My first proper power tool... I feel like a man

Okay so i've used power tools before, dad had loads them - hammer action drills, circular saws, etc. I've done shelving, drilled holes all that kinda stuff, you know a little knowledge can be very dangerous 'n' all that. But none of it compares to actually walking into a hardware store and asking to purchase your first power drill, with hammer action, keyless chuck, depth guage and laser guided drill bits.... okay i didn't go for the last option, that was just silly. But it was great to walk up, utter the modern yuppy masculine declaration "I'm renovating".

I think the sales guy, who turned out to be a nice enough chap, really thought his luck had come in for the saturday when I uttered my father's famous mantrer (sp!?) "spend good money on decent tools and they'll last for ever"... so I walked out with 800bucks worth of goodies, but I know it'll all last. And of course I can rationalise, I was going to save 1000's by doing the floor replacement myself, and I'd get proper tools out of it... .brilliant!

Renovations Stage 1... ground zero, flooring...

We'd already removed the carpets, so we knew that floor boards needed replacing. The whole place had been covered in a single horrible green carpet, and over the years certain boards had been replaced with odd pine snippets, obviously just to make do. So of course, doing the modern thing, removing all carpets and sanding back the floors everything needs to look the same... or at least vaguely similar!

The task, according to Bunnings Hardware was to remove offending boards, simply and easily using a saw, a chisel and a hammer. All sounds simple. I had the tools so i'll just rattle through these. The wood came from a recycled place near the city (A saga in itself to get that back without a ute or stationwagon!

2 days later and the place still looked like bombed out beruit, but my confidence had actually improved and i kinda knew what i was doing! (its all in the dress sense)... the end result actually looked pretty good... but if its taught me one thing.... get a professional ;-).