This week I had the opportunity to try something a little different from my traditional “girls night out.” This week I headed out with my friend, realtor and home staging expert Amy to the Home Depot DIH (Do It Herself) Workshop with Delilah (of Delilah Radio!). Delilah was gracious enough to take some time to talk to me and offer up some great tips for women and moms as we try out our talents in the do it yourself arena.
Interview with Delilah at the Home Depot DIH Workshop
I’m so excited to talk to Delilah. I admit, I may be crafty, but I’ve never thought of myself as being handy with tools. I honestly had always sort of thought that it was a man thing. But after my divorce and spending so much time having to call on my dad to fix things I thought I should learn at least some basic skills. Add to that the need to “fix things up” to put our house on the market and an impatience with cancelled appointments, late and expensive contractors and so forth and I’m so ready to spend some time learning how to “do it myself.”
Given my experiences my first question is about my own daughters.
How can we encourage our daughter’s to be empowered and better at “do it yourself” and know that they don’t have to wait for someone else to fix or do for them?
The more skills you have the better prepared you are to be successful in life. It’s just as important, boy or girl, to know how to do these things. It’s just as important to teach our boys to do things like laundry and cooking as it is for us to teach our daughters to use tools. When they are living on their own they need to know these life skills.
The more projects you take on the more they will do. Lead by example. So many other projects, like an outdoor fire pit. Grow your own vegetables, do a vertical garden if you don’t have much space. The thing that I LOVE about Home Depot is that they became my sponsor on the radio because I was first their patron. You can go to the paint department and say this is what my wall looks like and this is what I want it to look like. Their paint experts will walk you through every step of the way. They taught me everything from start to finish. They give free advice at Home Depot and it helps so much as you are learning or even expanding your skills.
And there are those fun kids DIY workshops also sponsored by Home Depot.
As I mentioned we are selling our house and there have been so many projects we have done ourselves, but even more that we have had to pay for. Up next I’m exploring putting in new countertops. Is this something Home Depot can help me with?
Bring in your measurements and your vision and they will help you do it. The beautiful thing is, if you determine your budget and you come in and say this is my vision this is my budget they will take you to the supplies you need and it will look lovely. They will customize it to your budget.
So it doesn’t have to be this big, long, hard project with strangers coming in and out of my house? It can be something the whole family can accomplish together. That would be amazing!
Tonight I’m here with one of my best friends, Amy. She’s a home staging expert and encouraging me to try to do some of these projects myself. We are calling it our “girls night out” which often times is more like going out to dinner, drinks, a concert or even those cooking at home casserole parties. The Home Depot DIH Workshops seem like we should add this to our list of things to do.
Oh, I’ve gone to so many of their workshops. You can go online to the Home Depot website and they give a listing of the DIH Workshops. I’ve done the grout and tile, hang doors and they have DIH gardening workshops. They teach you the most amazing things! These workshops are fun, they have cookies and juice. I take half a dozen of my girlfriends and we turn it into a party and have the best time.
We learn something new, get skills and laugh a lot. The ones that I’ve attended in my neighborhood have been taught by women, tenacious women who aren’t afraid of picking up a shovel, grouting tile or making a mistake. They teach you really well.
We talked a few minutes before the interview and I mentioned that after my divorce I didn’t even have a hammer in the house. What are some tools that women – single, married or divorced – should absolutely have in the house?
You know what’s funny – we were talking off the air and you mentioned he took the tools and the same thing happened in my divorce and I’m the one who bought the tools! I sat before the judge and said I got the house, I got the kids and I bought the tools. But in so many people’s mindset men and tools just go together. It’s a tool it must belong to him.
Start out small. Start out with a dremel. You can use it for everything, arts and crafts, do it yourself projects. You can drill with it you can sand with it. Every woman needs a dremel I think, especially if you love to do arts and crafts.
You need just a really good tool set and Home Depot sells them. They have hammer, screwdrivers, allen wrenches and you just get the kit and it is there for you. I have a couple of electric drills and a lot of outdoor tools because I love gardening and they are all from Home Depot.
I dream of a day when it’s not just advertising tools for Father’s Day, but also for Mother’s Day.
There’s quite a bit of thought that “guys do this and girls this.” What can we do to change that mindset? What are some things to keep in the back of our mind and things we can do to change that attitude?
Start with safety first. Because if you are going to be working with tools you are going to need safety glasses and gloves, things like that.
And then you need to get over your fear. Because 90% of what stops women from doing these types of things is not fear of the tools, but fear of failure and fear of looking foolish. We are afraid to try to lay our own tile because we are afraid if we miss cut it or lay it wrong it will look foolish. But guess what? We are our worst critics! You have to get over your fear of looking foolish and just go for it.
I think that’s the hardest thing for me. I don’t want to look silly, I don’t want critiscm afterwards. I don’t want to be made fun of. I think that’s
Take a deep breath, jump in with both feet and what’s the worst thing that can happen?
(My response) I have to fix it.
There you go –
(Me) And honestly that happens when you are even cooking dinner but we don’t quit cooking.
Exactly! So go for it!
So I did! I went for it!
My First DIY Workshop at Home Depot
I picked up my kit at the door and then spent some time wondering around. Chick Fil A was there with snack packs with choices of sandwiches, salads and chicken nuggets which was a welcome sight at 6 pm. I also got to check out some products from Scotts as well as Ryobi and play a few “games.” After a tough week I admit there was something almost cathartic about hitting a nail with a hammer. Then the crowd clapped and roared as Delilah made her entrance!
It’s time to take our stations and begin building our grilling caddy. My friend Amy had a power tool and she was not afraid to use it. I was excited to have my first try at trying something that required an electric drill. I’ve built books shelves and a few other items but this was sort of whole new area for me.
The staff at Home Depot were great – walking around and offering help, tips and suggestions. But following the directions was easier than I thought. I admit I felt like a great big kid who was so proud to bring home the project they made at school when I came home with my gorgeous, multi – functional and autographed grill caddy! I can’t wait to try another great DIH Workshop with my friends.
Disclosure: This content is brought to you by Money Saving Parent, The Network Niche, and Home Depot. All opinions, text, images and experiences are 100% my own.
Gregory Anderson says
Excellent. Absolutely loved reading and very helpful at the same time 🙂
Joseph Evans says
Having cordless drills with you will be very helpful. They are so handy when come to using in small work activities.