Talking home projects and power tools with Sarah Listi

Show Notes

Today on “The Building Code,” Tom and Paul are joined by power tool reviewer and home improvement enthusiast, Sarah Listi, digital creator of Tool Girl’s Garage. Sarah is a dog lover from Texas who grew up building and helping her dad with projects, which has carved her career path and inspired her passion for this business.

Tune in to the full episode to hear about Sarah’s passion for learning and how she uses her knowledge, experience and talents to inspire others to take on projects.

How do you balance everything?

“I think it just comes down to what you love. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it. I find sketching out furniture designs at night to be very relaxing, but that’s a necessary part of the job. I find writing articles and discussing tools and even getting further into the mechanics of it to be so therapeutic and exciting, and I try to think of that one person reading it who’s like ‘I didn’t know that.’ That’s so inspiring to me.”

What is it like working in a male-dominated field?

“I’ll be honest, that part can be tough. I think in life in general when you’re faced in a situation where you’re not in the ‘normal’ category for your group, you can either spend your time being defensive or you can spend your time saying let me show them that they’re wrong. Right? In a way that’s respectful and in a way that maybe does open their eyes for the next person, too.”

“The community itself is really pretty amazing and I think that’s how your change the narrative. And I’ve really not met anybody who didn’t support more women going into the trades and being a part of this world. I hope that’s something that always continues. I hope that’s something I can continue to help motivate that. If I can help motivate one young girl to up being an electrician – how cool would that be?”

Are you a fan of “The Building Code” podcast? Nice! Be sure to head over to Facebook and join The Building Code Crew page for some fun discussions with fellow listeners.

Find Sarah on her:

The Better Way, a podcast by Buildertrend:

Looking to improve how your team plans projects with the top residential construction management platform this year? Pick up Buildertrend project planning pro tips on the newest season of “The Better Way, a podcast by Buildertrend.” Subscribe and stream all six bingeable episodes on your favorite listening app now.

Follow us on social:

Instagram and Facebook

Got podcast topic suggestions? Reach out to us at podcast@buildertrend.com.

Listen to “The Building Code” on YouTube! And be sure to head over to Facebook to join The Building Code Crew fan page for some fun discussions with fellow listeners.

Transcript

Tom Houghton:

You’re listening to “The Building Code,” your guide for a better way to run your business. I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

Hey Tom. I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

Fancy meeting you here.

Paul Wurth:

You knew that.

Tom Houghton:

I did. I knew that.

Paul Wurth:

That was for audience.

Tom Houghton:

That was for our audience.

Paul Wurth:

Just to level set.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. And for our audience, we’ve got a great just string of podcasts coming up. We’ve, of course, come off some great podcasts talking about our Stevie Award. We just had Danny Wang on the podcast. Before that, Brett and Kara. I mean, I feel like our guests just keep leveling up, and I think today’s guest just raises the bar again. Today on the podcast, we’re going to be joined by Sarah Listi, a digital creator of Tool Girl’s Garage. You can find her on Instagram. She also has a blog, toolgirlsgarage.com. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Sarah Listi:

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Paul Wurth:

No pressure there from Tom. Be greater than the last great one.

Sarah Listi:

Right? I know.

Tom Houghton:

I know she’ll deliver. I’ve been following her on Instagram for a while. The content that you put out there is fantastic. Again, if you’re not following her on Instagram, definitely go there. You have the blog as well. The only two platforms.

Sarah Listi:

I mean, I have a YouTube name saved that I, maybe one day, will start to actually actively post to. There’s a couple of short videos there. I mean, I’m on TikTok, but more for fun. I don’t really get it. I think it’s a generational thing. I’m getting there. I’m getting there. But yeah, I always say basically, really Instagram, Facebook, and the blog.

Paul Wurth:

I feel, and we’ll get into your Instagram, but I feel like that what you do with tools and TikTok, there could be a musical. You know what I mean?

Sarah Listi:

There’s stuff on there-

Tom Houghton:

Like a stomp routine?

Paul Wurth:

Something. I mean, I think it could play.

Sarah Listi:

… if you’re creative. It’s not even really creativity, it’s just time to have another platform to manage and it can be so consuming. I’ve got a few videos there that I’ve posted. Because I only post once or twice a week. I try to get on there, but I’ll have this one random video that’s had like 6 or 700,000 views, and then my next one will get like 400. So I don’t really get it.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, that’s what Danny was saying.

