Mother's Day

My Lowe's email newsletter reminded me today that Mother's Day is just around the corner. I was curious to see what gifts Lowe's recommended for consumers to buy their mothers. While there were a couple of good things, I was somewhat disappointed by the stereotypical suggestions. Most of them were the same sort of thing you'd find at Walmart or Target. Kitchen appliances (coffeemakers/grinders, mixers, food processors), remote controls, ceiling fans, home organizing stuff, garden books, mixers, and lamps. They also threw in faucets and a grill. Only a few real "tools" were highlighted: a driver/drill, power miter saw, and leaf blower.

Why didn't Lowe's buck the trend? If someone's going to buy a coffeemaker or mixer, I doubt Lowe's is the place they're going to think of. But good power tools? They'll think Lowe's and Home Depot over the Walmarts any day.

Lowe's did get me thinking, though. So here's what I'd put on MY Mother's Day wish list:

• Tumbling compost bin or a three-bin, wooden compost system.
• Comprehensive, beginner's woodworking/carpentry manual.
• Sturdy, multi-pocketed tool apron.
• My own cordless drill/driver.
• Truckload of gravel for my garden paths.
• Leaf vacuum/blower that also shreds leaves (or a chipper/shredder).
• Another assortment of router bits (to complement the ones I already have).
• Really good quality paint brushes.
• Heavy duty mask for painting and dusty work.
• Power nailer.
• Wheels for the bottom of my table saw stand.

I'm drooling.

The Apprentice

I've always wanted to have a job where I could have a passion for my work. The career selection books always tell you to do what you love to do. Well, there's not much call for a garage sale hound, blue thumb gardener, or children's sermon leader! My first job after college was one for which I had a passion--but the passion wore off after several years of disillusionment. I also realized that perhaps I wasn't cut out for the cut-throat, aggressive world of politics.

In today's job classifieds, I saw an ad for apprentices for the local carpenters and millwrights union. Sounded intriguing! But wait--did I meet the qualifications? Let's see:

1. Must be over 18 (I'm actually over-qualified for that one, by far!).
2. Must be a high school graduate or have GED. (Over-qualified there, too. Got my Master's.)
3. Must be willing to try and learn. (That's me!)
4. No discrimination re: gender (yea!), age (yea!), race, etc.

OK, so could I really do something like this? I mean, what kind of near-49-year-old woman changes from a desk job to a carpenter's apprentice? I assume it would pay virtually nothing for a long time. Could I handle that? Probably not. But would I love what I was doing? I know I'd love learning the trade. Whether or not the fellow apprentices would accept me would be another thing, not to mention the instructors.

I find myself having so many pipe dreams and so little ambition to get up and follow them. I often wonder if this is a mid-life crisis. When I was young, I knew exactly what I wanted, and I went out and got it. I went beyond my comfort zone to talk to the right people, to reach out for new challenges, and I achieved my goals. Now I'm in a different kind of comfort zone--too comfortable. I have a relatively secure job that helps pay the bills, benefits, a mortgage, responsibilities, children, etc. If I change my career, it affects everything and everyone. Life just isn't simple anymore. I guess it never was, but I didn't realize it as much!

There's hope for me after all!

I stumbled across a web site for new woodworkers, www.newwoodworker.com, and was happy to find an article that eased my frustration about learning by making mistakes. The author--a relatively new woodworker himself--shared his own frustrations and theories. When he said his early projects wasted wood and had mistakes, I said, "Yes!" When he said he often got frustrated, I said, "Yippee!" And the best part is . . . he said there was light at the end of the tunnel. Here's an excerpt:

"New woodworkers should learn and practice workshop safety immediately, then avoid putting pressure on themselves to learn the rest. What is important is to have faith in your ability to learn, and have a good time doing it. Woodworking is and should remain fun throughout the learning process. There will be periods of frustration and even days when you should stay out of the shop. When frustration builds, learning suffers. Take a break and return with a clear head."

I feel much better after reading that. I've been reluctant to get back into the shop lately. I'm afraid to start the other side of the hutch, esp. the shelf part. Maybe it's because it took me so long the first time, I'm afraid I've forgotten how I did it. Or perhaps it's because I'm afraid I'll make even more mistakes--worse ones than before!

