Ep 9: Power Tools or Power Through? | DIY for Beginners

It is officially late January, which means... it’s time for a Christmas recap? 🎄 We know, we know. But we filmed this episode right after the holidays, and the energy was too chaotic to leave on the cutting room floor.

In this week's episode, we are unwrapping gifts (including a pink bucket that elicited a very emotional reaction), debating the correct terminology for flush-mount ceiling fixtures (Boob Lights vs. Titty Lights), and tackling the #1 question for beginner DIYers: "Do I really need to buy expensive power tools?"

The "Gremlin" Incident

Before we get to the tools, we have to talk about Emily’s humbling moment. Picture this: You are sitting in your car in a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot. The car is filled with trash. You look like a "gremlin." You are shoving a donut in your mouth.

And then... tap tap tap.

A listener recognized Emily from the podcast right in the middle of her goblin mode. If that was you, we love you. And Emily is sorry you had to see that.

Power Tool or Power Through?

The main event of this episode is the debate: Power Tools vs. Hand Tools.

Social media makes it look like you need a garage full of Dewalt or Milwaukee tools to hang a shelf. But is that true? We broke it down by project to tell you when you need to spend the money, and when you can just use some elbow grease.

1. Installing Trim & Baseboards

• The Power Tool: Miter Saw (Chop Saw).

• The Hand Tool: Miter Box & Hand Saw ($15 at a hardware store).

• The Verdict: You can do it by hand. It works great for small repairs or a single room. However, if you are doing a whole house, your arm is going to fall off. You will definitely be "powering through" the sweat.

2. Tiling a Backsplash or Floor

• The Power Tool: Wet Saw.

• The Hand Tool: Tile Snapper (Score & Snap).

• The Verdict: Team Hand Tool! For most ceramic and porcelain subway tiles, a manual tile snapper is actually better. It’s quiet, it doesn’t spray water everywhere, and it’s lightweight. Unless you are cutting natural stone or weird L-shapes, save your money and get a snapper.

3. Laminate or LVP Flooring

• The Power Tool: Jigsaw or Miter Saw.

• The Hand Tool: Laminate Guillotine Cutter.

• The Verdict: The guillotine cutter is a game changer. It creates zero dust (no sawdust in your house!) and makes no noise, so you can renovate at 2 AM without waking the neighbors. Highly recommend renting or buying one for flooring jobs.

4. Drywall Repair

• The Power Tool: Oscillating Multi-Tool.

• The Hand Tool: Drywall Saw (Jab Saw) & Utility Knife.

• The Verdict: You absolutely do not need power tools for drywall patches. In fact, we teach the "California Patch" (or Butterfly Patch) method, which uses the paper on the drywall itself to create the tape. It’s faster, cleaner, and requires nothing but a knife and some mud.

5. Hanging Heavy Stuff (TVs, Shelves)

• The Power Tool: Drill & Stud Finder.

• The Hand Tool: Screwdriver & Stud Magnet.

• The Verdict: A drill makes life easier, but a Stud Magnet is arguably better than a battery-powered stud finder. It finds the metal nails in the stud, so it never lies. If you locate the stud, you can hand-screw almost anything (though your wrist might complain).

The Bottom Line

Don't let a lack of tools stop you from starting. Most projects have an "analog" version that works just fine. Start with what you have, rent what you need, and build your collection slowly!

Transcript: Episode 9

Hi folks, welcome back.

Hello!

Hello!

Welcome to How to Handyma'am, the podcast where we use power tools or power through. In this week's episode we talk about Christmas in February. And the favorite things that we got. We talk about our love of show tunes. And also whether or not power tools are going to be necessary for the projects you're tackling. I'm Samantha.

I'm Arly.

I'm Emily.

And this is How to Handyma'am. And this week's episode is dedicated to our friend Yohana, who is another badass woman in the trades running her own construction company.

Smaller scale LLC.

Yes, so shout out to you Yohana. She is not only intelligent and capable and talented, but she is also like an amazing human being. So we're so thrilled that we know you and that we have the opportunity to partner together.

