filed in Daily Life
Contest: How to Measure Success
For those who read this blog regularly, you know I’m clumsy with tools. I’m practically phobic when it comes to home repair. But since discovering eTAPE, a new essential so user-friendly and fun, I’m inspired to get busy fixing things. eTAPE revolutionizes the tape measure by providing a digital readout as you go along, with a memory that locks in the numbers. It’s brilliantly simple, and now can be yours. To enter our latest contest, tell us about a time you felt accomplished with a home-related project. It could be hanging artwork, replacing a screw or overseeing a remodel. Scale is NOT important here, but that you did it and feel good about it.
Submit your entry using the Comments section. Include your first name. If you win, we’ll email for your U.S. shipping address and phone number. By submitting you’ll become an FPS subscriber (if you’re not already). Please submit only one idea per entry, though feel free to enter as often as you like. Deadline is June 26, 2015.
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14 comments for “Contest: How to Measure Success”
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I cannot win as I am living in England but could not resist talking / typing about my recent domestic triumph.
I have a very handsome pair of oven gloves which I do not wish to use for their purpose content with the two well used pair that currently live in the kitchen.
So, I took the hammer I brought from Canada & adeptly hammered a nail in the side of a cupboard; where the too lovely to be used oven gloves now hang.
Well done, AR
This.Is.Genius!!!! I hate using a ruler and never get the measurement just right!
Last Friday I played hookie from work (first time in 5 years). I marched myself out to my front porch where I cleaned all the winter debris away, hung my new house numbers and placed potted ferns in my urns! It looks a million times better and cost about $20 + sweat equity!
eTAPE is a revelation. There’s so much love in sweat equity.
I had just moved into my new (to me) house and decided that I needed a shelf above the washer/dryer (which sat in a utility closet next to the furnace) to hold my detergent, fabric softener, etc. So, armed with an old Craftsman drill (complete with chuck key!) that my dad passed down to me, I (after consulting sources like the Internet) carefully, CAREFULLY measured where the holes would go, checked with the level, and actually used a drill for quite possibly the first time in my life (in my early 40s). I put that shelf up and admired it for days.
Three weeks later, I decided to get a new washer/dryer (the existing ones were very old and took up a lot of space). I wound up getting stackable units and had to take the shelf down, sadly. But I did install a few more things (hooks, small shelf) that required use of the drill. And a couple of years later, my dad and mom got me a cordless drill for Christmas. I feel so badass whenever I use that thing!
I have never even held a power drill. I admire you.
I want to know more about this etape because I think i spend a good deal of time trying to find my measuring tape before each project. The last one i found wound itself up so forcefully that it broke off the stopper and now is embedded in the plastic case and think is ready for the trash unless someone tells me how I can retrieve the end, without the end it is useless
My first home project was at 19 years old in my first apartment. Needless to say I didn’t have two cents to my name. I made a “TV console/bookcase” from found boards, milk crates, and bricks. It was very satisfying with good proportions and when full of books and other stuff looked kind of great. I remember my boyfriend at the time exclaiming that he loved that I made something for myself, by myself. He was on point. I wasn’t prone to taking very good care of myself and this was a big happening for me. My sense of wellbeing soared. Now 3 decades later, this still makes me smile. It also inspires me to tackle some home improvements that I’ve been procrastinating on.
This tape measure looks great. I’d probably need a tutorial on using it but love the idea of it.
Your first home project seems not only useful, but like folk art. Do you still have it or any photos?
I cut every single board for the fence along the back property line with the chop saw. The next day I waterproofed it with Behr Premium transparent. My paws hurt, for days, but man that fence looks good, almost keeps the rattlesnakes out.
I can picture it, Navarre. Best of luck with the rattlesnakes.
OMG ladies ladies, get out there, put your overalls on – you can do ANYTHING.
I have sewn my own bedskirt, knitted my own dog jackets, build my own wall miror with aged tin, built my own upholstered headboard, painted and built a canvas…and i never knew how do to any of those things.
As a young girl i told myself, if a boy can do it i cna do it too, and i look feminine in heels too!
You CAN do it! GO GO GO!
That’s an impressive list. Thanks for the pep talk.
This is actually from Luther, who was having trouble getting his entry in:
“I’m an amateur pianist and most of my keyboard purchases are made online. I usually forget to check the length of the keyboard to see if it will fit in the space in my small studio where I intend to put it. Having this e-tape would be ideal because it would always remind me to measure first, and then order second!”