MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE
“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in
others.” - Rosa Parks
As my father always used to say, “Measure twice, cut once.”
This was stated many a time as my father and I built the horse shed behind the
house together. He had a tendency to do
this and still get it wrong, which brings my mother and I into hysterics every
time we think about it. Especially after
a few glasses of wine, we remember a time when my mom and dad had gone and
picked out marble sinks for my sister’s and my new bathroom. My mom offered multiple times to help my
father with the measurements, but it’s such a simple job we left him to
it. Only a couple months later to have
them arrive and be too big for the space!
At the time it was a huge deal, but now we laugh to the point of crying
about it. Since that time, I’ve figured out what he did wrong! He measured the
studs without the drywall on! So, immediately he was somewhere between 12 and
18mm out – almost a full inch!
Now you might be thinking, what the heck does this have to do
with your project Ali? Well, this lesson
and my father’s mishaps are a great reminder not to make the
same mistakes he did. And
so, I returned to site last week to do a second site measure now that the site
is cleared from scrub vegetation. And I
kept thinking of this life lesson and kept saying better to be safe than sorry!
Yesterday, I learned of similar Spanish saying and it is, “No
hay dos, sin tres.” Which translates into something along the lines of if you
do it twice, do it a third time. So,
they add another check to the requirement.
I love when different cultures have similar lessons, euphemisms,
and perspectives – it is a great reminder that we are all human.
as the great Norm Abrams has said (from This Old House) "Measure twice, cut once....but if you can, don't measure at all!" This emphasizes the importance of fitting work to actual conditions by scribing, using a fitted template piece, etc. I always liked that one. I also have another old saying and I'm not sure where it came from - "Every job is a renovation once the hole is in the ground", which is a very design-build idea. What is really happening on the site and in the work is so very much more relevant and important than forcing a drawn solution that did not fully anticipate the real conditions of a build. Everything is a situation, be nimble and unrestrained in solving building problems.
ReplyDeleteStrength to you Ali!
This is brilliant - I remember watching Norm with my father! Loved, "This Old House." And I completely agree with the 'whole in ground' mentality - working with the builder is so much more important than dictating an ideal.
Delete