Yeah Yohana, you're amazing.

Let's get into this episode. Let's get into it.

Okay I have a chatting topic and I am trying to remember what it is.

Ooh. It's not for the listeners, but for us, it is the New Year. So do we have any... I guess three things. Oh! Oh I remembered what it was.

No you go. Write it down before you forget it again.

Remember.

Okay. Three things. Uh favorite book, favorite... maybe not book for you. Cause we know you don't read.

I don't read nothing.

So actually favorite podcast, favorite TV show and favorite movie of 2025.

Oh that you... from last year?

It didn't have to be brand new last year, did it?

I don't know. Sure. That you watched last year.

ACOTAR is my favorite book series. That doesn't count. It's gotta be new for the year hun. Did you not read anything new?

I don't know if I did.

Is it at least new to you?

No it wasn't. Since we're listening to ACOTAR on repeat.

Do at least something new to you.

Okay so favorite TV show is either The Rookie, which isn't new but it's new to me. And nobody watched us. Sex in the City.

Oh that's true that was good.

That... well that's also not new. Nobody wants this. So Something Pretty is my favorite from this last year.

That was good. That was good. Man I watched a lot of stuff.

Yeah you did.

So my favorite book last year was probably... it's kind of a tie but I will go with Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave.

Ugh I love the Finlay Donovan books.

That series is so good. She accidentally... thriller writer who accidentally falls into being an assassin. But she doesn't mean to assassinate the guys she assassinates. Like she, he tried to roofie her, so she swapped the drinks and he roofied himself and then died.

Whoopsie.

I know that's kind of how I felt. Like eh. And then all the books are like her accidentally now being in a world of crime. As like a single mother of two.

And her ex-husband's like bugging her.

Who barely has her life together enough to wash her hair.

Yeah it's like... it's really funny.

It's really funny. I loved it.

Then Friendship, her and Vero.

Yeah I want them to do a TV show of it. But that's a good one. My favorite book I read this year was called Wrong Place Wrong Time I think. I should look up who did it. And it's about a mom who witnesses her son kill somebody. Oof. And then like and they like go to the police station and come home and then the next morning she wakes up, it's the start of that day again.

Oh.

And then the next morning when she wakes up it's the day prior to that. It's not Groundhog Day, she's going backwards in time. And so she is going back in time to figure out where stuff went wrong. And it was like really good. I loved it.

That was a movie?

No a book. Oh a book. I think it's Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. That was a good one.

I'm trying to think of my favorite movie of this year. My favorite TV show is Nobody Wants This.

Ton. So good.

So was mine. I can't remember what I even any movies I watched.

Well I started my RomCom list this year. That's right. And that was pretty good. But some of them I rewatched. Like literally anything with Julia Roberts. So good. But I can't think of anything that was new. I saw the new Wicked movie. That was pretty good. I haven't watched it.

I like musicals though so.

Me too. I love musicals. But I don't know.

Oh! Best like entertainment experience of the year? Seeing Hamilton.

This section's pretty low energy though. We're probably... this I think is just a warmup for us.

Yeah. You have your chatting topic?

Oh my gosh yes. Okay so. For Christmas. You have two... one guess each. Two guesses each. About what Judy, which is my boyfriend's grandmother, got me for Christmas. Start.

Something Bunny Mom related.

No.

Something related to having a baby.

No. Now the listeners are going to think she's pregnant.

No but like Grandma's are like, "When you having some babies?"

Um. Trying to think. Mac and cheese related?

No. That would be good though.

One more guess.

Uh art supplies.

No. It is a pink five gallon bucket.

Oh my gosh that's awesome! That's what she got you for Christmas?

Yes! She got me other stuff too but she put it all in a five gallon bucket.

I didn't know they made pink ones!

Yeah they do. And aren't you getting...

Lowe's. Apparently they make mini pink five gallon buckets from Lowe's too.

We should add it to our Lowe's storefront.

Is it pink for like Breast Cancer Awareness?

I don't know what it's for. Just pink for pink?

Pink for pink?

