Measuring beforehand might help

You know, I would have a lot less headaches if I would measure things correctly before I cut.  This has tripped me up so many times in the past, you would think I would have learned my lesson by now.

Well, I haven't.

I managed to get inside Frostbite on Saturday and did a bit of work.  I cut out the rotted wood and made a nice square for the replacement piece to fit into.

I measured the square (no it's not actually square since I didn't measure and draw lines before I cut it out, so it's really sort of trapizoidal) and then attempted to cut out a piece of flooring to fit.

  

FAIL

No problem, I have plenty of wood.  I tried again, more carefully this time.

FAIL #2

OK, for one thing, the jigsaw I bought at Fred's this morning has a problem in that the guide built into the front that I use to follow the line on the wood doesn't match where the saw actually cuts.  My second cut was too big so, rather than measure, I guestimated using the jigsaw that doesn't saw on the line anyway and cut off too much .

Twice.

I did notice after my second failure with this admittedly simple operation that the wood I was using for the patch was too think.  Again, I didn't measure the thinkness before going to Lowes to get the wood.  It *looked* about right at the store.

On a positive note, I did rip out all the water damanged insulation at the end of the box so it is ready to be rewired, painted, and new insulation installed.

I even purchased a trailer wiring kit at our local AutoZone so I am ready to get that going next.  I also managed to get back to Lowes to get new wood to patch the corner.  This time I did find some plywood scraps near the woodcutting area which they sold to me for $1.  The pieces were thinner than the last board I bought and it *looked* about right.  No, I STILL didn't manage to measure the thickness of the existing floor.

I really don't know why I keep doing these things.