New toys

I added a new tool to my collection tonight... the Ryobi Reciprocal saw! Very excited to use it this weekend. I opted for the one+ battery, it's more compact and holds more power. I was a little sad that you have to purchase the saw and the battery and charger separately though. A little deceiving to look online and go "Oh awesome, it's only $40!" Nope, you're going to have to fork out another $60 for the battery and charger. Good news is it is compatible with all of Ryobi's other battery powered tools, so I guess I've committed myself to continue purchasing their products.

The other unfortunate thing is the length of the two blades that come with the saw, they're pretty short... likely too short to cut fence posts this weekend so I'll have to go hunt down some longer ones.

I also purchased this super awesome compact bolt cutters. It folds up nice and small to fit in my toolbox!

What's that, 'you have a toolbox?' you ask?

I do now!

Look at all those compartments! Sadly though, the compartments on the left side are not long enough for most tools, I think they're more meant for screws and other fun such things, but I'd much rather have things like my screwdrivers and pliers and such organized up top than in the big bucket below. Either way, I love this little thing. My car was becoming so unorganized and messy with all the house tool crap floating around in there, and this helps me keep it all contained to one area so that passengers aren't stepping on my tools.

Nesting a bit

Beyond my recent obsession for pinterest and all things home decor, I have apparently been nesting a little. I decided to buy a friend's dining room set from him. Without even seeing it in person! I can't wait to get home to WI to see it in my mom's garage at Christmas and tote it back here to MN. Here are some lovely photos of the table and chairs in his home. They are a gorgeous mid century modern set that look like someone took great care of them before him. I hope I can find a similar rug to go beneath them in the dining room, I really like the orange and yellow combo he had.

Sand sand sand, paint paint paint

These railings needed some love. By some, I mean a LOT. Not just the railings, but the stairs, and top of the deck also were chipping, and have a good amount of water damage. The peeling paint needs to be fixed for FHA Approval, so: sand sand sand, paint paint paint.

Here's a close up of the edge of one of the stairs, most of them were cracking paint like this one.

Here's the top of the deck sanded down, you can see at this point the railings in the corner of the photo have already been painted.

The paint was still wet when we left, so I couldn't quite yet take an 'after' photo of the deck... but my guess is it'll need some touch up coat, and sealer before it's really done anyhow. 

So remember that wall from hell in the garage? We finally finished scraping the crap off of it. I had originally purchased America's Finest exterior paint base to cover the wall with... this stuff is crap. It was a super goopy consistency and just didn't roll on great. You could barely tell we'd painted the first coat. Probably a good reason it was $8 cheaper a gallon than Behr... after one coat I said fuck it and we went to Home Depot to get some nice Behr Premium Exterior Ultra White paint and it came out pretty nice.

first coat, you could still see the mint green peaking through pretty well

second coat with Behr

We also bought some light bulbs as you can see for the two sockets on this side of the garage. Helped a ton to see what we were doing over there.

It felt great to say "this wall is done" after we spent so much time and energy scraping all that crappy, flaky plaster stuff off. It looks ten times cleaner and brighter over there already.