Haaappy Biirthday tooooo me and Why My Birthday is Blue
Yikes, it’s been awhile hasn’t it? Yes, today I am the birthday girl. Can you guess what I went and spent my birthday money on? Here’s a hint–they all have blue molded plastic bodies (no, not cold Barbie dolls). They are built by a company that starts with Kr and rhymes with egg. When I needed help finding the last item on my list of three, the gentleman helping me at Woodcraft asked if I owned stock in Kreg tools. After bringing home my loot, that may not be a bad idea. Lookie here:
Been coveting this one for awhile now. The magnets hold the drawer slide in place while you attach it, and by clamping this to the face frame, you should have a drawer that is perfectly even with the face frame on all sides. Hopefully the first time. Remember how I said that drawer glides would be the death of me? Hopefully this is my life saving medicine. When I use it for the first time I’ll let you know how it goes, and if it’s worth you shelling out 30 buckaroos for it.
I will admit that I wasn’t pining after this one. I have successfully used pegboard to drill my shelf pin holes in the past and wasn’t really looking for an alternate. Then I saw Ana White using this jig and I liked the idea of how easy it seems to use and get good results. I will be doing quite a bit of shelf pins on projects I have in mind. Quite. a. few. Hopefully this was $35 well spent. I will also let you know once I’ve put it through its paces.
And finally. I have high hopes for this one and I really hope it pulls through for me. I talked about the Kreg Rip Cut here and here. You’ll notice that a Kreg Rep even commented if you read the second “here”. Unfortunately Kreg didn’t feel that I was big stuff enough to get one to try out on their dime, but I will happily part with the $35 if this thing does what it’s supposed to do. Thank you Tracy for commenting that you loved the one you bought–it is what made me shell out the dough with some confidence.
You know, if someone had asked me if I was burned out on home improvement back in May, I would have been surprised and immediately denied it, but in hindsight I do believe that I was. And coinciding with that time, I had a major life change (at least for me). I am now officially employed after 16 years staying home with my kids. I guess I was already “officially employed” for the last two years (in fact, I worked just shy of 120 days of the school year this year), but it didn’t feel official until now. I am employed by a school district now, instead of a subbing agency the school uses. The best part? I’m job sharing the position, so it is part time. Another good part–I will be teaching reading, which is near and dear to my heart. I feel incredibly blessed that this all worked out this way!
And this is good news for Pink Toes and Power Tools as well. Now I have a set part time schedule, which means I can be much better at planning projects, building them, and then blogging about it. Subbing meant that my schedule was constantly changing around–some weeks I was working full time for days/weeks on end and then spending my free days catching up on everything I didn’t get done working full time (none of that catching up involved projects). Once I get into the swing of things, I feel like I’ll be able to get cracking on some of these projects I want to finish up!! I’ve got one graduating in two years. That seems like a lot of time to complete all of it, but some of these are pretty major. And wasn’t I just celebrating my 40th like yesterday? Time does not play fair, people.
So it’s been nice lazing around here so far this summer recouping from burn out that I didn’t really even realize I had, not until the other day when I got a little tingle of excitement about getting out the miter saw. And I thought, “Huh. Where has that been lately?” You know what I’m talking about. That feeling that gets you out of bed before the rest of the family on a Saturday to get dusty in the garage. Or compels you to work in 10 degree weather in 30 minutes increments so you can come inside to warm up before going back out to brave it again. That feeling.
Ahh, it’s good to be back. Now our Dave-Ramsey-style budget needs to loosen up enough for me to be able to buy some plywood to put these new toys to use!!
**As of right now, I do not get any compensation for the nice things I say about products or people. You’ll be the first to know if I do 
14 Responses to “Haaappy Biirthday tooooo me and Why My Birthday is Blue”
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The only plywood I use
Pink Toe Projects (click on the picture to get to the post)
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Pottery Barn Statton knock off in twin:
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Built-In Cabinet and Shelves:
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So glad you are back! Happy Birthday!!! I hope it’s great! So…while you have been gone…I’ve started my own blog! (Not that thrilled about it really!) I linked you. And I have one of the garage rooms up on it and my sons room that I redecorated! Check it out…. http://diy.lorichoman.com
Let me be the first to say CONGRATS! on the job
And I am SOOOOOO jealous of all your Kreg stuff!
And I totally hear you about being burnt out. 2 weeks ago I looked around and decided that I was read to get back to the demo project. Let’s be honest, I am still demo’ing. I hate it but I am moving forward.
Good to see you back! I missed you!
Tamara
Welcome back! I’m so jealous of your new tools. Can’t wait to see what you make with them.
Oooh they look nice, especially the drawer runner clamp. I have been putting drawer runners at the moment and they will be the death of me. Managed 7 but still have another 6 to go. Groan! Happy birthday!
