I love power ballads, power naps and power tools! When I was 15 I asked for a power drill for Christmas, everyone laughed and I got some suede blue pumps and a few Limited sweaters. Most kids ask for a pony, or a puppy and get shot down, the Makita torque drill was my puppy year after year. I've managed to make my drilling and sawing way through life with the help of boyfriends. But today, this morning, at Home Depot, I finally purchased my own power tool— a sander!  I love it. I was torn between the Black & Decker (though DeWalt is my all time dream brand) and the RYOBI, each had ergonomic hand features (B&D had a gel pad). The RYOBI was more comfortable in my hands because it was smaller AND it had a bag to catch all the dust (sanding creates lots of dust), it vacuums as it sands! It evenlaw logo2x b

has a triangle tip so you can get into corners. I went home and stripped my desk, sanded it and restained it a dark teak color (Wood Stain, Dark Walnut). I might just buy a new desk anyway, but I can't tell you how satisfying it was to refurbish my old one. I'm on a sanding frenzy, I'm stripping an old trunk next! This is some geeky Martha shit I know, but I have a tip too, buy gloves. I got some cute Stanely ones made for chicks that aren't too girly (god forbid) though you could get rose bedecked ones too— if you have to. I also bought separate gloves for staining/stripping, my fingernails and hands are in great shape (I am still a girl) law logo2x b

Stripping stuff is real nasty but there's this new thing on the market called Citri-Strip it's safe enough to use IN the house and even comes in a spray can, you spray it on and scrape it off. In my case I'm using my power sander with a steel wool attachment. Oh, I forgot to mention the sanding pads are VELCRO'd. You just stick 'em on and sand. I also found this mag called Do It Yourself, its like Ready Made but with better ideas. One is using an old ladder cut in half as a pot rack, I'm thinking chainsaw next…This is an ambitious undertaking for a rainy Saturday afternoon, don't worry I made up for it by doing one of the laziest things imaginable— Starbucks drive through…

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