A friend gave me a small skill saw runs on battery. My hands are week and painful. I can easily run this little saw. I would imagine a person would need a fine toothed blade. I would ask where you bought the flooring what to use.

Sorry I know nothing about the cable other then inside the house you can buy sections to screw together to make them longer.

What kind of saw does it recommend on the box? My neighbor put in laminate flooring not long ago. I'll ask her tonight if you can wait that long.

You can get the phone line at Radio Shack and probably even Best Buy. When we built the garage, dh ran an extension out there but to tell you the truth, I don't know how. I'll ask him tonight too.

thx shades! duh... I should have thought to ask the flooring people. I'll look up a skill saw tho. I've been looking at saws on lowe's site. I know i couldn't handle a lot of them. My hands are weak and painful also. and often shake - especially if I'm trying to do detailed work on anything.

no answer for the question I couldn't remember? lol!

You really need to try to use a circular saw for the laminate, with the appropriate fine blade. You'll want to cut from the finished side and have masking/painters' tape running down where you're cutting (ex.: an inch-wide strip of tape, with your cut line running down the middle). it will help keep the laminate from chipping where it is cut.

Re the phone cable, are you talking about pulling cable through the walls? Are you wanting a jack in a room that doesn't already have one? Unless you have good access via a basement or attic, I think it would be better let to the pros. Another option would be investing in a wireless router. it can be set up where the phone line comes in, and then you can run computers, printers, etc. wirelessly.

oh dear. wireless. you mean if the outside cable is connected to the house i can plug in one of those routers and then not need jacks in the rooms? how weird...

this cable is to get from the phone company network box outside up to the side of the house. I have the box to put on the house (I'll take it from the other place). I can run the wires around to the jacks. will probably only have 2 or 3. There are many in there already that might work when I get the network box connected to the house (the wires are sticking out of it just waiting to be connected to that big (short) cable out there). I wired the jacks where I am now. that's not a problem for me, it's that bigger cable outside.

will stop in to Radio Shack and see what they have. didn't see it online - and I called and the girl said they have them for 8.00 for 50'. From that price I think she was talking about the wire to go from jack to jack... I'd expect the outside cable to be more expensive.

thx marti! I'll also call the flooring place today and ask about a saw. looked online and one site said a mitre saw would even work... the zipsaw site had clips of using it for different things - one was laminate.

Steph Wireless is wonderful. I can be in living room with laptop and print in my studio wireless. So cool.WE have had as many as four people on computers here and no one is hooked to a cord other then plug in for power. Router sits in middle of house. Little black box.

Our phones are wireless now too so one base phone at the one phone line and the other two just have to plug into the wall with no jacks needed. Only trouble is if you want to switch phones in middle of conversation you have to send call to the other phone. Not sure how to do that yet. LOL

shades - I need things connected - so I can find them.

I bought a corded mouse the other month - if not corded how would I trace down where it went? it's always falling! that is because I key on my bed. I get up, set it down, then dog gets up and the bed bounces around and mouse often falls on the floor. this way I can grab the cord and pull it back up to me... lol!

phone - I don't often use a phone - and I even went back to a corded handset for that - mostly because the keys on it are BIG. my sister gave it to me along with 2 or 3 others. I'll put some in the back rooms so I can hear them ring.

down the road I'll probably get one that has the extra handset with it so I can go to another room if I want. I just haven't 'wanted' to do that in so many yrs, not sure why i'd want to now.

I'd like to put a cord on the remote too. always losing that and blaming the dog!

an update - sort of...

I was going to HD today for telephone wire. before i left my BIL came by to pick up their small tv. he offered to move my computer over but I told not yet - no phone hook up in new place for it yet and told him I was going shortly to HD to get the wire etc. and guess what he has a bunch of up in his garage? yep. the wire to go from the company hook up into the house. He said when their house was built the guys left it there. So i'm going to pick it up in a day or 2.

the laminate - I've been looking at saws and am thinking maybe the dremel trio would work? have to check it's website. the info on HD site isn't clear enough. and I'm watching some online videos on putting this stuff down.

at least with the dremel I'd have other usesx for it when done with the flooring. and it's lightweight. some of those saws I couldn't even hold up.

I do have a hacksaw but that's probably not what I should use.

I got the glass cleaned up and the mattress down. I took my old girl over today to let her get used to it. She finally stepped up on the mattress, walked across it and off the other side - sliding down to the floor and just lying there. At least it wasn't a distance down to injure her. I then got my comforter out, folded it over and put down next to her side of the mattress. I think the give of the mattress doesn't work with her own unsteadiness these days. But, injury getting up and down from it will be much more limited now. for her - not so sure about me - lol!

desertsteph, do you know anyone who can lend you an electric chop-saw/miter-saw? Once it's set up, it's so quick and easy to make square cuts. I've used it to cut scraps of laminate flooring that I was using for shims, and tiny shelves in a base cabinet.

I agree with shades about the wireless internet--we often get on our laptops together, in the LR, and have 'nerd club' (my son's term :).

Oh, and your third question: 2 TBS, and make sure it's chilled. ;)

can you cut lengthwise with either of those? I looked them up and from pics of them I wouldn't think so. I'd need to figure out a way to do that.

the miter saw might be an option - I do want to redo the baseboards in there and will need something like that I think.

on the 3rd ? - I don't know what TBS is. being chilled makes me think it's a liquid - lol!

Oops, sorry, I was thinking you just wanted to trim the length of the planks. No advice on Dremel tool for cutting lengthwise--I've used a jig-saw for beadboard (fake stuff), but my cuts can get a little wavy. Maybe if you clamped the planks to a table, and go really slowly...

Yep, TBS=tablespoon. No one else had ventured an answer, so I thought I'd take a shot in the dark!

yes, the dremel for the cross cuts... I'm going to ask dbf if he has a miter/chop saw i can use and my BIL might have a saw he can do the lengthwise with. I'd only need maybe 4 per room. and depending on how this room goes I might not be doing any others! lol!

I'd hate to buy a big saw just for this. I'd never use it again and have no place to store it. no garage - not even a shed at this time! the dremel trio looks like it'd be usable again and is small enough to store on the closet shelf.

ah - TBS - I thought of tablespoon but thought it might be a larger amount of liquid... but a TBS straight would do me in that's for sure!

and shoot - I still haven't remembered what the 3rd thing was myself!