to organize my Christmas decorations and then share that experience with all of you.
I’m not the worlds best “How to” blogger. Here is how my blog would’ve been written:
- Untangle Christmas lights and plug them in to see which are still working. If it doesn’t light up, toss it.
- Gently roll up lights, hold them together with a twist tie, put them in a Ziploc baggie, label the baggie and seal.
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- Pull everything else out of the 1000 half filled tubs of Christmas decorations you have drug around for over 50 years. Throw away what’s broken, donate items that hold no sentimental value for you and place remaining items that are similar in a Ziploc baggie. Label the baggie and seal.
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- Put all baggies back into your tubs, label the tubs and have your husband put the tubs into the garage until next year.
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As you can tell, I like the cut and dry version about how to do things. I am a “read between the lines” kind of person so I assume others should be also. You know what they say about assuming.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, here is a great reference about how to organize your Holiday Decorations. đ
Now since I didn’t have to write that great “How To”, I had more time to go to my first Estate Sale of the year.
I thought you might want to come along. đ
We headed out on Saturday morning and went to this sale first.
This 9000+ square foot home was on a 2 acre wooded lot. It had been built in 2008 and had been meticulously cared for.
Most sales are open for 2-3 days. The second and third days shows markdowns of 30%-50%. Saturday was the second day of this sale. There was nothing left but a few glass flower vases, some empty fancy boxes and a white 3/4 zip sweatshirt. I bought the sweatshirt…for $1. đ
The other sale was in Bloomington and Saturday was the first day of the sale.
In contrast here is a picture of that house.
This home was built….a long time ago, and was about 1000 square feet. For that reason we waited in line outside, in 28 degree weather for about 20 minutes before getting in.
Once we made it inside the front door there was an overwhelming amount of stuff.
A living room packed with Antiques…
And then tools, and tools and more tools.
Wade guessed that there were at least 500 screwdrivers in one box. You could hear people muttering to themselves, “Oh my gosh, Oh. My. Gosh!!” as they stopped to realize the massive quantity of tools in such a small space. Multiples of the same tool, over and over again.
But it didn’t end there. The garage and sheds out back were full of…you guessed it, tools and other random things.
I bought this vintage four-foot metal level. I found this level in the kitchen by the other kitchen utensils. đ Currently it is just sitting on the back of this dresser in the family room. I am considering making it a coat hanger in my entry way.
I put this picture on instagram yesterday and a follower of Old Lake George commented about the picture saying…
She used these planers as bookends! What a great idea! Maybe I will go back on half-off price day and get some planers for the bookshelf I need to build đ
Cheers to a great first full week of 2016!
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Sep 28, 2015 | DIY
Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. It was a top 10 day here this weekend in Minnesota!
I took this picture yesterday. You can see what amazing weather we had, June temperatures in late September. Beautiful.
Let me introduce you to my neighbor.
Everyone, this is Jimmy.
Jimmy, this is everyone.
Jimmy and his cute as a button wife Nikki live two doors down from us. You may remember me mentioning my neighbor that works at the local tree farm? He cuts the birch tree branches for me that I use to make these candlesticks.
This is him. (Nikki said she wasn’t ready for a photo, silly Nikki. I’ll catch you next time.)
Jimmy and Nikki both love to mill around on Pinterest. Not only do the pin ideas to their boards, they actually make the ideas they pin.
Last weekend they invited us over for a fish fry.
Fish fry. Someone else making dinner. Win-Win.
They deep fat fried the fish out in their garage. Very smart, plus it was another beautiful Minnesota evening.
While Jimmy was frying, I noticed this tool organizer on the wall.
I asked him where he got it and he causally said that he made it off of an idea from Pinterest.
So today I would like to share with you the steps he took to make this.
He started with 2×3 boards. In hindsight he should have used 2×4’s, but he used what he had in the garage at the time. He then made this template to use as the cut out for his tool handles. The rounded top is a 1.5 inch diameter and the length is almost 4 inches.
His next step was placing the template onto the 2×3, tracing it about every six inches.
Here is where he drilled out the top rounded section with a 1.5 inch drill bit.
After that section is drilled through, he simply took his circular saw and followed the black lines until they connected to the rounded out section.
Place, trace, drill and cut each area until you have the desired amount of spots for your tool handles.
There will be a lot of weight on these brackets so for the final step Jimmy attached each one of these brackets into a wall stud.
Another suggestion he had was to attach a horizontal brace behind the vertical brackets to make them stick out further. That way the deeper tools such as shovels would sit nicely into the slot.
I love how everything is on the wall, organized and ready to use without digging in a barrel or a pile for the right tool.
I hope I can convince Jimmy to share more of his DIY Pinterest influenced items. The guy has so many skills. đ
Here’s to getting organized! See you Wednesday.
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