We’re currently building a third home that we’ve updated/renovated since Todd and I got married, but it’s not the first one I’ve made in my life.
My parents were also avid renovators and I spent a lot of time helping them out as they turned the charming old house into a cozy place for our family to live.
My mother always tells the story of how I, as a teenager, wouldn’t stop sanding our weatherproof stairs one very late night and going to bed until she went to bed, so I just kept sanding and sanding beside her until she finally gave in and retired. I guess it’s in my DNA!
That said, although there’s a lot I don’t know and some of the work I need to call an expert, I know quite a bit from my past experiences. But this current house has so many problems that it really forced me to branch out and learn new skills as well as acquire some new tools along the way.
Some of the best home improvement tools on my list are the ones I’ve come to know about but haven’t used in a long time (and can’t believe I haven’t used them in the meantime. !). Others are completely new to me, but so helpful that I don’t know how I would have done without them!
There are some smaller, cheaper items, and there are some larger investment items, but I hope some of them are useful to you too!
Dremel Multi Tool: This is a new tool for me, but I really can’t believe we’ve made two houses without one! There are many different blades/accessories you can use with this tool (hence the name “multi” tool), but we used the saw blade the most by far.
It’s perfect for cutting things that would be difficult for any other saw (such as cutting our baseboards just a bit to fit the updated thermal registers) and it’s incredibly useful. for cutting nails and screws in a variety of demo and installation situations.
It has a sanding attachment to get into corners and small areas that are hard to sand, and other attachments can be purchased. like this blade, this is also very useful. Like all saws and sanders, be sure to use Safety glasses when using the tool (and I will turn on a pair of earplugs to protect your ears).
Ratcheting screwdriver: Probably the most used tool in our home (whether renovating or not) is a screwdriver! Having one with different bits for different screw sizes and types is incredibly useful (like some Phillips-head bits and some flat-head bits at a minimum).
But, there is one Also a great corrosive screwdriver. It was like a punishment to use anything else and I went crazy when Todd brought me a “regular” when I asked him to get me a screwdriver.
Corner brush or Round spindle brush: I don’t usually like specialized brushes, but I’ve always been curious about the angled brushes, the revolving shaft brushes and wondered if they were worth the money spent on a brush. dedicated to a particular job or not. Turns out it was them!!
I had to apply six coats of paint on the intricate woodwork around our entryway (I hated the first color and had to repaint) and it was a nightmare every time I tried to get my regular brush in. all those cracks. Around the fourth layer, I decided to try an angle brush and it made a difference going into all the different angles!
For the spindle brush, I’m painting a piece of furniture where I’ve attached lots of semi-circular mold strips to the front and sides and the round end of that brush does the process. Therefore much easier than it would be.
So if you’re drawing rounded edges or something with lots of corners and edges, buy a specialized brush and you’ll be glad you did!
Paint Edger: While I’m pretty good at contouring with a brush, what I like best about it is that the brush creates a thinner line of paint than the roller, so I always have to contour more times than where I roll (particularly). especially when you’re painting the walls white).
I’ve used these paint brush pads in the past, but for some reason I haven’t used them in a while and I’ve tried again — they cover a lot better than brushes and you don’t. Need to do more pass master, which saves time and effort. They also make Smaller knife for smaller areas which one is useful.
Battery-powered nail gun: I’ve had an airgun with a compressor for a couple of years, and while it’s a complete game changer, this battery-powered nail gun is really what I should be getting as a replacement.
It’s so easy to use and a lot quicker to set up (just one button to turn it on instead of setting up the whole tank) and you don’t have an air duct while you work or have to drag a heavy tank around you. .
Also, when the air compressor tank is filled with air again, the extremely loud (and sudden!) noise it makes makes me want to get goosebumps…ever…ever…time. The battery provided doesn’t have any of those.
The only downside is that it’s heavier than the gun of the air compressor model. So if you’re not strong with your arms and you have to hammer a lot of nails in your head, it gets heavier after a bit, but other than that it’s awesome.
It’s a lifesaver to do things like custom wardrobe doors or building shelves and I’ve used it for a lot of smaller DIYs too. If that price is too high and you only want one price for smaller projects, this staple gun/nail gun combo very cheap and can do small nails.
Saw table: So this will be higher on the cost end and “fear factor” if you are not used to power tools, but this still much less than most table saws while still being foldable and compact when not in use, and it’s great that you can tear a board up to 27 inches wide (much wider than most small table saws can do).
I understand that table saws can seem intimidating and you need to be very careful with them (this comes with a push bar so you don’t touch the blade as you push the wood through), but they create a lot of projects. The project might not be possible or slower without it, so it’s totally worth it in my book.
Door lock installer: If you’ve ever had to drill a doorknob or latch hole into a door, you know how much pain it can be. It’s especially difficult when you need to drill a june a little bigger than the door there if the door is older and the holes aren’t the current standard sizes (which is a problem we have in our house). me).
If there is already a hole there using a hole saw without some kind of guide it is almost impossible This fixture clamps onto your door so you have a guide for exactly where you need the correct sized hole — very helpful!!
Before I knew this existed, we made two different doors with a bunch of complicated clamps and pieces of wood to get the hack to work, but I definitely wish I had known about this before all of this. that!
Here you are !! The best home improvement tools I wish I had in our toolkit a long time ago have made the job so much easier up to this point.
If you are also in the process of innovating right now, hang thereand if you’re just jotting this down for future reference, you can and i hope some of these tools will be helpful to you too! so so. Laura
Renovating a house? Check these out for more tips!
–Which low-budget renovation makes the biggest impact?
–Episode #82: How to Plan, Budget, and Perform Renovations Without Losing Your Mind
–Our Best Room Renovation!
–Episode #106: (MINI) How We Survive Big Renovations
