Multi-Madness, Pertaining To New Tools, Toys, And Furniture

With the bathroom renovation well-underway, we’re consumed in new-tool-toy-furniture madness over here.

The whole tear-out-your-bathroom-and-put-it-back-together process is certainly time consuming, and because we’re still charging through with other projects and work, it’s taking longer than what I estimated (purely for your entertainment, I guessed only 4 days of inconvenience, I was so wrong). One big plus, however, is that we’re going to put some of our cool tools to good use. (Speaking of the bathroom construction though, I’ll have another update for you tomorrow on diynetwork.com’s blog The Pegboard.)

Onward with new tools, toys, and organizational tendencies:

Pete splurged on a Craftsman multi-cutter this week (something that was on his Christmas list but Santa didn’t bring, oops), and is already excited to oscillate through… anything. There seems to be a big hubbub being made over these little machines, so we’ll see how much use this guy receives now and in the months to come. Pete’s not necessarily a brand loyalist when it comes to tools, but he does own a lot of Craftsman’s line and reports having a great customer experience when it comes to being able to replace tools that malfunction or meet their death prematurely. Also, he saved a chunk of change by ordering this multi-tool through sears.com with a coupon code from retailmenot.com, and then picked it up in the store same-day. He even tacked on the extended 3-year warranty and still spent less buying online than it was priced in-store. Friendly little money saving tip right there.

I’ve had this laser level tucked away since my birthday without a real reason to use it until now. It’s actually something that Pete’s 5-year old daughter picked out for me, probably because she heard us talking about how cool a laser level would be, and probably because it has the word “laser” attached to the name. Cats like lasers, so why wouldn’t Emily? Who wouldn’t like a laser? Count Andy Dwyer in, that’s for sure. We suspect it’ll be really helpful in keeping our tile lines level when we get around to working on the inside of the shower itself – the whole mechanism is mounted on a tripod and spins rapidly to “draw” a line around the whole room, and that must be easier than holding a level to the wall all the live long day.

Another gift from Pete’s daughter Julia (this time for Christmas, what can I say, the girl knows that I like to make things): A little multi-tool from the clearance bin at Target (how can I tell?). The clearance end shelf in the back of every store tucked near the car maintenance and camping equipment is Pete’s favorite area to score good deals (mine, if you’re wondering is that end cap behind all of the Smith & Hawkin merchandise). I know why Julia picked it too, most likely because her Dad carries around his Husky knife (although I think right now he’s armed with something Milwaukee-branded, having lost Husky in a freak campfire accident). Pete can whip that knife out at the snap of his fingers and score anything that needs attention, whereas I am armed with nothing, which makes me no help to a kid trying to open the box of a new toy, or un-snag a knot, or get the gook off the bottom of her shoe. Anyways, back to the tool: we’ll see if I can find a use for each of it’s 8 little gadgets.

We also bought a tile saw once we decided to do the entire shower surround in tile. As you can see in the picture, we’ve been practicing/getting our wet saw bearings/getting our wet saw sea legs, if you will. Knowing that this little tiling project wasn’t going to turn into our full-time gig (we’ll leave that for the pros), we decided to buy the least expensive model at Home Depot (hoping that it wouldn’t be totally el cheapo and could get us through at least this project if not many more). Priced at $88, I actually bought it using a 10% off coupon and brought the cost down to $79.20. A big perk of this model was that it came with its own diamond blade, the kind that’s suitable for cutting anything from ceramic to marble to granite. At the time, we hadn’t landed on what the final shower material would be, so we were happy that this blade wouldn’t really restrict our decisions. (Did you know new blades can be upwards of $30-40 a piece? Hi, that’s half the price of the cheap saw itself.)

Speaking of the bathroom renovation, you might be wondering where we’re storing all of our stuff. You know, everything that was hidden in the vanity or on the shelves in the bathroom before we decided to tear it all out. Until this week, everything has been stored in cardboard boxes scattered through the office and the guest room, but after losing the dental floss 3 days in a row, I finally set up the LILLANGEN drawer unit that I bought last April, and am letting it live temporarily in my bedroom (the sink and vanity themselves are still tucked away in the attic, and will likely remain there until we’re closer to a point of install, just to save space).

With three shelves, it’s actually much more storage than we had in the two drawers of the old vanity, and each drawer must be at least twice as wide as well. Big draw, lots of space to store extra bandaids and toothpaste.

And if you’re wondering, I tucked the old vanity out of the way in the dining room for the time being. It’ll be posted to Craigslist this week and hopefully find a new home sooner than later (if you’re local to Rochester and interested, I can send you more information).

Perhaps best of all, I finally brought a brand new showerhead out of storage. This was given to me when I went to Delta Headquarters last June, and I never got around to putting it up in the new shower. Just to reiterate, no cost to me but also no obligation to use or review. It’s the Delta IN2ITION 2-in-1 unit, and it’s lovely. It has a handheld unit built into the center that snaps out, and it’s the main reason that everything I’ve bought for the bathroom comes in a satin nickel finish. Very eager-eager to get this installed and used for the first time.

Who’s ready for some more bathroom action? Any tips for oscillating tools and wet saws? Who’s ready to jump in and help out so I can stop using the cold toilet in the basement?