I am not without tools, William saw to that. We have tools that I had when I was a single Mom, tools that William bought throughout his years of home ownership, and a lot of the tools his father had collected. We have hand saws, table saws, drills, sanders, grinders, a tile saw, drill press, a collection of screw drivers, hammers, and wrenches of all descriptions. We are not tool poor. There are quite a few power tools, however, that we have simply done without because we had the hand tools.

For Mothers Day this year, I made my sons shopping chores easy for them. I gave them a list of tools that would have made William’s home improvement life easier and will now make my DIY life and yard work easier.

This Kreg Jig K4 kit has already allowed us to make headway on the arms and back for the swinging bed, and will make building the frame for the next planter boxes and storage bench much easier and neater. This kit is available at Home Depot, but Home Depot doesn’t carry any of the nifty clamps that make pocket hole work so easy. Lowes has a better selection of accessories and screws for this jig.

This Chicago Power Stapler is great for all the projects I have planned which require upholstery. I used it to upholster the top for the storage bench and it drove the staples in straight and fast. No bent staples to remove! There is a trigger safety lock and the tool weighs less than 2 lbs. so it was easy for my old lady hands to use. This stapler came from our local Harbor Freight.

Until now, all we’ve had to trim the trees have been long pruning shears and a bow saw. We set this Ryobi Pole saw up and put it to work immediately. We trimmed every over grown mesquite tree in our yard into shape in about an hour and a half. Those were big trees and thick branches too! We’re using this saw to cut up the branches we removed. Some will go to DIY projects and some will go into the firepit to makes some splendidly flavored grilled meats. This was a tool I knew I could handle and it was a lot less scary to me than a chain saw. These are available at Home Depot

I love chocolate as much as any chocoholic Mom, but I’ll take tools that save the time and strength I don’t have over a Whitman’s Sampler any day!.