Flop Bott: Finding Studs 101

Remember when I posted that I was going to take magnet board hanging into my own hands; despite what Padre felt about nails going into the walls?

Well, I tried

to do it with out his help.

It started with me trying to find the Stud Finder.

It's yellow and is this contraption that has these little green and red dots that light up when you find the stud in the wall.

I looked in his tool box.

Nope.

I re-checked the layers of drawers in his tall, red Craftsman tool holding drawer thingy out in the garage.

Nothing.

I was in distress- if I was going to do this right and show him I could- I needed that stud finder. I resorted to dropping my indepence=

I had to ask Padre where the stud finder was.

"Hey, Dad, where is the studfinder? I can't find it...."

He sighed. As he was in the middle of finishing a project in the garage and he instinctively knew I was up to no good.

"It's in the drawer in the kitchen."

The catch all drawer? I asked perpelexed. Could that studfinder even fit in there? Was he hiding it in there to keep me from driving nails into his walls?

Sure enough, I pulled open the drawer that holds all sorts of things from various screws and nails stuck to a magnet, to electrical tape, small tools for odd jobs, and A Lot of other stuff that would go in a Catch ALL drawer.

Except I didn't suspect it would catch the studfinder. But, there it was, in its original packaging, opened carefully from the top- the receipt tucked in with the instrument.

I tried it out on the wall in the kitchen.

It isn't working. I said and turned it over to find where the batter door was located.

Padre sighed again.

I've got! I'll change the battery! I reassured him so he could get back to his project.

"No, cause then you'll mess up my office. They are in a certain place that is behind some other things..."

And he was right. If I went in there, I would have turned over and re-placed a few of the stones in his office and taken his office from the memorized position of all things in his mind, and caused upheaval; chaos.

Eventually he was downstairs and handing me the battery to put in the stud finder. He saw the mag board in J's room. The Cat was outta the bag! AAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He still let it go up.

Can I just mention here that I did change the battery? AND I retrieved my tool kit and handed him instruments like a dental assistant hands scrapers and drills to a Dentist during a root canal.

Padre took over, like he'd wanted to in the begininng of the ordeal. He ran the stud finder, flat against the wall, until it lit up and beeped; signifying that he'd found one of the ends of the stud.

He grabbed his long metal ruler and measured various places on the wall to see which studs would best center it, in comparison to where I wanted it. A step I would totally not have included.

Finally he measured how far down the notches in the mag board were, placed a dot on the face of the board and then I told him where I wanted it to hang, he included the measurements of the notches and before I knew it- Boom. J's red mag board was hanging in his room.

I won't tell you which steps he added that I took to heart and will use when hanging my board. My board is a bit different. There are no notches that require EXACTNESS.

So it gives me somewhat of 'nail hanging' lee way.

But the principles are the same and I'm glad for Padre's refresher in mearsuring and perfection of nail placement in his walls.

I will have to wait until he isn't in the house, or the yard, or out in the garage running a loud air compressor to start hammering a nail in the wall- because he will hear it. He'll be rushing down the stairs before you can say Rush Limbaugh and the nail has barely chipped the paint off the expertly painted wall.

Because he is a bit like Count Olaf in the books by Lemony Snicket. Specifically the first book: The Bad Beginning- where the Baudlair orphans see pictures of Lemony Snickets tatooed eye, located just below his ankle, emblazoned on all sorts of things throughout the house, to give the children the impression, that Olaf was indeed, watching their every move.

Padre, however, just uses his 6th sense when we are up to no good. I'll post the pic of my mag board when he is out of state or something. So cross your fingers.

Ironically, Padre asked me what I was doing when snapping pics of his tools, the stud finder and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was only blogging.

"More like flogging." He said flatly. And and added that he'd have to read my blog cause he had the iimpression it was like this was some sort of voo-doo doll of him that I stick pins into.

Now if that isn't just a crazy analogy, I don't know what is! C'mon! I wouldn't even think of torturing him more than necessary!!!