Sarah Listi:

It’s really inconsistent.

Tom Houghton:

The algorithm is still working that out.

Sarah Listi:

But it’s fun. I think I just look at it as it’s fun. I mean, I think I have 11,000 followers now on there, and I’m not really sure what I did, because I never really did…

Paul Wurth:

I’m sure the 13-year-old with 4 million followers feels exact same way.

Tom Houghton:

Exactly. They’re like, “I did something. I’m famous.”

Sarah Listi:

It’s a good way to make you feel inadequate. Whenever you have people that post two videos and they’ve got 50,000 followers. That’s how TikTok works. You just get lucky or you don’t. It’s weird.

Paul Wurth:

Instagram’s more blue collar where you got a huge following. You’re over 58,000. That’s great.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah, actually we’ll kind of round out on 60 here soon. I’m so excited. That’s crazy.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome.

Sarah Listi:

No idea what to think of that. Very surreal.

Paul Wurth:

It says, Texas girl, woodworker, mom, forever student, and storyteller. That’s probably a good segue into just telling people how’d you get to where you were and what is your profile from your view?

Sarah Listi:

There’s a lot there. So I was really raised by my parents, obviously. Really, Miter? I’m sorry, guys.

Tom Houghton:

That’s okay. And also, I just caught your dog’s name is Miter?

Sarah Listi:

Oh yeah. After the miter saw.

Paul Wurth:

Beautiful.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. That’s fantastic.

Paul Wurth:

That plays.

Tom Houghton:

It’s on brand.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah. Maybe he’ll be calm now that he can see me. Apparently, that’s really stressful. Okay. So no, I was really, when I say born and raised with power tools in hand, my dad was the guy who can fix everything, remodeled everything in our house over the course of time. When I was a teenager, he added an addition on the back of the house. I mean, I really credit a lot of my interest in building and construction into that. What’s ironic is as a kid, I wasn’t necessarily into it other than I thought it was cool that my dad did it. And I asked 10,000 questions as kids do. We all know how that goes. They have a lot of questions.

Paul Wurth:

Parent life.

Sarah Listi:

And I certainly asked a lot. Yeah, you got to have a lot of fun with it. My daughter’s like that. I’m just like, “Guys, how can you have any more questions? It’s eight o’clock in the morning.” So basically, as I got older, obviously your interests change, and then you kind of start to evolve as a person and then circle back to some of your earlier experiences. So I was really lucky when I got into it that I had all of this background of working on engines with my dad and building and woodworking, etc. And one of my favorite memories, I was four, was him cutting out these Texas clocks on a band saw. And I always referenced that because I was so young, but the memory is so vivid in my head. And I think it just makes you really realize what you can do with the right tools, and also patience and a willingness to try. And willingness to fail too, because I think that’s important.

Sarah Listi:

But basically as I got older, I worked in a couple of different industries. I worked in the apartment industry for a time as a general manager, which was really fun because I got to see a lot of different construction elements through that. A lot of different renovation processes. And ran into a lot of problems when you’re running like 600 units of apartments. So it’s cool, because it gave me like another perspective, more from a business side of the cost of managing some of that stuff.

Sarah Listi:

Then as I left that, we decided it was time to start our family, which was a very hard road and finally got our little man then. He’s nine now. And he really kind of inspired me to get back to it. Because he’s a very like hands-on learner. He does have autism. And so it was one of those things too, that it was this beautiful way to connect with him where you didn’t necessarily need conventional communication. And I just went at it full force and really never stopped. I mean, obviously, those first few years it was kind of as I could because I had another kid later on.

Sarah Listi:

So it’s been busy, but I just love it. It’s where my heart is, and it’s this perfect blend of artistic creativity. Then the hands-on part where you’re just going. And I say forever student in my profile because, I mean, I never want to be done learning. I think that’s the best part of what I do is there’s never going to be a day where I feel like I know everything I can learn from this world.

Paul Wurth:

And then you’ll never exhaust how many power tools are out there.

Sarah Listi:

No. My gosh. Because every time you turn around, there’s a new tool or new technology, new batteries, new motors. I mean, gosh, remember when brushless motors came out? That was all the rage, and now it’s so common it’s the norm. And five years from now, who knows what’s going to be there?

Paul Wurth:

Do you remember that, Tom?