I enjoy your blog and I’m looking forward to seeing new projects. We just bought a new house and I am planning on stealing some of your ideas. I wondered how you’re feeling about the board and batten that you did. Do you love it? It looks great in the pictures and I’m thinking of doing this in our dining room but I’m worried that it will look cheap and too “homemade”. I can’t decide if I should do wainscoting instead.
Congrats and the new house and thanks for following along on the blog
I love the B&B now–it didn’t take me too long to get used to the new look in there. I see old pictures and I can’t believe the change that little amount of money made! The dining room is one of my major projects I want to get done in the future, so I’ve been thinking about the options for that. I would say it depends on the look you are going for. I think the B&B would look great for a more cottage/casual feel, but if you want a more formal option I’d go with the wainscoting. My B&B in the laundry/entrance is pretty bare bones as well–you could dress it up and make it more of a statement with thicker baseboards, adding some molding to the inside of the rectangles (like Pretty Handy Girl), and add the extra piece of decorative molding on the top that makes the tiny shelf. You could even do a whole paneled wall.
I’m leaning toward the wainscoting in ours myself. I’d like to do a more elaborate paneling job in the entrance/stair area (like Sawdust and Paperscraps) that is adjacent to the dining room and I don’t want that in both places.
I probably mucked up your thinking with all this! I guess the short of it is that the b&b could look pretty spiffy if you want it to. If you really want to make sure it doesn’t look homemade, don’t angle the bottom edges toward the baseboard. That means removing the baseboard and modifying it so that your vertical pieces meet it in a more custom-built manner (look at Sawdust & Paperscraps’ example) but that would look really good. But check out Karla’s again–because who wouldn’t want that in their home?!
Good luck!!
Not to hijack your conversation, but I was watching “Father of the Bride” the other day and was marveling at how nothing in the house looked dated, even though the movie is over 20 years old. That’s when I noticed that the house features plain B&B, with very few adornments except for a little extra molding on top and taller baseboards. I had also thought it was a little too informal for me, but I think this changed my mind. I couldn’t find any good images from the movie, but the staircase on this site is pretty darn close: http://creatingapeacefulhome.blogspot.com/2010/03/ode-to-board-and-batten.html
I am glad you chimed in
Love the look of that staircase in your link–I’m going to pin it so I have it when I get serious about doing the entryway/stairs. And I’m also going to have to watch that movie again!! Thanks for giving some examples of more sophisticated b&b. I went to the source in one of the blog link photos so I could pin at the source, and the Elite Trimworks website has some great photo examples of different paneling options too!
Thank you for the reply and the links, they were helpful. Our house is over 100 years old and has original trim. We will NOT be messing with the baseboards:) I think I will try the B&B in our son’s room first, I think it will look really cute, blue and white with a sea theme. Then if that’s successful I might be brave enough to do wainscoting in the dining room.
Happy Belated! And congratulations on the new Kreg tools. I purchased the Rip Cut a couple of weeks ago, but I have yet to take it out of the box. Baseball and softball have been keeping me busy and once football season starts I will be busy officiating high school and college games on the weekend. I do need to make time get some projects done. I really want to make the storage beds, and I want to work on making cabinets.
In the meantime it is good to see you back. Be well!
I’m so glad you had a Kreg Birthday!!! My birthday was on the 24th and I wish that I had a Kreg kind of birthday but… I’m not complaining!
So glad that you thought enough of my comment that you went ahead and purchased the RipCut! I went back and re-read the posts, there was some concern about not being able to use both hands as one had to be on the saw and one on the jig and it not feeling like you had control over what you are doing.
I felt when using the RipCut that I was in complete control of the saw and where it was going becuase both of my hands were involved with its movement (I hope that makes sense). The blade did it’s thing and the jig kept it going where I needed it to. Very quick, and very easy. At the very first – like within the first few minutes – I was a bit unsure of myself, but as soon as I got the hang of it (again, in just a few minutes) it worked perfectly!
I am jealous of you getting the shelf pin jig – I have a shelf pin jig from Rockler but I think the Kreg jig would be better, more accurate than the one I have. I hope you let us all know well it works out!
Congrats again and thanks!
)
Happy belated birthday!
Love the blog and I have loved learning along with you, and sometimes BY you. Also, congrats on the job! Just curious now that your birthday (happy belated
) is gone whether or not you’ve used your Kreg “gifts” and whether or not they worked for you?
Thanks for following along here Christine!! I am itching to get that stuff out of the packages, but I haven’t yet. Since I don’t have a dedicated workshop I have to leave projects scattered around the garage until they are finished, which means my schedule needs to leave enough time to complete the project in a timely manner or we can’t use the garage. I haven’t had a long enough break this summer to really get anything accomplished, but I’m itchy to start cutting…