Designed with a Hammer

This idea of starting a blog always brings me great stress. Where does one start? What would I even write about? Why me? Do people really want to read what I am writing? I don't even think I'm that interesting.

However, my best friend kept nagging me over the past years to find ways to document my struggles of being a girl who knows more than most guys about the world of home remodeling. "I'm telling you - people want to hear about this stuff. You just understand where to start and have great designs."

We all have these great visions of the world through the lens of the Gaines Family. And in all honesty, it looks so heavenly with their modern rustic farmhouse with the tin roof and their perfectly matching chambray button-down shirt and boots. But being 1,619.5 miles away from Waco, the world of construction and design may be a bit more realistic.

So I guess the right way to start this off would be to tell you how I came up with the name of this blog — Designed with a Hammer.

It all started this morning when I was waiting for my second cup of coffee, okay my third, to brew. As the coffee maker was heating up, I was staring off at the design of my 80s kitchen and thinking of ways to tackle this project over the next few months. In the case of beige Formica kitchen, I need to find out if I can remove the soffit that is above my cabinets before anything else.

For those that don't know what a soffit is, it's technically a structure that can be used to architecturally and/or aesthetically cover any structural beams or needed vents in a particular design. But in the late 80s/early 90s people thought this design feature vogue! I don't know who those people are, but listen lady — this person needs the storage space for my mason jar mugs and tortilla chips. And the name just came to me.

The first thing that needs to be done is to look behind the soffit. Truly gauge the scope of the project. Can I just get rid of it? All "signs" suggest I can. The range vent is technically a ventless hood. So, no duct work to worry about. The water lines that run to the upstairs bathroom would go straight up and not interfere with the soffit from a dimensional perspective. So great, no need to get a plumber involved. And the soffit abruptly ends on both sides suggesting that it's not structural. Fantastic, so no need for new headers or need to get an engineer involved.

But have I thrown that hammer to the wall to truly see for myself?

And that was it. All my projects in the past have had a plan on paper, even if it was just a rough sketch on the back of my lululemon receipt. But they had a plan.

And from that plan, I would grab my tool belt that adds close to 25lbs. to me (bonus — no need for the gym that day) and find my grandfather's hammer to use to peek behind the sheetrock.

Each design starts with the swing of that hammer. And each design ends with a swing of the hammer to hang up the final piece of artwork.

So it was only fitting that I use the name Designed with a Hammer.

Over my upcoming posts, I will give you a glimpse of where I got my construction knowledge (it's probably not from my bachelor's degree in neuroscience or MBA in strategic management), sagas from some of my past few projects and thoughts on new ventures I want to tackle.

I think that is where I will leave you for the time being. After all, we don't need my stress level to increase.