Common Sense, Or Is It?

Sometimes, things that are common sense to one person are a surprise to another person. For instance, I thought it was obvious that you should router boards before painting them. Mandy thought it was obvious that black tube socks should only be worn under pants.

You might be wondering how these two atrocities are related.

Mandy bought some magazine racks to hang on the walls next to the piano to store the kid's piano books. My first suggestion of storing them in the piano bench was rebuffed; apparently they're hard to get out while your sitting on the bench. Not wanting to put more holes in the walls, I coyly suggested that we mount the racks to a board that could lean against the wall. This way the racks would be move-able (i.e. in next year's garage sale). Mandy latched onto this idea once she realized that the board could be stenciled and edge-routed to tie in with the dining room.

That's where she got me. Ever since Mandy destroyed a chop saw blade and nearly earned the nick-name "Stubby" cutting a hardwood branch, I have been the default operator of power-tools in our home. That meant I'd have to bust out the router table to route the edges of her board. It only takes about 10 minutes to actually route the board, so no big deal right? Mandy assumed I'd be right on it.

But I put off routing for a few days. Sawdust is itchy.

Meanwhile, Mandy was itching to finish the project and paints the base color on the board. I comment, "when I route that, the router table will leave black marks on the board." I don't recall her response and she can't recall that I made that comment.

Imagine my surprise when I come home the next day and find that she has already done the second coat, the stencil coat, before I have routered it.

Trying to be nice I decided to route it that night as a surprise. I'd already put on my running clothes, and they'd do well enough as sawdust grubbies. I knew that routing it would leave black marks all over the board, so I figured I'd touch up the board. Common sense should have told me that job was better left to Mandy, but that's another story.