Tom Houghton:

Well, I do. I was thinking ahead to-

Paul Wurth:

Wait. Okay.

Tom Houghton:

So I know Sarah uses EGO tools. I’m a big fan of electric green tools.

Sarah Listi:

They’re so good.

Tom Houghton:

They’re so amazing. And I know we shared a moment on Instagram because we’re excited about what they’re releasing next. Of course, they’re teasing all the way until 2021 for this.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

What are the releasing next?

Tom Houghton:

We’re leaving you hanging in there.

Sarah Listi:

Off the record, I may have seen… Not really off the record. That was a joke. But I may have seen some early-

Tom Houghton:

Prototypes?

Sarah Listi:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Not in person. It looks really cool. I’m like…

Tom Houghton:

I mean, I would say that in terms of teasing a product, they did a good job initially. But then the more they revealed, it looks like it’s a ride-on lawn mower. I don’t think we’re-

Sarah Listi:

Yeah. It was very obvious. I don’t think they were really hiding it at that point. And I laughed because when I saw the video, I had seen it about a month before we were told we could release it basically. I was like, “Oh my God, finally.” We’ve been talking about this for so long and they really took it to the next level. It’s going to be impressive. They [inaudible 00:08:12] did with it.

Tom Houghton:

See.

Paul Wurth:

Is it a solar mower? Is that what you’re saying?

Tom Houghton:

No, just powered by battery.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, cool.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah. It’s on their EGO platform.

Paul Wurth:

Awesome. Well, let’s go back to the beginning because that was a great sort of run at how you got here.

Tom Houghton:

Sorry. We dove into the tools.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, I mean, you guys…

Sarah Listi:

I know, I know. My ADD is always in full effect, especially in the mornings.

Paul Wurth:

Well, if you get Tom started on technology in the future, we’re all in trouble. But honestly, taking the leap into your first video. What was your first video? Do you remember what sort of said… I mean, because that is the main leap, and obviously you progressed slowly after that, and now you’ve really got some momentum. But doing that first one must’ve been some sort of let’s do this and see what happens?

Sarah Listi:

It’s funny because in my personal life, I’m really a pretty quiet person these days. I mean, I wasn’t always that way, but I got to the point where I live in a little space of Texas and I’m kind of in my own little world, which is really nice. Because I had previous media experience, it wasn’t as intimidating as I think it would have been for some. But honestly, I went into it thinking, “If I inspire one person, then I’ve done what my goal was.”

Sarah Listi:

My thought process was, “I think people get so intimidated and so scared of tools, and they don’t know how to use them or they feel like if they don’t get a project right the first time that they shouldn’t keep trying.” And that’s just wrong. You have to… There’s not a project I’ve ever done that everything went to the letter, to the T, perfect. You have to learn to adjust and manipulate your plans and just to keep evolving to get what result you want out of it. And that requires you to be open minded with it. At the end of the day, if you’re scared to fail, I mean, you will, because you’re not going to try.

Sarah Listi:

And so I think for me, that was a big part of when I started the page. I didn’t think it was going to ever turn into much. I mean, you hope for that, right? But you hope that you’re going to reach people. But I kind of assumed if five people followed me, I was happy, and if 500 people followed me, I was happy. And it just didn’t really… I don’t know. I just wanted to share what I loved and the fact that it’s played out and so many people connect to it, it’s just this massive…. I mean, I still can’t wrap my head around it most days.

Paul Wurth:

Well, it makes sense. Because I’ve often thought our generation… I’m always going to YouTube for home improvement stuff. If you don’t know how to do it, you go to YouTube and that’s how you unclog a dishwasher or replace whatever. I mean, what did you do before the internet?

Tom Houghton:

You got your encyclopedia.

Paul Wurth:

Is that what you did?

Tom Houghton:

Or you asked a friend. I mean, it used to just be word of mouth.

Paul Wurth:

Right. And it takes me back to you watching your dad do it. I mean, maybe there was a lot of trial and error back then, even more than there is today because there was zero sort of…

Sarah Listi:

And then, too, you can take things you’ve learned from even something unrelated, something like engine work. You can take something you’ve learned from how they structure a carburetor to how you build a piece of furniture. I mean, people don’t think of it that way, but there really is a lot of cross use with that information. Once you’ve learned how to make a basic frame for a piece of furniture, okay, well now framing a small shed is now somehow approachable. I mean, you just have to learn to take what you’re doing and apply it in other ways and that the idea of strength and structure and making sure point A connects to point B, that’s probably the hardest part to really understand. But then once you do, I mean, all the rest of it’s just domino effects.