I'm definitely feeling the pressure from my husband to get this finished. He sees all the other mid-progress projects hanging around the house and is tired of things being half-done. Me, too. But every time I think about getting back to work, something happens. Either it rains--like today--which prevents me from painting. Or I've got only a couple of hours squeezed into the weekend when I can work. It takes me almost that much time to clear the vehicles out of the garage and get set up!

Oh how I wish we had a separate workshop building--a place where I could leave my project in the middle of the room til I'm finished with it. I could have room for a large workbench, router table, and lots of electrical outlets. There would be bright lighting everywhere--ceiling, walls, portable. I could work out there at night if I wanted! Plus, I'd love to have some kind of dust collection system and windows that open easily to help ventilate. (Remember that dust danger?! And don't forget pain fumes!) Not to forget storage--lots of it!

I remember when we started trying to landscape our backyard, my husband advocated cutting down the pecan tree (the only tree in our yard when we bought the house) so he could make room for a workshop. That was 10 years ago, and I thought he was nuts. Now, we have a huge oak tree in the yard, plus 5 magnolias that are growing like weeds. The pecan tree was vertically halved by last year's storm, and it's being eaten alive by insects. Cutting it down sounds good to me! Too bad we don't have the money to build the workshop now. But someday . . .

Hey, the rain's stopped! A sign--I need to get to Home Depot and buy those last 2 cabinets and MDF for the desktop. Get working, Tif!

Oh, Lowe's!

How low can Lowe's go?? They sent me a card in the mail that says, "$10 off your next project of $25 or more!" Do they have a 24-hour camera in my house? How do they know I'm so obsessed with this stuff?? As if I don't already have enough to do around here, now they're tempting me with this offer so I can go buy MORE stuff to build MORE things that I will take FOREVER to finish!

What I want to know is this: how come when I bought that clock, it didn't buy me any more time??? If someone opened a store that sold THAT, they'd be rich!

Not THIS kind of mask!

Wear a mask!

I stumbled across this word of caution to all woodworkers.

"Among woodworkers, the chances of developing nasal and sinus cancer run about 5-40 times greater than non-woodworkers."

Yikes! I read this on the heels of meeting several nasal and sinus cancer survivors via my job. They had been fortunate enough to get good medical intervention and survived the disease. But the cancer took a toll on their bodies. Many of their faces showed visible reminders of the disease.

I'm the first to admit that I hate wearing those dust masks. If I keep my glasses on, they fog up. If I take my glasses off (which my aging eyes often require), the mask slips off my face. But I will be a vigilant user now! Maybe I need a pricier model?!

So tired

Despite my good intentions, I accomplished little this weekend. We had a funeral to attend and two soccer games, plus I had to work a few hours yesterday. I did spent about 5 minutes contemplating the crown molding (actually holding it in my hand and eyeballing the configuration), but at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, I decided I was just too tired.

I've felt fatigued all day--all weekend. I think it comes from parenting a teenager. I did get a little weeding done in the flower beds and planted more lettuce, but that's about it. Most of my weekend was thinking about what I needed to do vs. doing it. I can think a problem to death, which is why I get so little done. I also have problems finishing one project before I start another. For example, there are still two small spots on our kitchen walls that need painting--just slivers, actually, where the new cabinets were narrower than the old. But I keep putting if off, mainly because I regard it as a "small" job. I have bigger visions--the next desk, the curtains I need to sew, the room that needs painting, my entire veggie garden, new gutters, not to mention the book! My husband understandably gets frustrated with me for having so many things in process.

Maybe some day my teen will be old enough to want to HELP her mother with these projects! Nah--when pigs fly.

It's a "dog eat dog" world out there!

Little Helpers

I had to buy a baby gift today for a colleague of my husband's. The child was a boy. In searching through the kiddie section at Target, I had no trouble distinguishing the boys' clothes from the girls' apparel. The boys' attire had sports themes, trucks, hammers and wrenches on them. The girls' clothes were mostly pink and yellow, adorned with flowers, butterflies, dancers, and the like.

You'd think that times would have changed by now, but there is still a sexist, stereotypical attitude among most retailers. Even though there are lots of girls who play basketball, soccer, baseball, etc., you don't find those emblems on their clothes. If flowers and butterflies are the images we impose on girls, how can we expect them to be anything other than demure, pretty little things with nothing to worry about other than their looks? Couple that with the non-stop barrage of thin, gorgeous women in magazines and TV, and you have a generation of dumb, anorexic females.