Yeah but I was so excited I almost cried. Because I was like "This is perfect!" I thought we could um maybe laminate something... like our logo and I could put it on my bucket. And she was like, "Do you use those?" And I was like "I use them all the time!" But I was like "We're not using this bucket." You're like "This is special."

This is Arly's bucket. This is Arly's bucket. Yeah.

And then she got me like a little pink um like Kobalt thing too. And then my sister got me a purple one. So I have like five of them now.

Nice. I have so many of those like little Kobalt tool boxes.

I didn't know they made purple ones.

Oh they well at first they only had I think a couple colors but now they have like Jace got a camo one. Um and then black, white, gray, pink, purple, blue, green, red, yellow.

Amazing.

Cause they make all the tool chests that are the colors too.

Kobalt does?

Yeah they're cute.

I thought Kobalt only had blue stuff.

No they have pink. A pink tool chest.

Yeah that's what I'm talking about. The one that like has like two drawers and then a lid.

No but they have like the big guy.

Oh. The big boy. The big boy.

So this episode's gonna come out in February so this will be like harkening back to Christmas for the listeners. But what was your favorite Christmas present that you got?

Hmm. The one that maybe delighted you the most. Seems like the pink bucket delighted Arly the most.

Um. I don't know. I was very excited about a lot of them. Thomas got me yarn. Nice. Uh and then my sister got me a label maker.

Oh you needed that the most. Because there's been several times where the workshop label maker... We're like "Where's the label maker?"

Whenever Cher or Allison ask for the label maker is my first response is "Ask Arly." Yeah. I literally am like "Uh ask Arly."

Uh I love the label maker. I love it so much.

We have a P-Touch label maker. Is that what it's called?

Yes.

I think it's by like Brother or something. Yeah.

What was your favorite Christmas present Emily?

Oh Brother.

Um well you got me a lot of great vinyls which is exciting. Um and also my aunt got me two light fixtures. And I'm gonna do a video on swapping out one of my light fixtures. The other one you guys don't get to find out about because I have knob and tube wiring and we cannot condone that you swap out light fixtures with knob and tube wiring. But I have been on a mission to conquer the boob lights of my household. It has been a long going mission for the last three years. This is a reminder that renovations and like making your home perfect takes time. I hate things that are silver colored and I hate flush mount lights that look like boobies. And so I am conquering them. I have a light fixture for my kitchen and now I have one for my office and my mudroom that I have to do. But I'll do a swapping out video.

We have a client uh we'll call them H who insists that they are not boob lights. They are titty lights.

Oh I love that.

Very emphatically and I think that's hilarious.

But speaking of renovations taking a long time. I conquered something that my landlord has been refusing to do for months and months and months.

It was sorry it was something that my longest running employee was supposed to do before you moved in.

Yeah but then I moved in.

Wait I'm your longest running employee.

Well she knew what I meant.

Um we...

Because I was like "Wait I'm not supposed to do it."

We turned this Hobbit area that was like... I have videos of it. I'll post.

It was the stairwell to the basement basically. Yes. Scary murder territory.

Like a dirt wall basement. Yes. Like if you think where Harry Potter lived was bad...

That was the Four Seasons compared to this.

Yes. Not just Four Seasons landscape. Actual Four Seasons.

And this was yucky and dusty and stuff like that so I really didn't want to do it. Um.

But you did it!

I did it. Yeah I did it. And it literally only took like a day. Honestly.

It only took a few hours.

Anyway we put... it was like a hole. Like literally you open this door and it's a hole down to the basement. And there's stairs but you can't like use them. Because it's not like you open the door and that's where the stairs start.

Wasn't it into the middle of the staircase?

Yeah.

Yeah. You're just like looking over the middle of the staircase.

So we put floor joists in and then a piece of plywood and then um I just like cleaned it up in there and got rid of the spiderwebs and stuff.

Now it's storage.

Have you foamed the edges yet? Like to keep spiders out?

I have not. I didn't get that far.

You should get pest block so that way if they chew at it...

