A good reminder, not only to carpenters and other craftsmen, but to everyone who’s working on a project: make sure you’ve designed everything well and taken all factors into consideration before moving forward, or else you might find out you misjudged something and it’s too late to fix it.

-How long is it?

-About 4 feet, 10 inches.

-Measure it!  This wood is too expensive!

-Ah, it’s 4 feet, 11 inches!

-See, if I’d used your first measurement, I would have cut it too short.  Always measure twice, cut once.