Harbor Freight Trim Router with Rotozip Bits

This is a bare bones cheap tool from HF. I got it a while back as my first router for $20 with a coupon, and for cutting drywall it was awesome! I got a 1/4″ (for large openings like doors and windows) and a few 1/8″ (for outlet boxes) Rotozip Guidepoint bits and it made doing drywall so much easier. It eliminates having to locate/measure/mark/cut openings. All you have to do is make a note of where a box is and after putting a few screws in to hold the sheet of drywall up plunge the bit into the box and cut around it. Check out a tutorial of the process here. This combo saved tons of time.

Milwaukee 2450-22 12-volt Impact Driver

I got this not really needing it, but wanting a small driver and knowing that it would be useful. It turned out to be awesome for driving all sorts of screws.

Milwaukee 2420-22 12-Volt Hackzall

This was a dark horse. I got this on sale at Home Depot not knowing if I would even open it. It really turned out to be super useful. From cutting foam insulation, drywall, nails, to cutting notches this saw did it all. It is small and can be used anywhere a hand saw is called for. Not having a cordless recip saw I never knew how useful it is. It can also be held and used as a crude jigsaw. It doesn’t have gobs of power, but enough for most tasks.

Big Hammer Drill/Bosch Blue Granite Bits

This big hammer drill I borrowed from my dad. My 18v cordless drill has hammer capabilities, but the 150+ holes I needed to drill called for something bigger. Paired with Bosch Blue Granite bits it worked like a champ. The 100 packs of Tapcons each came with a bit, but from my experience those are junk. Local prices were steep, so I ordered a 5 pack from Amazon, and added a 2 pack of Milwaukee bits to get me to the free shipping. The last thing I wanted to do was to be out of bits and have to pay an arm and a leg to get them at the local big box. Turns out I only needed one. After 100 holes I switched to a new one thinking that the old one might be dull, but there wasn’t a noticeable difference. I will add the extras to the hammer drill case and the 6″ long 3/16″ with be dwarfed by the 12″ long 3/4″ inch bits in there.

Drywall Gun

I got this off Craigslist a year ago when were initially planning the remodel. The $15 I spent on it was money well spent. I also used my impact drivers with dimple bits sometimes, but having a light fast, and foolproof drywall gun was awesome. If anyone I know whats to borrow/buy it for a drywall project let me know.

Cheap Ryobi 10″ Miter Saw
I got this a few years ago for $60 on black friday. It doesn’t slide or have the accuracy or features of other miter saws, but for chopping wood it got the job done without complaint. I also bought a finer tooth blade that worked well for cutting the trim. The blade cost more than half the cost of the saw.

Milwaukee M12 Radio

This one isn’t really a tool, but it helped me out. During the renovation I won this from one of the blogs I read. I had used an old clock-radio, but the reception was never very good and switching stations with the old analog tuner was always a guessing game. This radio has fancy presets and digital tuner. I can also put an iPod in the built-in compartment and listen to it. It also able to run of battery so when I turn off a circuit the tunes (or usually NPR) keeps going.

Dewalt Tracksaw
I borrowed this from my father-in-law for the two cuts for the countertop and it worked great. If they weren’t so freaking expensive (and I didn’t have one nearby to borrow) I would get one for myself.

Visually is is nice, it looks like a smart phone, simple and black. The interface is fast and the larger screen is nice. I used to have a Garmin 250W and it was nice, but didn’t have many features. I wouldn’t have paid for extra features, or at least I didn’t think I would. If/when I have to replace this unit it may be a tough call.

• Lane Assist - really cool. It actually can tell you that the right two lanes go right and the left two go left. That helps when traveling on unfamiliar expressways.
• Bluetooth – really cool. I always thought it was a cool thing, but using the GPS as a handsfree set comes in pretty handy when driving. Also cool with in conjunction with voice commands.
• Voice Commands – really cool. You can name the unit and it will respond to that name. Originally I called mine “Computer” that way I can say “Computer” before a command like in Star Trek. Then it was called “Rogue Leader” and now “Are Two Dee Two”. I tried for “Are Two”, there is some algorithm that test for length/uniqueness (?) so I had to use the longer name.  But the feature lets you do a good number of tasks without having to take your hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.
• Multi-Touch – meh. this basically means a touchscreen like an iPhone. It is better for scrolling and pan/zoom functions than the old style but not a must have by any means. Also it means you can’t use gloves with it.
• 3D Maps – pretty cool. So far I haven’t noticed this being helpful though.
• Speed Limits – hella cool. It tells you how fast you are going and what the speed limit is. If you are over it displays your speed in red. I have found this to be useful, but also advertises that you are speeding to everyone in the car.
• Traffic - unknown. So far I have seen the traffic icon come on the screen, but in my limited use it hasn’t been that useful.
• ecoRoutes - cool. With this enabled you punch in the city and highway MPG rating for your car and the price of Gas. It then uses the GPS ,accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc. to give you an eco rating (similar to those in a hybrid car) and also break it down into categories (braking, acceleration, etc). At the end of a trip it tells you how much it cost you. This could be depressing if you had a truck though.
• Trips - meh. Formerly called “routes” it basically lets you punch in multiple places you need to go and it will sort them for you or you can pick which order. You can save these for future or repeated use. It also has the function where you can input a arrival or departure time and it will tell you when you need to leave or when you will get there. It takes too much planning. It would  be good for delivery guys to program in the morning with the days trip.

