I've never been particularly good with tools. Between the "somewhat klutzy" gene and needing to take care of my hands to play my instruments, I've just not developed a lot of skills in carpentry, plumbing, electrical and other things mechanical.
Let's just say I know enough to be dangerous in all those areas.
But I had this idea that I wanted to build a fence in my backyard, and it just wouldn't go away. I had this wretched falling down half pint excuse for a wooden fence on one side of my property that I've hated since day one of living here. Since I've been working to have this nice native plants garden back there it seemed to make sense to want to have a more attractive fence to keep it all in, so to speak. So here's a "before" and an almost "after" pic. The red posts are the remnants of the old fence (I'm not crazy enough to want to sink new posts; uh, no thanks). We screwed some treated 2"x3" beams into the existing posts and then attached 6' tall pickets to the crossbeams. Man, what did people do before cordless drill/screwdriver thingies? Carpal tunnel syndrome adroitly avoided!
I got some great help from my son Sam and, over the course of two days, we managed to build a six foot tall privacy fence for under $200. We saved big money at Menard's, schlepped everything home and kept everything level. Pretty handy, eh?
