Tools We Didn't Know We Needed

Going from apartment renter to condo owner might not seem like a huge switch in lifestyle. Maybe you think you don't need things that are any different from when you were renting. Maybe you feel you have a deep connection with your inner MacGuyver. Or maybe you think some past experience has qualified you for what's ahead...

My DH, when asked what experience he had doing renovations would tell people, with confidence no less:

"I helped my dad put up a wall in our basement when I was 12... "

Inside, I felt it was ok if he was maybe lacking in a bit of experience here and there because I had done work as a set painter in my twenties, so we'd have it all covered.. right?

WRONG. so. very. wrong.

The following list is some of things I wish we had right from the start instead of learning the hard way that we really, really needed them. We didn't need them when we were renters, but now we were renovating!

1. Hands down, the most important tool we needed to renovate our 1971, metal lathe and plaster, concrete condo was a HAMMER DRILL. The first 5 weeks of our 8 week reno, hubby would alternate his to-do tasks between weird 'make busy' jobs like getting specks off the floor with a scraper or cleaning windows vs. attempting to attach the FIRST tin stud to the ceiling or floor so that we could start the serious work of putting up actual walls. He would stand on the ladder, in his dusk mask and safety goggles, with our regular, every-day-job drill that I had since high school (c. 1989), muscles engaged, sweat flowing, for what seemed like hours. He would push, change the speed of the drill, get different bits... it didn't matter. All that would result from this, physically, would be a mere blemish maybe a few millimeters deep. Emotionally, the resulting chasm of shame and confusion was deep. After we got the Hammer drill, framing all the walls happened in about a day. It was like a magic wand or something.

2. This next item seems small and insignificant... but it's not. I didn't even know this existed until one of the contractors (yes we eventually realized the importance of contractors) we had visit to give us an estimate whipped it out and zapped out some measurements like the total pro he was. Two words: LASER MEASURE. See how the word 'laser' replaces the word 'tape'.

You want that.

When the floors all around you are littered with debris and you don't have the crumpled, desperately important, piece of paper with all your plans on it (which you will later take pix of and save in your phone) and you NEED to know the EXACT size of the wall you just put up: LASER BEAMS WILL SAVE YOU. Measure twice.. and then measure again: so easy.

3. So, as a renter, I was totally ok with climbing up on furniture or counter tops to change a light bulb or hang a picture. As a person who is cutting in the edge of a wall or even mudding a newborn wall, a milk crate is not the way to go. We are pretty big people on top of that, so the ancient step ladder on loan from my 80 year old mom didn't last long either (sorry mom!) Get a real LADDER. Also: check the maximum weight it will hold. If you are going to stand on it with a 20 pound tool belt plus heavy boots and maybe you left your keys in your pocket: you don't want to be worried about having the thing crumble underneath you as you try to get a nail to go in straight exactly where you need it to go. Our ladder can hold up to 300 lbs because: why not!

4. There is no mess like a reno mess. The dust, spilled things, not knowing if the Tim

Horton's Coffee cup is actually garbage or keeping your future tub drain safe from debris.

Then there's wood and nails and chunks of plaster and shrapnel of undisclosed origin. There are people you can call to haul it away for you when you're done. In the mean time, if you actually want to see where you are in your work and breathe in more air than dust, a good SHOP VAC is a must. It doesn't have to be super expensive, it just has to be there when you need it. Our reno property is a condo. That means that if we have any kind of water 'incident' (there were a few), we have to have a way to suck it up, literally, before our neighbours on the floor below us get the idea that there is any reason for them to worry. We even got ours on sale!

This is just a microscopic fraction of the stuff you end up getting once you become a 'Renovator'. You might want to consider getting a wardrobe specifically for storing your new arsenal of tools. The good news is most of them will out last the reno!

If you were reading this because you thought you were gonna hear about me blowing things up with "Lasers", you might wanna check out this post: Demolition: How We Dealt With "The Danger Wall" And Other Unexpected Issues. I don't use laser beams, but a lot of 'smashing' went on there.