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Dealing with mistakes
comments (0) September 5th, 2008 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
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“There was one perfect carpenter, and they nailed him up.” That’s what Ed Fiske, the first builder I ever worked for, used to say whenever he made a mistake, which wasn’t often. The other thing I remember distinctly about Ed was that he never seemed to think less of himself for having made a mistake. I was reminded of Ed after getting an email from my friend Jeff yesterday. And the latest thing I’ve learned about making mistakes, like firing a nail through your brand-new handrail, is that they make good fodder for a blog.
Jeff had seen last week’s post, which ended with me firing a nail through the face of my brand new oak handrail. Jeff wanted to know “exactly” what I did after shooting that nail through the handrail, and he also told me about the best carpenter he ever knew, a guy named Drew Arent.
“How come you never make mistakes?” Jeff asked Drew once.
“I make them all the time,” Drew said. “What makes you think I never make mistakes?”
“Because I never see you jump around, swear, and throw stuff,” Jeff said.
I used to throw my hammer. Only when I was working outside, though. I would make some stupid mistake, usually because I ignored the little voice in my head warning me not to do something, and I would boil over with anger at myself for being so lazy. Why didn’t I drill a pilot hole first? Why didn’t I move the ladder? After pausing just long enough to choose a safe trajectory, I would wing my hammer end over end as far as I could.
It was actually a pretty effective gesture, like counting to 10, because I would have to walk a long way to fetch the hammer, and then walk back, which gave me time to calm down.
Over time, I learned a lot about carpentry mistakes, not the least of which was how to avoid many of them. I learned not to base decisions on laziness. I learned not to rush at certain times and not to push too hard if I’m tired. I learned that most nailing mistakes, especially hammer tracks, happen because your body’s in the wrong position. I learned that there’s always a way to correct a mistake and that figuring out what that correction might be is tough to do in the late afternoon, having just made the mistake, and much easier the next morning.
posted in: Blogs
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About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
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