Holding up progress...

Still no intro post

SORRY! I'm working on it. It's New Years Day, it's late and dark outside. I want to get some photos into the intro post and I really want to have at least some Day 0 (I mean TODAY) photos in there. I have a scattering of older pictures but we're really terrible at photographing ourselves. Suffice to say winter is a terrible time to introduce yourself, nothing is growing, everything is dark, damp and miserable and it feels so much more like an uphill struggle to get ready in time for Spring.

On the flip side, there's no better time to make a todo list than New Years. After several years of procrastinating and poor health I need to get out there, I need to push myself to get some fresh air and exercise and I need to get the garden flourishing again!

Why aren't things happening?

Right now we've got a list of jobs so long we daren't make the list! Most of these jobs are dependent on another job, we can't move our eldest into his new room until my office moves out of it, my office can't move until I clear the space to move into etc etc

Most of these jobs are held up on one piece of equipment. A drill. Sounds so silly, we have a drill but is it up to the job? Not even close.

Our house was built, I think in the 1940's and the bricks used are like iron. Our drill, with a proper (if not top quality) masonry bit, will penetrate the render but not the brick. It grinds away and skids and then sparks appear from the back of the drill hosing where the motor is, not a good sign!

We've consulted with some folk and the general upshot it, our drill is crap. It's a Black and Decker little orange thing that we inherited when our cheapo own brand drill finally gave in the ghost and stopped charging. It's high time, given the workload we've got ahead of us, that we invested in something a bit stronger and lasting.

To SDS or not to SDS

First up, I had to learn what SDS was. Turns out it's how the drill bit fits into the drill and once you switch to SDS there's no going back. While I'm sure it's good what I mean by that is, standard drill bits won't fit in an SDS drill and there are no woodworking SDS drillbits. So if we went down the (sorry, I'm sick of writing the acronym, I'm sure you're sick of reading it) SDS route then it would only be for masonry work.

Alternatively, we could get a better quality, more powerful, combi drill with some better quality masonry bits to do the job. We're not boring into concrete (yet!) so it should be enough...

So, do we get the SDS drill and use the cheap crap drill for woodworking, or do we get a better combi drill for everything with the possibility of getting the SDS drill anyway down the road somewhere? Lets look at the prices...

The combi drill

I've picked out the Einhell Power X-Change 18v drill as a mix of good brand, high power and not stupidly expensive (al-la Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee - I'm sure they're worth the money but these are tools of my trade here). It's on Amazon at £149.11 here but I can get it from a local tool supplier for £129 including the 4 Ah battery and charger.

The SDS Drill

The corded SDS range from Einhell is much shorter and this was the only one available locally. It looks like there's a battery SDS drill on Amazon too but I think if I'm, going for something with power, corded is the way to go. The combi drill might get used in the garden etc but for masonry, well that's the house isn't it! It's on Amazon at £86 here and locally for £83.

Choices, choices

So which way do we go? Well honestly I'm not sure. I think the combi drill route is the better long term route, replacing the cheapo drill entirely, but the SDS has more power and is nearly half the price to get the jobs moving. Eventually I see me wanting both, or at least 2 drills for those purposes, but I'm going to throw it out to the floor. Everything we do is on a budget, because there's so much we want to do that throwing cash at problems puts us further and further behind schedule and the clock (my health) is ticking.

How to pay?

Whatever we do, I'm hoping to pay for it, at least in part, with Steem. I know @pennsif has offered to buy some Steem from me and that's a friendship and opportunity I want to grab with both hands, if that's not too wierd! There are also some options for buying Amazon Gift Cards I hear, but the savings buying locally make that iffy at best.

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Signature to be added - if you're an artist and want to do one please let us know! @StormriderStudio & @ScarletLeonard - Together we're @NotQuiteAFarm