I have had a couple of issues so far. When I first got it I was unable to update the maps or software from my Mac. I tried it on my PC and it worked fine.

Also when I initiate a call via bluetooth to my iPhone it calls, but nobody can talk or listen. If I switch to the handset I can use it fine and then switch back to the GPS it works. With incoming calls there is no problem either. My wives phone worked fine. A later update to the GPS fixed the iphone issue I was having.

The article compares regular vs. hybrid versions of cars and based on $3.11 gas and 15k miles per year. They get:

Hybrids:
Ford Fusion Hybrid: 6.6 years
Honda Civic Hybrid: 6.8 years
Lexus RX 450h: 6.8 years
Nissan Altima Hybrid: 10.3 years
Toyota Camry Hybrid: 7.8 years

Since there isn’t a non-hybrid Prius comparing it to a Corolla it takes 6.3 years or a Camry 0.7 years.

The good news is these numbers are better than 2008. It looks like now (when buying a new car) getting a hybrid is worth the financial cost for those who keep cars for a while.

I am still not sold on the environmental aspects. There is an awful lot of battery in a hybrid. A while back there was a bunch of buzz about how Hummers have a smaller carbon footprint than a Prius, which have been refuted to some extent. These apples to watermellon comparisons aren’t realistic for a buyer. Who cross shops a Prius and a Hummer?

The Edmunds Gas Guzzler Calculator tells me that trading in our 2003 Caviler for a new Chevy Cruze Eco would save us $10 per month in gas and that it would take 1683 months (140.25 years) to break even. It can also tell me that getting a larger vehicle (Chevy Traverse) would cost $62 more per month ( or $744/year) in gas.

I really want a minivan, but can’t stomach the 10mpg hit I would have to take. If our family gets any bigger we would have to, but for now I will look at a roof box. Will I buy a hybrid for my next car? I really don’t know.

What I really want is a car that seats 7-8 people and gets 40+ mpg. That is my realistic want. Did I mention it has to have a manual transmission and not drive like crap.

I am going to miss the three and a half month vacation we all had together. We had a great time and I feel blessed that we were able to spend so much time as a family. Job hunting precluded a canoe trip this summer, be we got away for a few weekends and sometimes midweek.

Having to get up early is taking some used to. We were able to reply on our mothers to watch the kids this week and that helped smooth the transition back to daycare.

Bridgit is back to teaching. She had a part time gig at a couple parochial schools at the start of the school year, but now is a full time teacher again. Now she is a middle choir teacher and loves it. It is also giving us health care.

I got a temp position at UM. I am in the hospital system, where exactly I haven’t quite pinned down. So far it has been good. I am mostly doing web development. Support has always dominated my time in previous jobs, and I am really excited to have the opportunity to dig into it more. There also seems to be a good possibility for this to turn into a permanent position

Shop (garage) Air Cleaner
I went with the classic box fan and furnace filter. I made the rig out of 15/16″ plywood scrap from the bunk beds. It is suspended in the dead space above the garage door. I had bought the filters years ago for this project, but never had a fan until one of our house fans needed some repair and I appropriated it for the garage.

Tire Storage
We have snow tires for one of the cars, but storing 4 tires is a big space sucker. They used to be in the basement, but we cleaned it out in the spring and they moved to my workbench in the garage. I have seen wall/ceiling mount tire storage units but don’t have the bank account for one so I hacked together one of my own design. It hangs above the garage door and since I only need to get to it twice a year it is accessible with the door down and out of the way.

Food Storage
A while back we replaced the old 1950′s fridge in the basement with a chest freezer to save some money. We have also been ramping up our basement pantry area with home canned items, buying bulk dry goods and storing home grown garlic, onions, and potatoes. The Fridge was in the middle of the wall and there was limited shelves. When we replaced the fridge we just put the freezer in its place, This too made no sense, so I moved the freezer to the corner next to the washer/dryer and put some metal shelves that were emptied in the big basement clean out in its place. We instantly gained a bunch of shelving for bags of flour, canned goods, etc.

Workbench (basement)
As part of the big basement clean out we are moving my work area. A workbench came with the house on the larger side of the basement. I am planning on keeping a good sampling of tools in the basement to live, with most of them in the garage. I don’t need a 8′ long bench in the basement and I have a 4’8″x3′ maple top that I can use, so I put that in the storage area where the strange basement shower used to be.

See, it is an individual membership, so only Bridgit is an actual member. This annoys me. The idea is that in running the Co-op one membership buys you one vote. But I don’t care about voting, I just want my 4% discount (which is only on some stuff). Bridgit could have just as easily gone down to get something. The food all goes into the same kitchen. For some reason this has got me riled up today and I have resolved that the next time this happens to enact my new plan: get a membership.

That is right, if I am asked for my membership I will just pay the $200 to become a full member and buy my goods. Then I will cancel my membership in protest. I was hesitant because I would have to carry around $200 just in case I wanted to buy a loaf of bread, but my wonderful wife (who is not down with this plan at all) had the idea that I could just put it on the good old credit card.

Alternate plans include creating a trust or a corporation and signing it up. If I make the whole family part of it we can all get the benefits of membership, but only with one vote. The cost of creating a trust or corp is the only downside. Bridgit thinks I should try to change the system (which only works if you are rich, or in a movie), but I am grumpy/lazy enough that I will just work within the system. Besides, I don’t have a vote anyway.