Spent a full morning fixing a wall I built wrong last spring

Last April I laid a garden wall at a house in Dayton, Ohio. The homeowner wanted a curved border, so I freehanded the first course without a string line. Looked fine from a distance, but by October it was bulging in two spots. I went back this Tuesday with a cold chisel and a rubber mallet. Took down about 18 feet of block, reset the footing with a tighter radius, and re laid everything with a proper guide. Took me 5 hours and my back still aches. The client said, "I didn't even notice until my neighbor pointed it out." That stung, but it taught me to never skip the layout step no matter how simple the curve looks. Any of you use a flexible batten for curves or just trust your eye?

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barbarahill8d ago

That line about the homeowner not noticing until the neighbor pointed it out is the story of everything, isn't it. Nobody sees the crooked shelf until a guest bumps into it, nobody smells the weird thing in the fridge until company comes over, nobody hears the squeaky stair until someone spends the night. We stop seeing our own work after a while, good or bad, because we walk past it every day. Then one outsider says one thing and suddenly it's all you can see. Go figure.

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