Tools and an old story

Back in the day about six years ago Bill and I got married and happened to move into a furnished apartment. We happily used all our gift cards and wedding money on curtains and bedding and kitchen stuff and generally setting up our new life together. Then a year or so later we moved to Las Vegas to do an internship and found a normal, unfurnished apartment to move into when we went back to BYU. There was one complication: we didn't own a stick of furniture beyond our bed and two bar stools, and we didn't have a big chunk of money to purchase couches, tables, etc. Fortuitously Bill and I had made a deal that whoever got an internship opportunity first, that is where we would go and the other person would figure something out when we got there. Bill's came through first, so Las Vegas is where we went. I actually had several opportunities come up, but didn't take them because of said agreement. Instead I worked at my current contract job long distance all summer and grew a baby along the way.

Another fortuitous thing happened that summer. As I was contemplating what we were going to do for furniture the following Fall, I stumbled across a new blog called Knock-Off Wood from a lady named Ana White that lots of people are familiar with now, but was just a few months old at the time.  She wrote plans for building furniture that were knock offs of mostly Pottery Barn pieces. I'd taken wood classes in middle and high school, but that had been ten years previous, so it's not like I was up to date on those skills. However, it intrigued me, we had a need, I had a whole lot of time on my hands and a desire to focus on something besides morning sickness, so a new hobby was born. It's funny how such a little thing has turned into so much more, a lifestyle change really. That summer I built my first pieces of furniture: two end tables, a coffee table, two nightstands, six kitchen chairs, and I stripped and refinished a kitchen table Bill's dad kindly passed along to us that had been damaged. If I remember right the total cost, including purchasing a compound miter saw and an electric sander, came up to about $500. We were able to take an extra couch with us that Bill's parents had, plus long term borrow their lovesac, and we were in business going back to Utah.

The only pieces of furniture I still have from that original group are the nightstands and the kitchen table but a hobby truly was born that summer and I have since made scores of different pieces. I love it. I learned my way around the inside of Lowes and Home Depot. I figured out how to use power tools. I found an outlet for a creative need I didn't even know I had. I changed the way I think of furnishing my house. When I see a cute piece of furniture at a store or online, I invariably start thinking how I could replicate it for a fraction of the cost.  I have a list on my Pinterest page of at least a dozen projects I plan to make. Every time I move to a new place now more things go on that list as I see needs and find ways to fill them.

My electric sander kicked the bucket a few months ago and with all the things going on financially since then I haven't prioritized getting a new one, so I haven't done much building of late. It's like there is a hole there that perpetually bugs me. Hopefully I will take care of that soon because moving into our new house next week, I already have a bunch of ideas of things I want to build to fit particular spaces.

As I was planning my trip to Utah a few months ago my dad mentioned that he had a number of tools he wanted to give me. He's been slowly trimming down some of his own tools, as he can't use them anymore, and I'm the only child of his that is really interested in things that would use a lot of them. I happen to live 2,000 miles away at the moment, so it takes a bit of planning to get what he's ready to pass on, but I brought a half empty, large suitcase with me on my trip and borrowed another bag just for this purpose.

I ended up flying home with two big bags, one weighing 50 lbs on the dot, the other at 49.3 lbs. I even borrowed a small carry on bag to bring a few other things I had acquired that just didn't fit in the checked bags. So essentially I maxed out all available space to bring stuff home from Utah, and save for the clothes I had brought for Aaron and I, all of that was taken up by Christmas presents from both sides of the family and tools from my dad. I probably carted 75 lbs of tools back with me. It was my own little Christmas gift, or actually not a little Christmas gift since the tools he gave me represent a pretty significant investment over many years.

I brought home a router and router table, a finish sander, an electric screwdriver, a coping saw, a finish nailer, a dremel multi-tool, and scores of bits and brads and other random things to go along with all the tools. My dad has quite a few other tools he will pass onto me when I have room to bring them too. He was always a do-it-yourself kind of guy. We had a running family joke that he bought a new tool every time he did a new project, so the garage and basement looked like anyone's dream workshop. I had no idea I would follow in his footsteps, but boy howdy have I done that and it is so fun. I felt blessed beyond reason to receive all those tools from him and am already planning all the awesome things I'll be able to do with them on future projects.