Most of this afternoon was spent doing DIY – specifically putting up a picture rail in the hallway – because a chunk of this morning was spent at the local Homebase, eyeing up cordless electric drills. Or is that the other way round? I was looking at cordless drills because I had a DIY job in mind and decided that it was probably a good time to invest in a new tool rather than struggling with an old and sometimes flakey corded drill or a cordless device where the battery is shot. Also, neither had hammer action drilling and our walls contain some hard masonry.

Shopping took a while and I almost gave up. There was a fairly small range of options and, of course, with real life shopping, you can’t press a button and get second opinions and price comparisons. Time to head for the Internet, I thought… and then I spotted a bargain stand near the exit. I was able to pick up a pair of what seemed like decent tools (Worx branded – a hammer drill and impact driver) at a reasonable price.

So far, I’m pleased with the decision. They work well and feel solid while also being relatively small and lightweight. They certainly did the job for my DIY task and it was helpful having one tool to do the drilling and another to help with screwing the rails to the wall. I got all the features I wanted and, as a bonus, LED lights on both, which are handy to see what you are doing in dark spots.

I didn’t manage a perfect job and it took me ages but I don’t think I can blame my tools for that.