Making Mistakes

It’s bound to happen when you’re doing something for the first time. Like building two desks in your craft/study room and you’ve never really built anything before in your life. Sure, I know a thing or two by now about caulk, painting, and even sawing under a stone fireplace to install flooring, but each time there was a learning curve. Fun, but not without a little trial and error.

The error being that I pre-drilled my pocket holes in one piece of wood only to later discover that I put the piece upside down when I connected them to the 3×3 posts that would hold the desk up.

Like I said, oops. No matter though – I have two ways of fixing it:
1. Unscrew both sides, flip the piece in the right direction, and screw everything back together and make sure it’s square once more. OR
2. Drill new pocket holes in the right direction and patch the ones that face the wrong way.

Yeah, #2 sounds easier to me, too. Especially when I’m already patching up the other holes anyway in prep for the final coats of paint.

I guess the lesson here is that it’s okay to make mistakes. When it comes to building furniture, precise cuts and attention to detail is important – but don’t sweat it if you’re learning how to do something for the first time. We’re all DIYers here, and in my opinion it does a disservice to you all to pretend that things work out perfectly each and every time. I feel the same intimidation about new products as you do:  Will I get it right? Will I embarrass myself if I post this? Screw it; let’s just see what happens.

And that, my friends, is what DIYing is all about. You figure it out, learn what not to do, and know better next time (like when I build desk frame #2). And once it’s all painted, no one will know that I goofed up in the first place. Except all of you :)