Tom Houghton:

That makes sense.

Paul Wurth:

Never thought about it that way.

Sarah Listi:

Learning to keep things square and level. I mean, they all kind of play into each other. So for me, I got lucky because I didn’t have to YouTube stuff. I would be like, “Hey, Dad, I need your help with this.” And he’d be like, “Oh, okay, here’s what you should do.” I mean, it was amazing because I got to learn a lot. My first car was a 1993 Toyota Celica. So we’re going to age me a bit here.

Tom Houghton:

That’s all right. No, it’s classic.

Paul Wurth:

Nice.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah, I was so excited. I bought it in 2002. I bought it at 15 years old. I had saved. So I’ve always been a hard worker, which is good. I don’t do well with idle time. I’m not the person that… The idea of a vacation to me where I just sit there and stare at this beach or something is lost on me. I would want to be like reading or sketching. There had to be another… I just don’t sit still well, you know what I mean?

Sarah Listi:

And so when I bought that car, I had saved for years. Babysitting and, I mean, I got my first job at Kroger, and I worked there on the weekends and over the summer. So I saved forever and my dad and I spent a ton of time fixing it up. And man, that taught me a lot because you go from basic oil change, air filters, etc. But now we’re looking at all the spark plugs and struts and all this stuff, brake pads and rotors. I mean, it’s stuff that you maybe normally wouldn’t see, even if your dad was pretty handy, but we’re going to go a step further. Man, that was a cool experience.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Taking it to the next level.

Sarah Listi:

And getting familiar with tools too, not only as a child, but as a teenager, to be able to have a little more practical use with it.

Tom Houghton:

That’s awesome.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah. It was fun. It was my favorite memory, I think, because being a teenager’s hard and that part wasn’t. It’s hard. All the emotions.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. So you do so much. And I love that you just said you’re just always constantly going. Like Paul said at the very beginning, so not only do you do all this stuff online, but you’re also a mom and you’re also in an industry that I would say is probably male dominated. How do you handle all of this? I mean, I feel like this is a lot.

Sarah Listi:

I think it just comes down to what you love. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it. I find sketching out furniture designs at night to be very relaxing, but that’s a necessary part of the job. I find writing articles and discussing tools and even getting further into the mechanics of it to be so therapeutic and exciting. And I try to think of that one person reading it, who’s all like, “I didn’t know that.” And that’s so inspiring to me, because it’s so humbling to be able to be to reach that one person who’s like, “I didn’t understand that that’s how that worked.” Do you know what I mean? That’s so overwhelming in a way. And I feel like there’s this huge responsibility there that it’s something I love and I love that I get to share it.

Sarah Listi:

Now, I mean, it is definitely tough with kids because sometimes I’m kind of like, “Guys, I need 15 minutes to finish these cuts. I need you guys to chill out.” And thankfully they’re really very tolerant and patient. And so much of what I’ve been doing lately with the renovations and even some of the furniture projects have really been for our house. So that kind of helps, I think, because it’s all stuff that they’re going to now see in the dining room or in the living room. I think that’s a really fun aspect of it.

Sarah Listi:

As far as the male-dominated part. I’ll be honest. That part can be tough. The time I get it the most… I have the mansplainers where they’re like, “Oh, it’s…” and I’m like, “Oh, I’m going to reeducate you real quick.” But I try to also take that.

Sarah Listi:

I think in life in general, when you’re facing a situation where you’re not in the… We’ll call it, we’re going to quote, normal category for a group. You can either spend your time being defensive or you can spend your time saying, “Let me show them that they’re wrong,” right? In a way that’s respectful and in a way that maybe does open their eyes for the next person too. And so I just try to respond with information that I have. And I always say thanks for your feedback, I appreciate that, whatever. And it is how I feel because hopefully, even if it didn’t come across very nice, maybe that person, as I said earlier, treats the next person nicer, or maybe it changes their mind about whether or not a woman can do this. And they can, and that shouldn’t ever be the thought, but it is. And so it’s an unfair part, but it is what it is. And that’s part of it.

