…right? I mean, that’s basically all budgets and building come down to. How/where do I find a cheaper version of this, how do we build that to make it fit/look right/be what it’s supposed to be. So when we ran into an issue this weekend that the husband believed could only be solved by buying more tools (husbands, amirite?!) I did a bit of Googling.
The issue we encountered was that a lot of miter saws out there don’t go beyond 50°. When we were picking out the saw we would buy the only real criteria were (1) it wasn’t a piece of crap and (2) it wouldn’t break the bank. So this weekend when we decided it was time to start working on our powder room floor project we quickly discovered that we had a problem.
Before I get into our fantastic problem solving skills, I’ll share with you the inspiration for the floor. When we were first exploring the idea of a fixer upper (let’s be real, that’s what I wanted all along) I began searching for all the awesome DIY ideas that are out there. When I (all too ambitiously) was looking for some more budget friendly hardwood floor alternatives I came across this tutorial from Vintage Revivals that I decided then and there that we would create a geometric floor out of simple, boring pine boards bought from the hardware store…somehow, someway it would happen. (Here’s what the finished product SHOULD look like, fingers crossed!)
In comes our Little House on a Hill and while I knew that laying around 1,600 sq ft of make-shift wood flooring was just simply unreasonable (despite my best efforts to convince the husband otherwise), this geometric DIY kept nagging at me. Finding the perfect room was key, it couldn’t be too big or too small, and it needed to be in a place where we (along with our guests) could enjoy it. THE POWDER ROOM! The perfect location, we would see it on a daily basis and our guests would get to see it too. Done and done.
Ok, back to the problem solving.
So when we were setting up our work space and getting the miter saw ready, we realized that the instructions called for 120° angles. In order to cut those, we would have to set the saw to 60°…and thus the problem was discovered. While the husband was quick to give up and determine that we would have to buy a different saw or borrow one from someone, I thought of my powers of Googling. In college, my friends and I would be watching TV and would see a shirt or dress or necklace we liked and I would Google until I found it. BEHOLD, THE POWERS OF GOOGLE.
But I digress…we must solve the angle problem! I did some Googling about how to make a standard miter saw meet various angle needs and found that you can create what they call a “jig” to add to your angle, attach it to your saw and then there’s your magical new angle! Since we had a miter saw that went to 50°, in order to make it go to 60° some math needed to be done…luckily this wasn’t too complicated math but nonetheless, I let the husband do this part to stay involved ;). A 15° angle was needed so that we could set the saw at 45° and cut our 60° angle…GENIUS!
Ok…so maybe it wasn’t genius level problem solving, but it certainly felt like a big deal to us when we realized we didn’t need to spend more money.
Once we had our jig in place we got to chopping. Since the start of our renovation, I’ve gotten to learn how to use some power tools, each one bigger than the last. And let me tell you, using a miter saw is way more fun than rinky-dink power drill.
Before we figured out the jig, the husband was trying to find other shapes we could cut to create a different pattern. This one worked but was SO SMALL and would’ve taken FOREVER! *Please pardon the terrible lighting and pictures, we currently have no real electricity*
Chopped about 100 triangles so far! That’s about 20ish square feet! (Boy is it a good thing I didn’t decide we should do something this crazy in the WHOLE house :))
The moral of the story is…when in doubt, Google.
Pleasant To Pinewood 
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