If you were about to congratulate our construction class on a job well done on this shed, which we framed in less than a day, thank you very much…but no so fast.

Because the shed’s coming down. 

As it turned out, when we got the fourth wall in place, the outside corners weren’t perfectly flush. We made them flush on the inside but not on the outside where the paneling has to hang. It’s not like the corners didn’t meet; it’s just that they were off about a quarter-inch. But not being flush is a deadly sin in carpentry, so our shed walls all need to be reworked.

“Too bad I didn’t catch you before you finished,” the instructor said as he arrived on the scene and pointed out our gaffe. But I’ve worked with him long enough to know that he had no intention of saving us from our mistake. Our construction school is basically Montessori for adults.

“There’s no better way to learn than by fixing things,” the instructor said, all too chipperly, as he watched us blaze a screaming Sawzall through dozens of 16d nails that held our non-flush corner studs in place. “Think of it this way: You’ll never make this mistake again.”