Oh yeah. I was gonna shove some like backer rod in some areas. I was gonna do foam but then I was looking around and the plaster is like falling off the walls and I was like "What is currently the point of you know fixing these seams when like there's like dust falling out from everywhere and stuff?" So I was like I'm just gonna put stuff in here for now. Oh yeah. And then like maybe we can come back and like I don't know.

We could install paneling over the failing plaster.

Oh yeah.

Yeah that was I thought. That's a classic 1970s move right there.

Yes it is.

And you know what? I used to think why would somebody put paneling on the wall? But I get it. I understand now.

Plaster is the worst thing we've ever demoed. I think it's worse than insulation.

It's also like I'm going to avalanche on you if it's coming off at all and then you go to demo it. Yeah.

The problem spreads. What was your favorite Christmas present?

Everything Hamilton related.

Yes. We went a little nuts.

We went ham on the Hamilton stuff this year. We did. I got ham on the Hamilton. And I got the John Adams biography and the Alexander Hamilton biography and the King George biography.

So I got tickets to see Hamilton in Detroit which I'm very excited about. And I got this book called... What was the one you got me? Hamilton Revolution? Is that what it was called?

That was for your birthday. But it's like the making of.

The making of the Hamilton musical which I'm enjoying very much. Though I did discover I will have to wear my old lady readers to read it.

Oh is it small?

It's too little for me. Like I have to move it back. I have to read like right here cause I can't see really close up. But then the letters are too small for me to read here. So yes I will have to wear my glasses but I will enjoy it. Every minute of it.

That's fun. Yeah you went ham on the... we went ham on the Hamilton stuff too this year.

We did.

Okay. So. What are we learning about today?

Today we are going to talk about projects um that you can or cannot do without power tools.

Oh okay. So we're gonna go through...

We're gonna name off some projects and you guys will tell me if you think that we can do it with or without power tools.

Are we going to do like a MacGyvering?

Yeah is it can it be done or like should it be done?

I think we can do a little bit of both. We can talk about the scenarios where you really should need a power tool and where you can get away without it. Because for some of our listeners they might not have a drill. They might not have any kind of power tool at all. And they're kind of expensive if you're only going to do a thing or two with them.

Can I slide in the you can rent it when that's appropriate?

Yeah yeah we can talk about that too. But I'm gonna pee first and then we can get back into it.

Okay we'll be back... we'll be right back.

Hi folks, we're back from Arly's pee break and ready to learn.

Let me open my journal.

Well I think we're kind of she's presenting scenarios and we're teaching.

Oh yeah. We are like the unwitting teachers.

Yeah we can chat today about... I have I have questions but I also have answers.

Okay. So I wrote down some of the things that I thought while I was doing these.

So if we don't hit them you'll cover them?

Yeah. All right let's do it.

Except we're perfect so. I know. I know.

I know you're not going to miss a thing.

Um so we're gonna go over a couple things um scenarios and categories I guess of things you can do in your house and whether you need power tools or not.

Yep. Where there's a will there's a way baby.

Usually that is the case. Um okay so let's start off with trim install. Power tools or no power tools?

Technically...

You definitely can do it without power tools. But this is one of those situations where it's a lot easier with power tools.

But you get yourself a miter box which I think cost like 15 bucks at the store. And you do a hammer and nail baby.

So for those of you that don't know, a miter box is literally like a little... it can be wood but most of them now are plastic that you would buy. It's kind of U-shaped. And it has um different slots that you can put your hand wood saw in to tilt your saw at a 45 one way, a 45 the other or other angles. So basically you put your trim inside the miter box and then you put your saw in the correct angle that you want to cut and then the slot guides your saw, keeps it in that angle. So when you need to cut 45 miters for the corners you can use a miter saw for that... miter box for that. But a miter saw is obviously easier.

I have a free version too. Home Depot you can cut your own trim there. With a saw.

With their miter saw?

Not miter saw. Oh their hand saw. It sucks but you can do it.

You can do it. Yeah you can do it.

It is really horrible.

Um people might not know you can actually buy trim by the foot at Home Depot. It's the only place you can do that.

There's some like I don't think they're polystyrene like PVC stuff you have to buy whole. But it'll say in the section. And also the price if it says like 2.98 it's like that's the per foot price.

