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Last USF Blog Post- Reflection

Building a new home from the ground is exciting for anyone but theres more to it. What if I told you one of the main reasons I wanted to build a house was because it was newer and had less chance of needing house projects done. This sad statement was a reality for me, until six years passed and we needed to move again. Now I am in a home that was built in 1926 and a 2012 addition. I certainly will need to do housework projects for when things break now! That is what I felt like when I finally admit that I was terrible at projects around the house. My father in law built his own home and I can barely get a screw to go in straight! So genius hour was a perfect opportunity for me to try and improve on something that I feared...handyman stuff. The genius hour project can be summed up in a few words...buy the right tools. I learned this from my father in law and brother in law. They both told me to stop bing cheap and buy the right equipment to do projects around the home. The process...
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Blog Post 6 - It's Showtime

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The most important thing I learned about this process is "always buy the right tools." My father in law always tells me to buy the tools instead of borrowing because I will use them again. I didn't think this was going to be the case until I started this genius hour project. In the past I would try and figure out a cheaper or free solution to a home project, but now that I am a regular at Home Depot I buy the tools instead with future uses in mind. If you asked my wife what it is like watching me try and fix things around the home she would respond with, "It is painful to watch Dan fix things around the house, he has little experience and gets frustrated very easily." Knowing that is how my biggest fan feels about me doing things around the home motivated me to improve. My plan was to use technology (YouTube and DIY sites) as learning tools and other DIYers as a support group to bounce ideas and ask for help. Another important thing I have learned thr...
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Blog Post 5 - We are Learners

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When we moved into our new house we we requested all the TV mounts stay, but as always when dealing with people...they were gone upon moving in. So I decided to capitalize on this shortcoming and buy a new mount and install it myself. Why you ask? Because I am a rookie handyman!  So...I went where we all go to buy a TV mount, Amazon. Found one with over 20,000 reviews and purchased it. When it arrived I put it in a closet for 3 weeks and forgot about it until I needed something to do for this blog post.  Found the box with the stud finder...insert joke now about being a stud! Just kidding. Used the stud finder and marked up the wall as to where the ends of each stud were. Drilled the holes and thought wow this is going smooth so far. How wrong I was...my house had studs that were not 16 inches apart (this is a standard distance), but 17 inches apart. This is the moment that my kids heard some choice words from me and I had to calm myself down. I realized in the ...
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and it keeps going and going and going...week 5 Expect the Mutiny

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This is how I am starting to feel with these projects around the house. On the other hand every time I leave my house and enter my mudrooms frigid temperature, I realize the amount of $$$ I am wasting trying to heat it. So I started talking to my mentor (brother-in-law) about this project and he sent me this video.  I watched it and decided this weekend would be a great time to do this project before it really gets cold this winter. As I walked down the aisle at Home Depot I begin second guessing my measuring tape skills, and wondered if I did it right. If I measured wrong then surely I'd be screaming because that means another trip to Home Depot.At that very moment I reminded myself of how much money I'd save saving energy for my heating bill (big motivator for me)! Another thing that motivates me is wanting to be confident in myself doing these projects so I do not need to pay another person to do it. Luckily I have videos like this one to troubleshoot why t...
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Genius Hour Post 3

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The picture above is what my wife showed me after we moved into our new home. She said, " I just bought this for the boys room, can you build it?" My reaction to this picture was...sweating, anxiety, anger, and of course why did you want me to build it! Couldn't we just buy one on craigslist pre-built and put it in a truck to bring home? These are the feelings and questions I ask every time a new project is introduced to me that needs tools or building. I would rather play sports, watch sports, or go for a run then build this thing! So...I called my handy brother-in-law over to help. He said this won't be a problem and will be easy, until he got to my house. There were boxes full of wood, boxes with hardware, and directions that looked like they were in a different language  Here are two of the six boxes that included the materials for this project. Someone that can do projects like this easily around the house to me is considered a "handyman". I ...
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The decision - Blog post 2

No...I am not choosing a basketball team for my future. I am deciding on a topic to start exploring to better myself. Which brings me to the final topic I have decided on, handyman work around the house. This is something that frustrates me but because I do not take the time to learn it and practice it. Normally I pay someone to do the job I want. This is not conducive to being a new home owner with a bigger mortgage! Let the journey begin...a bunk bed will be the first project. I just hope that when it arrives that the instructions are easy to read and not only in Swedish/Chinese. I am someone who has trouble using a drill. I done really enjoy struggling to do simple projects around the home. I will use my brother in law as a reference and guide in this process. Not to mention YouTube will also be a resource that I will utilize. Some of the things I know that need to be done around this new home: 1.) New exterior door 2.) Bunk bed 3.) Wire cables in basement ceiling need to b...
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The mecca of self improvement is USF tech - Blog Post 1

Things that I am passionate about...food, traveling, sports, and outdoors. I will be honest though, I could take the easy way out of this project and decide on something that falls in line with those few topics, but I wont. Maybe trying different food while traveling or learning a new sport that is outdoors, like cricket! When both of those topics sound great they are not topics that will fit into my life right now. Right now I am sitting on the couch on a Saturday night doing homework because I have been slacking. Why the lack of effort for my last class...I just moved homes. From St. Charles to Wheaton with my wife and three kids. Over twelves hours packing a truck (actually 6 men and a truck), lesson planning for my days off, and oh why not throw in an emergency appendectomy for my mother in law who we flew up from Florida to help. Needless to say traveling was not an option for this project as much as I wanted to run away and live the good life on a beach. Food is always a gr...
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