Essential Tools for the Newlywed/Homeowner

Tools isn’t a euphemism for character traits…I’m talking real tools here.

I’ve been married for 7 years and a homeowner for almost two. For the first 5 years I lived 50 feet from my parents house and therefore had access to a lifetime supply of tools. My father was a high school shop teacher, so he had tools above and beyond the ordinary. At the time I didn’t realize how good I had it. After moving into my own home 30 miles away, I soon realized that my tool collection was sorely lacking and thus began my tool purchasing days. I’ve learned a few things along the way and here’s my top 5 tools that should be at the top of everyone’s list if they’re about to endeavor into home improvement.

1. Measure Twice – If you don’t have at least two tape measures, start here. Believe me. If you do no home improvements at all, you will need this to measure out your house for furniture or hanging pictures on the wall. When we were furniture shopping I pretty much carried a 25′ tape measure with me constantly. You need two simply because they “get lost” from time to time (read: this is something that your spouse will use and won’t put it back!)
2. Step it up – again, it doesn’t matter how many improvements you plan to make…if you hang curtains, paint the walls, or just need to change a light-bulb a step ladder is essential. Depending on your ceiling/personal height you may be fine with a 6′, but a 8′ might be a good option. Aluminum or Fiberglass is also your call…if you plan to do electrical work, go with fiberglass. If you’re a heavier fellow, make sure to get one that’s rated for 300lbs. In my case I have a 6′ aluminum one rated for 250lbs, but I’m 4’5″ and weigh 125lbs.
3. Drill Baby, Drill – I’m really not sure what people did before the invention of the battery operated power drill. It is used constantly in my household. If not for drilling holes, then for screwing, tightening and just speeding up any general screwdriver job. My advice- get the best thing you can afford. I’m not particular to brand names, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Lithium Ion Makita’s. Pricey, but I think worth it.
4. Nail it, Screw it. – I had a hammer, drill, and screwdrivers galore shortly after getting married…but until I moved into my own house (and away from my father’s collection) I didn’t ever have any nails or screws or fasteners of any kind. I remember at least 3-4 occasions after moving into my new house when friends and family would be over helping me with a project and they would say “we just need some screws”…and I would say “I don’t have any”. Kind of embarrassing really. So, go out and buy yourself a few boxes…personally, dry-wall screws go a long way and are useful in a number of situations. If you’re getting ready to start a project, I recommend buying twice as many nails/screws as you need. Inevitably in the future you will need more and it’s a lot more expensive to haul yourself to a hardware store and buy them again.
5. Buy It Once. This isn’t a tool specifically, but it’s probably the most important thing to remember in this list. Jen’s grandfather shared this mantra with her and I’ve found myself echoing it to myself over and over again, often the hard way. Sure you can go into Harbor Freight and buy a ton of tools for really cheap and in some cases, I think that’s fine. BUT for the things that you know you’re going to use for the rest of your life, for tools that are going to have a long, rough life, buy the good stuff. If you don’t, you’ll buy the cheap stuff, it’ll break or won’t work right to begin with and then you’ll buy it again (and again). So it may cost 50% more on the front end, but in the long run it’ll save you.

So, there you go, my list of the tools you need to begin your collection as you endeavor into the world of home-ownership and repair. Did I miss anything? Are there other tools that are vital for you? Let me know in the comments.

Did he have passion?

There’s this great little romantic movie called Serendipity that I really love.  I don’t know all of the reasons, probably something about destiny and love and chance that draws me in.  But aside from all of that, there’s this little quote in the movie when the main character is beginning to doubt his direction in life and his friend speaks this line:

“You know the Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: “Did he have passion?”.

I can’t help but turn that question on myself…do I have passion?  Sometimes I’m not sure of the answer.  Lately though, I’ve been finding these little pieces of art that inspire me.  They give me passion.  Some of them I’ve watched many times and always the same result, I’m driven because of them.  So, here’s to hoping that they might do the same for you:

I’ve watched this one so many times…I love all the clips, they make me smile, they make me want to experience more of life (and to film it)  WARNING: contains some cussing at the end

winter. from gnarly bay productions, Inc. on Vimeo.

