My father wasn’t a big home improvement guy.  He could hammer nails and demolish whatever you wanted to be torn down, but that was the limit of his expertise.  I always wanted to be better at home repairs than my father, and I have accumulated my own tools over the years.  I’ve read how-to books on different projects I’ve wanted to tackle and had mixed results upon their completion.

There is an empowerment in working with your hands transforming a bunch of metal and screws into a shelving unit or painting a bedroom a new color. But, there are also the frustrations of a project that has gone terribly wrong.

The other day I set out to replace the roman blinds in one of our guest bedrooms with plantation wood blinds. I removed the old hardware. filled the holes in the window frame left by the old hardware and began to install a new set of blinds.

Well, remember the old adage of “measure twice, cut once”? I had measured the windows several times before I purchased the blinds. but I concentrated on the width of the windows, not so much the length. You guessed it! The blinds were too short!

I’m lucky I can use the blinds somewhere else, but I had to purchase new blinds and will continue my project tomorrow. Then my major frustration will be manipulating the drill at odd angles to screw in the hardware.

Wish me luck!  I’ll need it…