The Right Tool for the Job

This was my first toolkit. I bought it a couple years ago so I could do little things around the house, like hang pictures and tighten loose door pulls.

And look at the cute case!

My husband, aka "Handy" called it my "nail kit," as in manicure.  In retirement, the more time I have on my hands, the more I want to do things I don't know how to do. When that happens, I either figure it out or break something. But without a doubt, the most aggravating part of tackling a "home improvement" project is finding the right tools.

There's a balcony off our master bedroom, a nice little spot to sit in the sun on the rare occasion that we actually see the sun up here on Lake Superior. We used to have a bird feeder out there, which Handy had mounted on top of this post.

I have no idea why he thought he needed a log 15" around to secure a bird feeder, but there it was, sticking six feet in the air for no apparent reason. I decided to remove it, thinking all I needed was a screw driver. Upon closer inspection, as you can see from the photo below, a screwdriver wasn't going to help. I had no idea what the hell would remove whatever that thing is, and there were two of them holding the post to the balcony.  I took this photo and went down to our local True Value Hardware store, where I said I needed a tool to remove two of these things. "Oh!" the guy said. "You need a torque bit." Of course...why didn't I think of that!

 He walks me to an entire aisle of these things:

 

There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them. And he says, "What size do you need?" as if I would know. He says why don't I bring one of those bolts down and he can get me the right size. And I'm thinking if I could get one of the goddam bolts out of the post to bring it down, I wouldn't be here! I kindly informed him that the only two bolts I had were tightly screwed into the post I was trying to remove.  "Hmmm..." he says, "Well, we have these key sets to determine the size."

I had never seen anything like it. They were definitely not keys. Folded up it looked more like a Swiss army knife, but after staring at it for about a half hour I said, "OK, but after I figure out the size I need, how do I get it in the drill?" Seriously. I asked him that.  I'm sure he was thinking, lady, just leave the post alone. But he was patient and explained. The key set was $18. I bought it, went back home, figured out the size bit I needed, went back to the hardware store, and purchased the correct bit for $2.27.

In the end, it took me all of about 30 seconds to remove the post. But I spent 20 bucks and an entire morning finding the right tool.