If You Give A Man

Having spent most of his adult life living in apartments, with little to no need for powerful power tools, the extent of Devin's selection of tools was fairly limited.  I had a small collection of tools of my own when we got married, my dad had bought me an electric screwdriver, another some sort of screwdriver, and my mother had bought me a set of small tools including two types of pliers, a wrench, a hammer, and yet another screwdriver.  This set was painted.  With flowers.  Devin mainly tried to avoid using these tools.

When we bought this house and moved in, Devin keenly felt the absence of a drill.  I would hear him saying things like, "If only I had a drill, my life would be complete."  In all honesty, he has absolutely never said anything like that, but if you take out the female sentimental undertones you can get the gist of what he was saying.

Enter Father's Day 2010.  We had a gift card from Sears, courtesy of the nightmare experience of buying our washer and dryer from them (please, don't ask.  The story has the ability to raise my blood pressure to an unhealthy level) and as Devin has solemnly sworn to never make another purchase from Sears as long as he lives, I knew that I could use that card however I wanted, and what I wanted was to buy my man a drill.

And we lived happily for months with our fancy, shiny new drill.  Then I began to hear whisperings of "what I wouldn't give for a saw."  (again, my words)  We had many other items for the house demanding our money (dehumidifier, mulch for the yard, a treadmill, new running shoes, and whatnot.) But, holidays come around every year and soon enough it was Father's Day again.  This time I had a gift card to my local Ace Hardware Store, you know, the friendly place?  In I waltzed and bought my man a saw.

A few months later Devin celebrated his birthday.  I came up with a hundred and fifty brilliant ideas for his birthday present, things that I really wanted to give him that I thought he would really like.  He turned down all of them.  He ended up with a power sander that he picked out himself.

This is when things really started to pick up around here.  I made Devin stay home from work when we got back from Pennsylvania because the girls were in serious need of some daddy time.  But Devin has to have something to do.  So I gave him a list of options for the day, including: going to the park, going to the library, going to the Children's Museum, or going to Home Depot and letting the girls ride in the race car cart.

Devin, of course, chose the Home Depot option.  Which meant that he spent the morning wandering around the house with a tape measure trying to find projects that he could do that day, especially now that he had a drill and a saw.  With a few projects in mind as options for the day we went off to Home Depot.  We wandered around that store, looking and evaluating what we wanted most versus what we wanted soonest versus what we were willing to spend money on, and we came home with 27 pieces of wood, in various sizes, some screws, and some wood stain.

All this, just to tell you that if you give a man a drill, and then you give him a saw, and then you let him pick out a power sander and many pieces of wood in differing sizes, he just might - I say he just might make your daughters bunk beds.  Hanna is still too young to sleep in hers, but Hallie is crazy about her new bed.




Comments

  1. Yeah man. Show us the pictures. You're an excellent writer, ames. When is your book coming out?

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  2. umm.. how do you post this and not post pictures??

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  3. that's a mean teaser. We need pictures. Maybe I need to give Ariel a drill -- I have so many projects I want him to do!

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  4. Yes please!!! How cool is your man that he made bunk bed?!?!?! Seriously- so cool!

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  5. You are such a tease. How could you post that without pictures??!! I need them NOW. I am so excited that he made bunk beds. That's incredible. Are they in the basement or the toy room?

    He is so manly enough to have a son someday. :)

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  6. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!!!

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