I took last week off as vacation, though what I spent most of the week doing was far from a vacation: I tackled many of the jobs on the never-ending household to-do list. So instead of relaxing on a beach, I spent last week hanging three curtain rods and curtains, installing towel bars in a couple of bathrooms, and doing some work in the garage to hang a pegboard and clean up the work area--among many other not nearly so exciting tasks :).
Through it all, the cool little device pictured above helped me immensely. That round thing is the STRAIT-LINE Laser Level 30 (LL30 from here on out), a cheap and effective laser level. Until about a year ago, I used to futz with an old-fashioned bubble level whenever I needed to get something straight on the wall. However, for most of the jobs I was doing, a bubble level was next to useless. It takes an extra set of hands to hold it where it's needed, and it seemed it was either too big or too small for the task at hand. So on a sojourn to Home Depot, I spotted the LL30. For the price ($15 or so), I figure I couldn't go wrong giving it a try...and after just one project, I was sold.
The LL30 attaches to the wall with an ingenious two-sided tape from 3M (who else?). One side secures the tape to the LL30, and the other side secures the unit to the wall. You figure out where you want your line, stick the LL30 to the wall, flip the switch, and then center the bubble in the small bubble level (by turning the LL30 on its base). Presto, you've got a perfectly level and rock-solid laser line projected across your wall. You then mark your spots and turn off the LL30.
To remove the LL30 from the wall, you grasp a small tab of the tape that extends beyond the LL30's base. You then pull this tab straight down (or up), holding it against the wall. This tape is very stretchy, and as you pull, the stretching breaks the tape's hold on the wall, and the LL30 drops from the wall, safely suspended by the tape you stretched to remove it. It's quite ingenious, and I have yet to damage a single wall with it. (Much like an inkjet printer, though, these pull tapes are the expensive part of using the LL30. It only ships with a few included, so you'll want to buy some extra tape packs at the same time.)
The LL30 makes short work of projects I used to hate--consider hanging a long 30" towel bar. The instructions told me to assemble the bar, hold it against the wall, mark the top center of each base on the wall, put the towel bar down, then draw a vertical line about 2.5" long from the top mark. Next, I was to measure down 1.25" and draw a horizontal line, then hold the towel bar's base against the wall, moving it until the cross I'd just drawn was centered in a small hole in the center of the base. I could then mark and drill the locations for the base.
With the LL30, the instructions were more like this: pick a spot for one end of the towel bar, and mark it on the wall. Put the LL30 on the wall, and level a line through the marked spot. Measure 30" from the mark, and mark a second spot on the laser line. Turn off the LL30, hold up the towel bar base, center it on the mark, then drill the mounting holes. Much simpler, and much less error prone.
An even better example is if you're trying to hang three or four pictures on a large wall, all with their tops (or bottoms) at exactly the same level. Put the LL30 on the wall, turn it on and level the line, then hang the pictures so they just touch the line. Done.
If you do much work around the house and tire of the work involved in leveling stuff on your walls, I highly recommend you take a look at the LL30 (or any other similar such device). It probably saved me a good five to six hours or work (and untold foul language) last week alone.