I just found this one last night…it’s simple, just a guy and girl and a song.  but the dude just really gives it and I dig that.

Ben & Noelle Kilgore “live at Ida Red” from Kelly Kerr on Vimeo.

This is possibly the best piece of film I’ve seen outside of a theater.  In fact, I’ve probably paid $10 for movies with less plot, worse acting, and worse cinematography than this little gem:

APRICOT — A Short Film by Ben Briand from Moonwalk Films on Vimeo.

View from the top

My good friend Kipp finally decided to get hitched and it just so happened that his [now] wife is from Hawaii…so, the wedding was in Hawaii and for obvious reasons Jen and I thought we shouldn’t miss out on such an occasion. Now I could go on and on about how amazing the wedding was or how beautiful the island was, but this post isn’t about that…

This was our first vacation in 6 years of marriage. Sure, we’ve taken time and visited family and our job often calls us to some pretty cool places, but it’s not really vacation…at least not how I think of it. It honestly took about 3-4 days for it to sink into my skull that my only responsibility was to have fun…to do whatever I wanted to do. Slowly the stresses and concerns of everyday life faded away and the enjoyment and pleasure modes kicked in and it turned into one of the best weeks of my life. Unfortunately though, we can’t live there, it’s just not realistic.

But what is?

We’ve been home for a couple days now and I find myself similarly unsettled to the way I was on the first few days of the trip. We spent so much time going and doing fun things, things that we WANTED to do and now that we’re back I’m finding it hard to slip back into my regular routine. Suddenly “relaxing” by watching TV just seems like an escape from the fact that my life isn’t as full as it could or should be. I need adventure…purpose…and pleasure. The difference now is that I’m not thinking about ways to just have fun, instead I’m thinking of ways to work the way I want to work, do the things I want to do, and make enough money so that I have the resources to take a vacation more often than once every 6 years.

The moral of the story is this: It’s time to start doing the things that I’ve put off for far too long. It’s time to turn of the TV, sacrifice a few hours of sleep and live in an adventure that will give me a story to tell.

My Five [Tech]

My boss/pastor asked me to send out a little survey to find out some information about leaders in our denomination. They were fairly simple questions like “What are the top 5 books you’ve read in the past 3 years”. I think it will be interesting to hear what comes back in the results.

That led me to a question of my own- What are the top 5 pieces of technology that make my job easier/better? Well, without further due, here they are:

5. Amazon Prime – I’ve mentioned this a time or two before, but I just love this service. Amazon as we all know has pretty much everything under the sun. Add to that the idea of getting it shipped to you in two days for free or overnight for just $4 and you have a winning combination. With gas prices and time being as tight as they are, this service just makes it easier for me to get what I need quickly and cheaply.

4. Scansnap Sheetfed Scanner – from the moment I plugged this thing in I was in awe. Scanning documents used to be a big pain in the neck, but the scansnap is…well…a snap! Drop in your document, hit the big green button, and within seconds it scans and drops everything into a PDF. No more flipping through file folders looking for certain documents…all it takes is a keyword search and I have the document on my screen.

3. Dropbox/Mozy – until I actually had a job I didn’t really see the value in online storage solutions, but within the first few weeks my eyes were opened. I used a flash drive to transfer files back and forth between home and work, but I would forget it or forget to save it on the drive and it quickly became a pain. So, dropbox allows me to sync files between home and work so I don’t have to worry about what is here or there. Mozy backs up my documents to an offsite location which is particularly handy when I’m using the scansnap to scan documents and I no longer have hard copies.

2. Adobe Illustrator – oh wow, what can I say about this program…I would be lost without it! Everything from brainstorming, to print graphics, to powerpoint presentations are worked out in illustrator. At first I didn’t get it and I still have trouble jumping from Illustrator to Photoshop, but Illustrator definitely makes sense to me and I can make it do just about whatever I want. My only complaint is that I wish Adobe would make something for presentations so I could avoid dealing with Powerpoint!

1. THE iPhone. – it’s no secret that I’m a fan of this little piece of genius. It’s one of those devices that you wonder how you did life before you had it! It’s essentially a computer in my pocket, constantly within reach of the web, my photos, my music, and of course the phone and texting isn’t bad either.

So that’s it. What would be on your list?