So some like for some design projects I'll actually get like one foot sections of trim just so it's easier to do that. But I I will admit to y'all the Home Depot saw is really dull usually. Like I'm literally sweating in the Home Depot aisle like...

They do have a miter saw and I've actually asked before if they can cut things in half. Like 16 foot things they can cut it in half so I can fit in my car. Um I don't think... maybe they didn't let me use it because I'm a small woman or if they just only allow employees.

I think they're legally not allowed to.

Yeah that makes sense. So um they cut it for you. So you might not be able to go in with specific measurements but maybe depending on the employee.

I actually have a time where I trimmed something out without any power tools.

Oh let's hear it.

I in my first apartment with my husband really wanted a framed TV and cannot do that. I was definitely balling on more of a budget than I am now but that is still out of budget. It's like 1300 dollars for a 24 inch one. But um I used a miter box and I hand cut these little pieces of trim and then I used command strips and attached it to the TV. But I very well could have... oh I also trimmed out the bathroom mirror that we had there. So.

Let's get back to your question and give a simple example. So if you're in your house and you want to install baseboards. You're going to want to be able to cut 45 degree angles on your board. And butts probably. Maybe.

Well yeah. But you're going to need to cut your wood and you're going to need to hammer it in. So the tools we use if we're using power tools would be a miter saw and a nail gun. And the benefit of a nail gun is it you can set it, it will set the depth of your nail and it will sink it below the surface for you. If you do it by hand as we mentioned you use a miter box to cut the angles of your boards and then you have to use finish nails and pound them in with a hammer. And then this harkens back to Episode 1 where we talked about a nail punch. Which is basically it looks like a little metal pencil. And you can put the head of it on your the head of your nail and then you hit the back of it with a hammer and that will sink your nails just below the surface.

Otherwise you'll have a hammer head size dent.

Yeah you can't hammer your nails below the surface without making the shape of the hammer in your wood.

Yeah so those are the tools that you would need so you definitely can do it uh without power tools it just is easier with power tools.

Yes. I I agree. The only thing the only caveat I have to being able to to do that is if you have say uh oak trim or even I mean I'd say maybe any wood. Uh a lot of trim it's gonna be hard to get a nail into your wood without pre-drilling first. Um especially if you're like new to using like a nail and a hammer. It will be a little hard. Um in some stuff like oak uh quarter round it might split the the wood if you don't pre-drill first.

I have hit myself in the hand many a time with a hammer. Um but if you hold it with like needle nose pliers or something it's already ready to be guided in.

Yeah if you hold your nail uh with your needle nose pliers and then you hammer it.

Or any pliers. But it allows you to get a start without putting your hand in the way of the hammer.

And I will say that before we became handy six years ago I kind of thought about a nail is a nail is a nail like I had an image in my head of what a nail is. And I would totally have tried to install my baseboard with like just your standard nail with a head on it. Um so I think it would be common for people to make the mistake of using nails that are thicker than they need to be for putting trim in. The thinner the nail the less likely it will split your baseboard when you pound it in.

Yeah. But if you have if you only have a drill um and you're trying to install baseboard it's gonna be a lot easier to uh nail things in if you do a quick pre-drill. It doesn't even have to be large. Um but if you do a quick pre-drill your nail will go exactly in the direction you want it. Um and it'll be so much easier to get it. And you want to drill it smaller than the circumference of your whatever nail you're using.

And you can technically install trim with screws as well. Like if you only had a drill and you didn't have a nail gun. It's just we don't do it cause it's kind of overkill. And it's harder to fill over the head.

Yeah. But if that's the only power tool you have and you're struggling you might as well be screw it in.

I will say though the reason I wouldn't do that is when you need to pull that trim off you're gonna think it's in there with nails and you're gonna be trying to pry it out of your wall and it's gonna damage your wall.

That might be the next owner's problem.

All right. What's next?

Um I said yes um you can do it without uh power tools. I thought you could do it um with glue. In a lot of times you could glue your baseboard or trim.