As the mother of two girls--one a preteen and one a teen--I already see our culture's impact on them. My older daughter constantly complains that she's "fat," even coming home from school last week to ask me if she could go on the Atkins diet. This comes from a girl whose household has always been filled with fresh, nutritious food, low on sweets and fat. She's played soccer since she was six, loves to bike, play volleyball, and swim. But because she's not as thin as some of her friends, or anorexic like the images on TV, she thinks she has to diet.

This attitude is now starting to rub off on my preteen. Even thinner than her older sister, the younger one has started asking me if she's "fat." This child walks a mile to school each day, plays on a soccer team, and lives in perpetual motion. She knows when to stop eating, often declining a dessert because she's full.

So how do we change these images? How do we let girls know that they should focus on being healthy and active, not trying to live up to some cardboard caricature on TV? How do we help them to value diversity and the worth of each person outside of their looks? How do we teach them that they can build something with their own two hands, not just paint their nails? What can we do to encourage and inspire them to be all they can be, not what someone on Madison Avenue thinks they ought to be?

Listen up, retailers, ad execs, and media moguls! Give our kids good role models. Help us help them develop their talents and interests whether it's sewing, carpentry, or scientific research! Give our girls and boys choices and let them decide for themselves if they want to wear blue or pink. Offer them opportunities on the sports fields and in the boardroom. Our future depends on it, and on them.

Antique or fake?

Tick tock

We recently bought an old (we think) clock for our kitchen.

Of course, it could be something somebody threw together in their garage and passed off as old. But whatever, it LOOKS old! And to top it off, the numbers on the dial are screwed up. They're not in line as they should be, so Roman numeral III is where XII should be. If you don't look at the numbers themselves, you can still tell time just fine, though. And it DOES tell time! At least it works :-)

Either we've got an extremely rare and valuable antique, or we're suckers for anything that looks old. (Like us.)

Good reads

My Home magazine highlighted a new book just published, entitled The House That Jill Built: A Woman's Guide to Home Building by Judy Ostrow. It showcases experiences of women building their own homes and sounds inspiring. Here's the link to the publisher: http://www.gibbs-smith.com/default.asp?sid=9619140838&c2=detail&item=828

And this article on MSN is great!
http://houseandhome.msn.com/Improve/GirlPowerTools.aspx

Don't crowns have sharp points that hurt?

OK, so it's been a week since I posted. Chalk it up to the idiot who invented crown molding! Lovely to look at, a beast to install.

Actually, my handy-dandy This Old House magazine had a great tutorial on crown molding installation recently, and I saved it just for this purpose. Unfortunately, my situation is unique (aren't they all?) and nowhere in the tutorial does it explain how to make a cut to join an angled wall to a straight portion of the wall. It's not a simple inside or outside corner. Those instructions just don't cut it. (No pun intended.) Anyway, I spent several hours "playing" with my crown molding. I purposely bought a piece smaller than I will need because I figured I'd be messing it up trying to figure out the whole thing. Nice to know I can accomplish something!

The magazine's tutorial was very helpful, though, in getting started. It showed how to make a temporary fence for my power miter saw, which is not a compound miter saw. After only two tries, I succeeded. I would've made it on the first try were it not for the weak glue gun I was using.

Despite my crown debacle, I have installed all of the flat trim, however. I want to finish the crown, though, before I install the side pieces of quarter round molding and cove molding. (I just thought I'd throw that in there for my sis, who would be the first to admit she doesn't know what the heck I'm talking about.)

Speaking of This Old House, my TOH e-newsletter had an interesting article about building a temporary partition for an attic room.
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/knowhow/adding/article/0,16417,199843,00.html
I'm wondering if this technique might work for me in building a closet for my daughter's room. The contractor who came out and examined the room months ago has never given us an estimate. He was also supposed to give us an estimate on expanding our bathroom.

What's with these contractors? Are they so much in demand that they will only consider a project that's over $100,000? This is the third or fourth time we've had someone come out, only to ignore our follow-up calls. They're very nice while they're here and promise to give you a written estimate. We give them a respectful amount of time before following up. And then, zilch.

I should'a gone into the contracting business.