Tuesday ToolTalk: Kobalt Utility Knives

I walked past them regularly for nearly two weeks. Then, I actually had them in a cart with a few other items the day we ordered the tub surround and the huge trim for downstairs at Lowe's. When Lowe's made me mad by not honoring their own discount, I said the hell with it and emptied my cart.

But a week later, I was back and this set of three Kobalt utility knives with a huge 100-pack of blades came home with me. I'm awfully glad they did.

I'm still just using the first one, but it's really nice to know that I have two others laying around if I need them. I'm sure I'll be changing the first blade very soon and that should be easy as the blade housing opens at the mere touch of a button and the razor pack is designed to keep you from getting cut.

They're sturdy, without feeling too heavy, and they have a nice rubber grip to really help you hold steady for even the toughest jobs. (Something my old Stanley model lacks.)

Here's a short list of things I've used the first knife for thus far:
*Scoring a sheet of backerboard (and there's a lot more of that in my future)
*Cutting those annoying plastic ties that just about everything I buy seems to have these days
*Cutting open boxes

*Cutting the plastic that we had wrapped around the tub surround during its brief stay in the carport
*Cutting loose tile remnants as I pull up layers of the kitchen floor

So far, so good. But be CAREFUL. These bad boys are SHARP!

The long and short of it: You get three knives and 100 replacement blades for $12.98 at Lowe's.
The conclusion: Worth every penny.

It's a Baseball Town

Downtown St. Louis is a mad mix of baseball fans from all around the country, and probably, all around the world.

And all eyes will fall upon this part of the world for the next 36 hours. The Home Run Derby is tonight. And tomorrow ...

It's the All Star game! And this banner is ginormous (covering about four stories). What's fun is that there's the expected sea of red shirts, but there's also a mix of all other teams, too. And not just the Cubs or White Sox as you might expect.

I took a very brief walk earlier and in that short trip, I saw T-shirts representing Milwaukee, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York (Yankees), San Diego, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Atlanta. (In addition to St. Louis and both Chicago teams.)

It's no wonder though. Kiener Plaza, which is one of my favorite places on the planet is all decked out with gigantic arches. People are all over the place underneath them getting their photos taken.

But in this shot, I managed to get at least a portion of the real deal ... (look closely at the shape reflected in the metallic glare of the windows.)

It was so bright out, I didn't notice when I shot it. What a cool surprise! Here's a closer look at one of the mini versions. And while Busch Stadium is empty in this shot, you can bet it won't be tonight or tomorrow night!
No doubt about it ... It's definitely a baseball town.

A Rug Rap

Not sure what made me think I could rap (perhaps sleep deprivation) but this formed in my head based on some current events at This D*mn House. FYI: The code is for real and does indeed expire TODAY.

Need some new rugs for the livin’room floor.
Current ones hardly got nap anymore.

Ozzie and Toby have seen to that,
Treatin’ ‘em all like a personal flying car-pet.

Been tryin’ to find some we like
That don’t cost too much but still look alright.

So what arrives in the neighborhood?
J.C. Penney catalog – yeah rugs lookin good!

And here comes an email – I ain’t trippin’
Says ole JC will cover cost of shippin.’

But that offer, it ends today.
So what I’m really tryin’ to say
Is if you are lookin’ for some discount rates
Use code BIG99FSH.

Word … to the Mother.

And the Rain Came

I finished mowing the yard and was on my way to dump off the grass just ahead of the rain.

As I turned on the road to the dump, the skies opened up. By the time I pulled into the site, small hail was hitting the car. The hail dissipated quickly enough but the rain did not. Pretty soon there were three other cars all waiting for the rain to let up to ditch our yard waste. It didn't let up.

I finally had enough. Got up. Dumped the grass. Got soaked to the skin. That was almost five hours ago. It's STILL raining, but now the sun is out.

