About 14 years ago my Dad called me up and said I needed to come get all the tools.
My wife was like "
Cool!...what do we need, a couple of boxes??" I told her no, we probably needed at least one semi, possibly two. She
freaked out! It took two. When everything was packed and loaded it was 90,000 lbs. It took months to unpack and find a place for everything, but
eventually I got it all organized, set up and stowed neatly. It took an entire three car garage, and half of the basement. I had taken an entire
construction company of tools!
For the longest time, my beautiful bride would say..."
Okay, you'll never need to buy another tool again, as long as you live, right?
Well, not exactly, and so more tools came over the years. Power tools, mechanics tools; all manner of tools. And every time a new tool would show up
my bride would say..."
You've got ENOUGH tools!! How could you possibly need more????" Well, I did, and that's all there was to it. Then we
bought the ranch, and I needed even bigger tools.
Fast forward to our wholesale kitchen remodel. Pretty soon all of those tools started coming out. I think I used every tool I ever had, and even
needed a few I had to buy. About the only tools I didn't use was my 110 lb jackhammer, the oxygen-acetylene torches and some steel drift pins for
aligning structural steel members.
In time, she saw the value of every one of those tools. At first they were just in the way of a clean kitchen, but over time she probably used half
of them herself. She learned the difference between different kinds of hammers and mallets, different kinds of chisels, different kinds of saws...and
even became proficient at using many of them herself. Bottom line, she began to understand why there are so many different variations of tools. And
THANKFULLY, she then understood why a pair of pliers are not a hammer, and why different sized screw bits matter (a LOT). In short, she became a
great team member in the whole process!
Before this project my bride never understood why I was so anal about putting my tools away all the time, always in the exact same bag or spot. In
the mass confusion of lumber everywhere, and multiple activities going on in different places, she finally understood. I showed her an example; I
assigned a tape measure to her, and her only...wrote her name on it even. After she lost it for the 17th time, she suddenly realized the value of
putting things back where they belong. Always.
I gave her increasingly larger projects to do. And, she did all of them well. Suddenly, she wanted a place to put some of "her" tools. Okay, we
made that happen. She was happy.
Tonight, I began to haul all of my tools back down into the basement, or out into the barn, where they belong (long term). It was a lot. I was
really proud to see all of the tools were where they belonged, in the right bag or pouch. All the screwdrivers and bits put away, all the saws, and
blades in their places, all the hammers organized, the bags of screws and wire nuts where they belonged. Everything organized, just how it should
be.
I doubt I will ever do a more comprehensive remodeling project than "we've" done on this kitchen in my lifetime. I'll build a new house around a
kitchen before I ever do this again, but we got it done. "WE" did...and that's pretty cool.
I learned that rather than getting mad and frustrated, it was better for me to explain exactly what we were doing, what could go wrong, what to watch
out for...and why things were important. Sometimes, in construction, it's the simplest stupid little things which are so critically important, things
like a backer-wrench on a pipe joint, or teflon tape on threads, or flux on a solder joint....or why a really straight cut on a board matters so much.
Heck even things like the difference between a "neutral" and a "ground' in an electrical circuit. I explained all the wiring diagrams, and why they
were important, why some circuits were 2-pole and others single...everything.
She got so good that one time I forgot something, and we had to cut a wall open again. She was like "
No problem", and she adjusted the
circular saw down to a 15/32" cut on the fence, asked me to lay it out, and started cutting...then took a utility knife and cut the remaining piece of
1/2" drywall out (just like a pro), without scoring the studs! I was beaming!
So, as I put my tools away tonight, all those echos of... "
why do you need so many tools???...are long past. Now the biggest question I get is
....
how do I change this bit / blade??"
Life is good!!
P.S. I love that girl!! She can drive me crazy sometimes, but I love her more than life itself most of the time!!
edit on 1/17/2020 by
Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)