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The 'measure twice, cut once' rule failed me at 11 PM last Tuesday
Okay so I was building a simple shelf for my bathroom, nothing fancy. I had this old measuring tape from my dad and I did the whole measure twice thing, checked it like three times actually. Cut the wood, went to fit it in the corner, and it was off by like half an inch. At 11 PM I just stared at the crooked board and realized why. My wall isn't straight. The floor isn't level. That saying assumes the world is square, which it absolutely is not. Has anyone else hit this where the old advice just assumes perfect conditions that don't exist in real homes?
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harper_wells10d ago
My dad's tape measure is exactly the same one I used, and he always said to trust the wall over the tape. Old houses settle, so the corner that looks square is really off by a few degrees, and the shelf just follows the wall until it doesn't fit anymore. That rule works for new builds with flat studs, but for the rest of us it's more like measure twice, curse once, and shim the rest.
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