Handy man, ha ………it should be handy woman

So today I got my latest issue of handyman magazine. It occurred to me that it should be handy woman magazine for this household. If you’re like me in your household you’re the one that does all the maintenance around the house or the one who makes sure that it’s done. In the last several years I’ve gotten a table saw, router, hand saw, speed square, laser level, 2 string lines, 2 new drills, a dremel, a tool belt, a shit load of hot glue guns, 2 heavy duty staple guns and of course the garage. I’ve asked Santa for a new nail gun. Yep you heard it right a new nail gun. You know the kind that shoots three different kinds of nails. I learned to use one last summer when my son had his here and I made myself a slide out drawer for under my bed. I was a little scared but fell in love with the tool..

It was awesome; it didn’t take me that long. I cut the sides with the table saw. When I went to home depot I hade them cut the MDF approximately the size I needed. It doesn’t cost but .25 for each cut over one. I then took it home and nailed it with the nail gun to the bottom of the four sides I had already nailed together. Then I routed down the excess from the bottom with the router. After that I glued sliders on the bottom. Then I added dividers so I could put my hair products in it. What’s more it’s the length of my bed. I never got back to the garage to make another one for DH. But I love it; truly, it fits perfectly under my bed and has a handle at the end and everything. I even put shelf paper to keep everything from sliding around. Ok so I’m way too excited about a simple drawer, but so you see why I like my family handyman…. Ok, ok, Handywoman. It gives me so many ideas of stuff to do that I think I like it better than woman’s day or any other women’s magazines that I’ve read…

Now back to my original problem. The tools they’re too big. They don’t fit my hands, and there just so clumsy. That’s not the only problem I have with my tools. They’re heavy and ugly too. I don’t mean like they need to be cutesy or anything. I mean like orange and black or yellow and black. There just plain ugly. You know the whole tool industry has over looked our whole gender. I see us all the time at the Home Depot. I see just as many woman there when I go as I do men. Even the paint brushes are geared to the manly hand. I can’t even get a good pair of work gloves to fit. I mean I have tiny long feminine hands. Hands like most women. I’m not some ruff tuff cream puff. I am feminine, do a lot of work around the house and love my power tools. If they could be just a little less manly and a little more feminine. I just want one pink hammer, perfectly balanced, with a soft grip, that fits my hands.

I learned a long time ago that I could bitch and moan and gripe. I could complain till my face turned red. It would never do me any good. Finally I’d get tired of asking and grab a good book. No not like a trashy romance novel. (I’ll talk about that another day) With pictures and everything so that I could figure out how to do what ever needed to be done. Even the how to books, that men don’t read the directions anyway for, are geared toward men. I learned to fix my dryer by reading an old Readers Digest how to book. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. The hardest part for me was moving the dryer and tightening the belt. I was the one that figured out that the belt went on easier if I used some good old fashioned Vaseline. I was the one that climbed on top of the pergola and put a canopy up made from a painter’s drop cloth. (It looks pretty good) So if I’m the one that does or initiates most of the repairs around here doesn’t it make sense that the manufacturers start gearing some of their merchandise toward those of us that really do the repairs?

I know I know it’s such a simple question. Still if I don’t do it it’s not gonna get done. Even the yard work I end up doing and don’t get me started about the yard tools that don’t fit my body or hands. The point is, I love my do it yourself magazines. We women love to do that kind of thing because we’re the nesters. We want the home to be the center of the universe and be the all to end all for our family. So come on guys, pay attention to us. I’d much rather have my own tools than keep stealing my DH’s. Not that he uses them, but still where’s my tool box? I could picture his and hers tool boxes. Mine would be pink and you’d never confuse his tools with mine. What man in his right mind would be caught dead using a pink hammer? How about a pink tool belt?



Anyway sign me tonight the handy woman……………………………..