Oh I mean some baseboards get glued that's what they recommend. Like rubber cove molding.

Yeah so not needing to do that. Some uh cove molding and quarter round is actually cuttable with scissors. It's kind of like a rubbery material. Um I used it on like my shower threshold because water kept coming out so I got a like a bendable um cove molding and I put it around there and just cut it with scissors and then it came with uh adhesive on the back of it already. Nice. So that I didn't need anything for. Um and I thought also make miter shears.

Yeah they do. If you're cutting like quarter round.

Yeah but they're pretty cheap actually at Home Depot. I feel like it was like 25 or 30 dollars. It was 25 or 30 dollars and I was like "This is amazing."

That was honestly the tile snapper was a game changer. The only thing that I have about that is that you might need a power saw is if you have L or U shaped cuts on a on one of those subway tiles which you often do if you have outlets at the corners of the windows.

Yeah off the tiles go around them like this. Sometimes you can plan to have it not be like that but it is hard to do that sometimes.

Um if you don't want to rent anything cause you can rent a tile saw and cut you can do an entire backsplash you can do 1700 backsplashes if you rent a tile saw. Um and then you don't really need you you don't always need to use mortar you can use Musselbound. We can do a video about that.

Yeah Musselbound is um is an adhesive tile mat.

Yeah it's basically like a giant double sided sticker.

It's for non wet or non floor applications. So perfect for backsplash. Not for the floor not for wet areas. But perfect for backsplash.

Yeah.

Okay um one more. Hanging heavy things on your wall.

Um confession time I have done it without power tools. I do not recommend but you know. I've done it.

It can be done without. There are some really heavy things where it's difficult to put the fastener in the wall without a power tool because it just takes so long to get it to like the uh a butterfly toggle bolt. It takes so long like you have to screw it so far to get it to like collapse against the wall. But yeah most things. And you can use this is one thing where like I'm not I'm not a nail hater. There are some things where a good chunky nail going into a stud if your if your thing you're hanging only requires one point to hang then a good chunky nail going into a stud with a hammer.

They I actually have a set of curtain rods that are nail install.

Yeah. Yeah I have seen those actually.

Uh quick tip is right around your window uh like right around that trim unless you have like gigantic trim is almost always going to have a stud in it. That's a great point. Because you need they when they frame out your window um it doesn't matter how big your window is or anything there's gonna be studs going up each side a stud underneath and a stud on the top. Ooh same with doorways.

Yep. And if you have an outlet or a light switch in your wall there will be a stud on one side or the other. And you almost always can tell by just take off the switch plate cover and then you can look in and see where the stud is.

Mhm. Yeah.

I said you don't need power tools um because they have a lot of different options out there for people who don't have power tools. They have anchors that you can hammer in. Um and then either you you hand screw in like whatever is in the uh hammer anchor thing. And uh some anchors you can put in without pre-drilling first. Um and I guess you could get a little creative when it comes to getting a hole made in your wall for an anchor. Um but there's a lot of different ways that you can hang things without needing a drill.

My caveat would be if you have plaster walls I would be careful.

Yeah if you have plaster walls do a little bit more research.

Just because plaster has the unique ability to chunk out of the wall and it's very frustrating when this happens.

It's weird a lot of times screws are are like preferential but nails are actually better in plaster walls because they make one fine entry point that does not expand. Like it's not like having threads on a screw where as you turn it you know you have the threads that are kind of pushing in pushing in pushing in. So a lot of times with plaster walls um a nail will do the trick.

Yeah. Yeah. Is there any other things that you can think of that maybe people wouldn't expect they can do without power tools?

It's really extremely difficult but you can install a storm door without power tools.

You can yeah.

That's true. You can change a light fixture without power tools.

Actually you probably shouldn't really use power tools.

Yeah one 100% of the time you can yeah.

A lot of the plumbing you can do in your own house you could do without uh you can change out like your P trap um you can put in a new faucet. You can do a lot of that.

Yeah cause you really just need a wrench with a lot of those so.

Yeah and some of the P trap stuff is hand tighten.

Yeah they say please don't do that. Yeah.