Sarah Listi:

I noticed that a lot too at media precedence. There’s a handful of girls that… there may be a hundred men and there’s four girls doing it, or five girls, five women. And that number keeps getting bigger. But it’s kind of weird, but 90% of the people that are doing it too, peers, I would say, if they know who you are and follow you, I mean, they’ve all been nothing but respectful and supportive. And so I think that’s amazing. I’m sure there’s odd balls out, but the community itself is really, really pretty amazing. And I think that’s how you change the narrative. You know what I mean? And I’ve really not met anybody who didn’t support more women going into the trades and being a part of this world. And I hope that that’s something that always continues. I hope that’s something I can continue to help motivate. If I motivate one young girl to take up, gosh, being an electrician, my God, how cool would that be? I’m not an electrician, but that doesn’t mean that… I mean, I want that for them.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. That’s awesome. I think it’s such an inspirational…

Sarah Listi:

Thank you.

Tom Houghton:

I mean, Paul’s got daughters. I’ve got two daughters. So I mean, we totally connect with that, and I think it’s great what you’re putting out there into the world. And it’s so timely too, with everything going on to make sure that we’re not being closed minded, that we are being open, and seeing from a different perspective. And I love that… That’s, unfortunately for you, a little bit of the banner that you have to carry, but you’re making it easier for the next generation.

Sarah Listi:

I think too, from the personal perspective, I’ve had my son. I mentioned he has autism and I’ve watched this world put him in boxes, right? And I think it’s easy for me, especially after those first few years when there is that big struggle and you’re really working through things and, not really so much just on his side, but just trying to get the world to see him for who he is and not who they want him to be. I think that you learn that those boxes are really damaging. They’re really dangerous. So why should I live in the box that I don’t want to be in? And I think the beauty of it is nobody should be in any boxes. What’s wrong with tipping our toes in all the little cubes, you know what I mean? I think there’s something cool about that too.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, definitely.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, that’s a great correlation, honestly.

Tom Houghton:

Speaking of boxes, we’re going to turn this to a positive here. Let’s talk about building stuff, building some boxes. What kind of projects are you most looking forward to? I know one of my favorite ones that I saw you do, because it’s really popular in the neighborhood that I live in here in Omaha, is lime washing. You did that a couple months ago. And so you can again, go back, go find the blog posts, go look at the images of lime washing if you want to know more about that. But what are you looking forward to most next, big projects coming your way? Can you tease something for our audience?

Sarah Listi:

So I have a really big master bedroom built-in project that I’m going to do. So this is going to cycle back a little bit more on the woodworking side, but also kind of general construction too, in a way, because built-ins are somewhat common, at least down here in the South in most homes you walk into. So a little bit of that general construction, carpentry side, we’re going to kind of mix the pots a little bit. But I built those nightstands for our master bedroom, which were really, really cool. I was so excited with how those turned out. But we’re going to do a big 12-foot-long built-in in our master that’s going to serve as furniture, because our master bedroom’s laid out really funny. So it’s about finding a solution to a problem basically. And there’s not really places you can put furniture. Nothing’s really where it should be, but there’s one area that we’re going to make this huge built-in. So that’s a really exciting project.

Sarah Listi:

And then on the renovation side, I’m really hoping to start the master bathroom towards the end of summer. But it’s going to be a gut. It’s a big one. I know it’s exciting.

Paul Wurth:

Stay tuned.

Sarah Listi:

Our last two homes were new homes, so finding projects like that to do are tough. Because I mean, you’re like, “Well, do I really want to replace this? I mean, it’s not what I want or how I envisioned it, but it’s a year old.” That was a big deal when we bought this home. We had to relocate to be closer to one of our kiddos schools, and the one thing is I didn’t want something brand new. I wanted something I could sink my teeth into. Some days. Maybe I’ve been off more than I could chew with this house, but that’s okay. It’s a learning thing. That’s the deal. You start to see what they did wrong. And you’re like, “Why would they have done that?” And you educate yourself too, because sometimes I’m like, “Was there a reason they did this? Why would this have happened?” And I ask questions of people and even that teaches you that much more. Why did they do it or why they cut that corner? That part’s really cool.

Sarah Listi:

So those two were big and then I’m going to have a lot of smaller stuff. A lot of decor stuff. I mean, I’ll be doing more painting, which is not really fun. But there’s a lot, a lot coming that I’m pretty pumped about. Yeah. A lot more furniture. Another headboard, that’s going to be cool.