I was going to go and get the panel for the bathroom but didn't feel like fighting the rain. If I weren't sore all over (especially my left leg which got gashed and bruised when I slipped yesterday and came down on the edge of the deck) I would try to finish ripping up the kitchen floor to get it into tomorrow's trash.

Instead, I've been doing little housekeeping things and working on some stuff for work. But, if I started in the next 30 minutes or so, I bet I could still get it done tonight ...

Design on the Fly

As it turns out, my dread of the bathroom tub surround project was well founded – just not for the reasons I thought.

I had feared that as we stripped away the old surround, it would reveal water-soaked, crumbling walls, covered with mold. That was not the case. Instead, we found just one small area that fit that description – a spot where the caulk had clearly failed. The area around the water faucet was a little crumbly, as was the bottom half of the main wall of the shower, a spot where, not coincidentally, the old surround had a sizable crack.

A single piece of cement board took care of both of these areas. If only the rest of the day had been so simple or gone so well.

The three-piece tub surround that we’d bought, the one that both the mother and I liked a lot, would not fit. Not without ripping out parts of the wall that were perfectly fine so that it could be attached directly to the studs. (One thing I have tried to NEVER do at This D*mn House is to open up something that is otherwise solid. That is usually an invitation to trouble.) “You’re going to have to put in another five-piece unit,” Lawrence concluded. To add insult to injury, this surround – and any other at this standard height –would leave about a 16-inch gap from the top to where our current trim begins. How do I fix that? My brain was flying 100 directions.


So, it was with that feeling of dread staring me in the face that this news had to be broken to the mother. Let’s just say she was not happy.

There was the bath, without plumbing and stripped to bare wall, with two gaping holes (we’d not yet put in the cement board and Lawrence still had to rework the plumbing) – at nearly 2:30.


We had no other alternative at our fingertips and the dread circled me once again as I recalled the other surround options the mother and I had seen when we’d chosen the Eleganza model.
The short version is that Lawrence and I boxed up the one that wouldn’t fit, returned it, and then I was given the agonizing choice between two in-stock models at Lowe’s and three at Home Depot.


Two of the Home Depot models were just plain ugly; the third, which was a “tall” model, would have helped cover some of the gaping wall space, but the display was incredibly thin and brittle. “I’d avoid that,” Lawrence counseled. The two at Lowe’s were not what I wanted either. I tried for the lesser of two evils.

Suffice it to say that the mother doesn’t like it. Even so, it’s in our bathroom now. Lawrence worked until nearly 9 p.m. to make it so. (We started the day at 9:30. I’d actually started an hour earlier, clearing out the bathroom and getting things ready.)

The good news is that during the ordeal, I suggested getting a piece of vinyl beadboard – once readily available – to fill in the blank upper space. We have beadboard throughout the bathroom (and the kitchen) so it would match. Good solution! The bad news: Neither store carries it anymore.

The mother suggested using sheets of subway-style tile we’d seen. It would match the new surround and we’d considered using these for the whole surround to begin with. (Lawrence recommended against using them for the whole surround.)

Currently, that’s the option we’re going with. It’s disappointing and frustrating, but it’s a plan. I’m saving pictures until it’s finished.

Clothes, Clutter, and Closet Space

Thank God it’s Friday. If it wasn’t, I think I might cry.

It’s been a long, tough week both at home and work but I think I’m beginning to emerge from my ”house blues” phase. DIY gets frustrating sometimes and when you’ve been at it as long as we have and the projects just keep on coming ceaselessly, it’s not hard to get discouraged. Throw in the challenges of day-to-day life outside the house, and well, it gets even tougher.

Part of it is the ability to see a little bit of light. The mother has been hard at work for more than a week on the family room and laundry room. Mind you, if you were to go down there, you wouldn’t appreciate the difference. It still pretty much resembles a warehouse. But …it looks so much better than it did last week. Things are being moved into more permanent places and the laundry room is sporting a fresh coat of paint.