Yeah I know.

Um yeah.

That this stuff's good. It just triggers so many like I want to tell everybody about this. Yeah. About a like a like a uh oh my gosh. Socket wrench. Guys we don't have words today. Yeah instead of using a pair of like growing up we used pliers to turn like a hex head bolt or a hex head screw. But they make socket wrenches. Where you just put the socket with that shape over it and go rink rink rink rink.

I also really like um vise grips.

I love vise grips.

Vise grips have a very specific use when I mean It's a set of pliers that you snap lock.

Yeah they can lock into place.

And you like adjust them to perfectly do it. And I love them for plumbing for this reason because if you have two like if you have a connection point that's really stuck on there sometimes I'll grab myself two vise grips and I'll go in different directions at the same time to yank it out.

So you can get nice pressure and you know you're not going to have any risk of your pliers slipping. Cause when they slip that's when you strip off the edges of your like hex head bolt and then it gets to the point where you cannot turn it.

Yeah. Oh that was such a good good tip. Ooh I can't wait to tell people all about those kinds of tools. Yeah.

And these all the little tools we talk about look at estate sales. I know we've said it a lot or your local Habitat ReStore but they're also just relatively inexpensive.

Yeah hand tools hand tools are amazing.

They are. You can do a lot with hand tools. And I mean it's only probably been like a couple decades since we've really had a lot of access to power tools. And people did just fine before then. And yes it is hard but you know what? If you only have $20 to your name and you need to fix something you can do it. You can do it. Yeah. It's gonna be a little bit more difficult than if you had a power tool but you know what you can do it.

And if you want to put specific can I do this without a power tool or what tool do I need to do this just put it in the group or email us and we'll answer that question.

Yeah I had one last thing. I know we've been talking about a bunch of tools and we did do our first episode was on cheap versus quality. But I did want to say if you can only afford the cheap version like Harbor Freight has a lot of inexpensive tools and stuff if that's when your area. Um that sometimes if you're not gonna use it a lot the cheap version's gonna perform just as well. So we have a lot of opinions about getting the quality version but a lot of it's because we bought the cheap version first and broke it. So Adam Savage who's one of the Mythbusters guys has a quote or talks about how you should buy the cheap version and if you break it then you know that you use it enough to be able to afford the expensive one. So. But things like Ryobi has a really good entry level small miter saw things like that you can get you don't have to get Dewalt Milwaukee Makita like these really high end brands.

Um and then if it breaks then you know that you used it enough to break it.

Yep. Unless you broke it the first time that you used it and then you should go back to the store with your receipt. Yeah get back yeah. Yes and tell them that this is not worth any amount of money and then you can buy the more expensive version or the more quality version.

But part of Handyma'aming is knowing that where there's a will there's a way.

Yes figure it out.

And we have done stuff literally the hardest possible way and we try to have you not have to but sometimes you might have to and.

Yeah. I mean if you you know uh can only get a couple of cheap tools and you are just gonna do the best with what you got.

And if you want to find us you can find us at How to Handyma'am on pretty much all platforms if you um and then what should they do once they finish listening to this episode?

You should if you love what we're trying to do and want to help us continue to do it you should rate review and subscribe. And any of the places you listen are great um but Apple Podcasts really rewards us if you rate review and subscribe there and those are the kinds of places that industry folks look to see if you're worth showing to other people.

As of this recording date January 2nd we've been on the charts for 15 days straight and that's because of you guys so.

Yes so thank you so much.

Like hearing fun stuff like that like yay we've had this streak on the charts uh you can help us do that.

Yeah and then you're part of it. Even if you're not uh a beginner and you know you're an experienced DIYer and you still want to support us you know follow us tell us what you're doing. Tell us your projects tell us your fails tell us your wins.

And even if you don't want to subscribe just listen.

Yeah just listen.

And tell your friends. Tell your friends. Tell your mom. Tell your dad. Tell your brother. Tell your sister.

Tell your dog.

Tell your dog.

All right friends.

Thanks so much for joining us. We love you. Bye!

Bye!

Bye!