Tom Houghton:

I love it. And you’re all doing this yourself. That’s the thing that I think it’s great. You’re not like you have a team of people behind you that’s all producing this.

Sarah Listi:

Oh no. Yeah. That would be nice though.

Tom Houghton:

Send help please.

Sarah Listi:

Sometimes I wish I had one person. This is going to sound so bad, but I like things really organized. And my shop looks like a bomb went off in it. It’s so bad and so disorganized and stuff is everywhere. It stresses me out so bad that I always think, “Man, if I had one person I could hire, it would be just come behind me and put the stuff away.” Because you’re always so busy with the next project. And sometimes I have three or four things happening simultaneously, and man, that’s intimidating when you’re trying to also keep a clue in your mind. And you’re like, “There’s stuff everywhere.” That would be another big project though, is we’re going to do something with the shop. Either extend the one I have or build from scratch on the other side of the property. So that’s a biggie.

Tom Houghton:

All right. Because of everything that’s happening in the world, you’re doing so many more projects at home now. How’s the family doing with all of this constant upheaval?

Sarah Listi:

They are so used to it. My husband has to be a saint, I think in another life or something. He came home. I joked about this on Instagram because, it’s funny, people are always very curious about my husband. His name’s Matt. He’s the most private person. He has no real social media. I mean, he has it, but he doesn’t. And he has his job that he’s worked at for a really long time. He’s wonderful at what he does, and he’s not at all interested in this. He’s interested in it because I am, but he doesn’t want to do it. He’s more like, “Do you need help carrying this piece of furniture in the house? Kind of deal,” which is good. And I think there’s something beautiful about that, that we kind of flip the switch a little bit.

Sarah Listi:

But he came home the week before last to have his bathroom door gone in our bedroom and all the casing off. And he was like, “Cool.” Doesn’t even phase him.

Tom Houghton:

I love it.

Sarah Listi:

He was like, “Oh, what are you doing here?” And I was like, “Oh, I’m installing this door here and I’m going to do this.” He’s like, “Cool.” I mean, maybe if it wasn’t so normal, it would be odd. It’s just not now. My kids I think, they’re six and nine now, so I feel even they’re kind of, “God, Mom’s building something else.”

Tom Houghton:

What’s next?

Sarah Listi:

What’s next, Mom? What are you changing? My daughter, the other day, asked me to put a barn door in her room. I was like, “Well, baby, there’s not really a spot I can put a barn door in your room.” Because that really depends on if you have a wall for it, right?

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Sarah Listi:

And so I don’t know how she felt about that because she really felt like she needed one. And I was like, “Sorry, it’s not going to happen. There’s no space for it.” But maybe I’ll get creative and do something else. Their rooms, ironically, are the only rooms done really, because I did that before we even moved into this house. Because we closed on it, we had some flooring, carpet and stuff replaced, basic stuff, and then I painted their rooms and decorated them before we stepped foot in it. Because that was the one thing is I wanted their rooms to be settled.

Tom Houghton:

No, that’s good. I mean, again, you’re constantly doing things. You’re constantly looking to be better, and I think that’s just the best. That’s what we look for.

Sarah Listi:

Thank you. That’s the nicest compliment ever. Well, gosh.

Tom Houghton:

Well, give me a couple minutes. I’ll come up with a better one. We’ll rework it. Awesome. Well, I mean, we probably could talk more about, I don’t know, other tools and stuff.

Sarah Listi:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Sure. I mean how are we on time?

Tom Houghton:

Oh, I guess. Okay.

Paul Wurth:

We could do a last question. One of my questions, because I think people are interested in tools, let me just ask you about a tool that maybe some listeners should have. So if you are maybe not an amateur, but you don’t have a ton of tools, but there’s one that you should get that’s going to be versatile and it’s going to allow you to do small woodworking stuff and just stuff around the house. Is it a miter saw? That seems to be a lot of what people’s first go-to is, but what’s your opinion?

Paul Wurth:

I’m going to flip it, because I love a miter saw, obviously. I named my dog after a miter saw, so let’s be real. So I love a good miter saw. But I also think that, honestly, if you practice enough, you can do a lot without one, although, I use it virtually every day. So I would say a drill impact, miter saw, those are all really essentials. You should have a router. That’s what I would go with.