The effort is two-fold. First, the mother’s been working to make it both functional and livable until we can get down there to do the work we have planned for the family room. (Yeah. More projects.) Second, we need the laundry room. It will give us a place to paint the cabinet doors and other items during the next week or so when rain is a possibility just about every day. And, she’s getting things set up again as a large, relatively unrestricted play area for Toby.

This was previously Tigger’s domain and, until we started storing stuff in the family room, he had full run of it, too. With Tigger, we had to do this because while he adored people, he loathed other animals. (He had attacked Ozzie multiple times, once nearly severing an ear, so we had to do something.) In the future, Toby can stay there when we’re both gone OR when people come so he doesn’t have to hide under the furniture the whole time. (Forced socialization hasn't worked.)

Toby is pretty well-behaved other than the screaming, but he, too, likes to torture poor Ozzie. We don’t leave them alone together for very long. When we do, we’ve come in to find Ozzie huddled in a corner somewhere – a sure sign that Toby has been bullying him. God help him if Oz ever gets his fill. He may eat him! But Ozzie is 12 now and I refuse to have him tortured.

The other great thing has been the clearing out of junk and of clothes we either can’t or don’t wear. I spent several hours last night reclaiming my summer clothes and packing away winter ones. (We don’t have enough closet space to keep everything out year-round.) The good news is that I filled a 13-gallon trash bag with things to give away and finally just threw some things out.

Other things, like old Ts and shorts will get one last hurrah. Once I wear them for whatever job I’m doing, they’ll get trashed. The mother filled a 39-gallon bag AND is finally turning loose of a bunch of old dishes and crap that moves from one side of the basement to the other on a regular basis. YAY!

Hoping this momentum continues.

Before and After ‘09

Our friends over at One Project Closer have started their annual Before and After feature again! (You might notice I still have the ’08 badge up. I need to replace it with their new one.)

They were kind enough last year to post my fence project – making a donation to Habitat for Humanity in my name – and even put it in the running for the best project of 2008. I didn’t win but that didn’t matter; it wasn’t the project I really wanted to send them anyway.

I will soon, however, be sending them the porch and walkway project. That was the gem I wanted to share last year but since I’d already won and I didn’t truly finish until FALL, I didn’t get to enter it. So watch for that soon. In the meantime, check out the rules and enter your own before and after.

They’ve really sweetened the pot this year! In addition to getting a $35 donation made on your behalf to Habitat for Humanity ( a VERY good group to support incidentally) YOU get to choose a $25 gift card to Lowe’s, Home Depot, or Amazon.com. And, as if all that wasn't quite enough, at the end of the summer, they'll pick a GRAND PRIZE winner who gets to pick a $150 gift card! Pretty d*mn cool. (And you know I'll be asking for your vote if I'm lucky enough to get in the running.)

Can you say tools?!

Lawrence on the Line

I reached Lawrence last night and am happy to report that he'll be here on Saturday to work on the tub surround.


Poor Lawrence. The mother and I truly put Forrest Gump's box of chocolates to shame: Lawrence really never knows what he's gonna get. I'd talked to him about the tub surround weeks ago, but he seemed a bit surprised when I told him it was already in the driveway. (I guess even after almost 2.5 years, he still hasn't adapted to the "complete and total chaos" approach to home improvement.)


"We'll take a look and see what we can do about that," he said. That made me chuckle. He has yet to tell me "no."


He asked how my floor was coming and how the cabinet doors came out. I had to tell him that both were still works in progress. Lawrence knows my work ethic so I don't think he thinks any less of me for this stuff taking forever to do. He'll have to kid me about it, even so.


I sure hope that the surround will be OK and that it goes well. This is yet another job I've been dreading, afraid to see what might be behind the existing one. (This is one of the main reasons I didn't take on tiling the shower walls. Well, that and the fact that we only have the one bathroom and I hope to bathe again in my lifetime.)