Wednesday, March 03, 2010

From a fire hydrant

Maybe this didn't happen to you because you are all frugal and a great budgeter and an awesome planner, but it totally happened to me.

The two weeks right before I got married I opened up my wallet and let the wedding industry stick it's fat little fists inside. By that point I was just so tired of making choices and trying to cut corners that I just gave up. I couldn't say no when it was a bazillion times easier to just say yes. So I hemorrhaged money.

And as we draw closer to the end of our kitchen renovation the same thing is happening. For example, when putting up the backspalsh tile we decided that we'd just buy the tile cutting blade for the hacksaw so we could cut notches out of our tile...

...which didn't work...

So then we went back and bought a tile blade for the ear doctor's jig saw...

...which kind of worked but got bent so we bought a second and then got frustrated with how wobbily the cuts were...

In the end we bit the bullet and rented the wet saw.

Guess what, it turns out that when you pay the big bucks to get the right tool the job becomes a million times easier.

Which is why on Saturday we walked out of Home Depot with a brand new router. I wasn't about to attempt to round the corners of our baseboard trim BY HAND with SANDPAPER as the orange-clad employee was attempting instruct.

No way.

Maybe 4 months ago I would have attempted that feat, but now, at the end I will easily drop $100 without even blinking.

7 comments:

Raven said...

There is NO WAY we could've finished our bathroom reno without the wet saw. Whenever we start our master bath/closet reno we will definitely be renting it again.

I would LOVE to own a proper miter saw because hand sawing all those angles was a total nightmare.

heather said...

nope, i do not think you're alone on this one (or maybe that's just me telling myself that so i can feel better about all the times I've done the same)! of course i absolutely hate when things like your saw things happen...when i finally bite the bullet and spend the money, then i hate that i wasted all the time and energy before that breaking point!

Robyn said...

We've made that mistake too and eventually bought things, (like a flooring nailer) and then sold them on craigslist after we were done... makes some of the money back at least and beats renting the tools... There are lots of good used tools there too.

Maggie said...

too bad we don't live closer and could have let you borrow our wet saw.

Maggie said...

PS. Now I know what to get you for presents...router bits!

Katharina said...

I am a firm believer that excellent tools (whether they be for the kitchen, the yard, renovation project, or anything else) are things that should be purchased for the good of the marital union.

Sounds like you're in the home stretch on Kitchen Hell!!

dad said...

Every man needs a good tool