Paul Wurth:

So I was really scared of routers for a while, because they’re intimidating machines. And if you’re using a big two and a quarter or two and a half or two and three quarter horsepower router, especially if you’re new to it, there’s a little bit of a learning curve. And honestly, if you said what’s the most dangerous tool in the shop, I would say router for sure. Because people don’t see them that way, if that makes sense? It’s not that they really are. It’s that people just don’t have the same care with them as they do with say a table saw. But I feel like they’re the most versatile tool. You can do everything from finish work to joinery. I mean, they’re the most versatile tools in the world. I love a good router. I probably have seven routers.

Paul Wurth:

I love that.

Tom Houghton:

Why have one when you can have seven too?

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Sarah Listi:

Right, exactly. You have to have a couple of different brands. How am I supposed to give a fair…

Paul Wurth:

Sure, that’s true.

Sarah Listi:

I have a box router in my router table, and I have a freehand-to-wall with the plunge, then I have the cordless-to-wall, and I have the cordless Milwaukee, and I have a Bosch 12 volt, which is really great for flush trimming. So basically all the routers. Just give me all the routers.

Tom Houghton:

That’s great. Start with one. Pro tip is start with one and then just go from there, right?

Sarah Listi:

The other one that I do think of a lot, and it’s not as exciting but people don’t give enough credit, is a good multi-tool. You need to switch out the heads from a Delta sander, which is really handy, to a little oscillating cutting tools. And so there can be a lot of versatility there too, for sure.

Paul Wurth:

That makes sense.

Tom Houghton:

Definitely. It’s good.

Sarah Listi:

Basically I could… I’m sorry. I could just go on and on.

Tom Houghton:

Paul’s going to swing by The Home Depot later and pick up a new router.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right.

Tom Houghton:

That’s right.

Paul Wurth:

And I’m going to review the Instagram to see which one’s the best. So I’m going to go through all your routers.

Tom Houghton:

There you go. We’ll have to go back and…

Paul Wurth:

I’m really diplomatic about it. I’m a big fan of Boss routers. I’m waiting for them to come up with like an 18 volt court, because I think they have really great battery technology. Their core batteries are really nice. But I like both the DeWalt and Milwaukee if you’re looking for a compact. They’re both good.

Tom Houghton:

There you go. I feel like I just saw something about Milwaukee. They just finally released-

Sarah Listi:

Probably the framing nailers, right?

Tom Houghton:

Yes. That’s it.

Sarah Listi:

And it is really nice from what I could tell. I don’t use framers very often, so I didn’t request it. Maybe I should have, because I could have found some stuff. But I have another framing nailer that I’m going to be testing out here in the next couple months, I won’t say from what brand because it’s not been announced yet, that I’m really excited about because it’s another cordless. But Milwaukee did good with it. They have the new Brad and Crown stapler too. Brad nailer and Crown stapler. Both of those really nice.

Tom Houghton:

So stay tuned.

Paul Wurth:

So many tools.

Sarah Listi:

There’s a lot to love there. They did good.

Tom Houghton:

It’s awesome. Sarah, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and sharing your knowledge of the industry and just sharing more about yourself. We enjoyed getting to learn a little bit more about you as you continue to learn about everything else. I love that you branded yourself a forever student. I think that’s fantastic. And I really think everyone who listens to the podcast can probably fall into that category. So keep learning, keep educating yourself, and keep educating us on everything that you’re doing.

Sarah Listi:

No, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Paul Wurth:

That was great. Thank you.

Sarah Listi:

Yay.

Tom Houghton:

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening. And we’ll see you next time on “The Building Code.”

Sarah Listi | Tool Girl’s Garage


Places You Can find us

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Available on Podbean
Listen on spotify

Get updates for The Building Code

Be the first to know when new episodes are released.

We think you’d also like this

Graphic showing headshots of the top construction Instagram influencers to follow

blog | 6 min read

Jan 11, 2023

Top construction Instagram influencers

Need job inspiration? We’ve compiled a list of 13 construction Instagram influencers you should follow. From design tips to business insight, they have it all.

Read the blog
Construction worker scrolling through iphone.

blog | 4 min read

Oct 14, 2022

How to create a house renovation project plan

Get expert advice on planning and executing a house renovation project plan for your next remodel – no matter the size of the project.

Read the blog

podcast

Nov 19, 2020

Focusing on the customer experience with Missy Scherber

Missy and the T.Scherber team do dirty jobs differently by putting customer experience first. Tune in to hear more.

Listen to the podcast