Sometimes, I think I can’t do anything right when it comes to projects around the house. If it’s something I’ve done a number of times, I’m fine with it. The toilet in our master bathroom, for example — I’ve replaced it twice. If I had to replace it again, I would be frustrated but not overwhelmed. I wouldn’t even have to look at a YouTube video for help. Any spigot replacement is no problem because I’ve done it so many times that I simply installed a Shark Bite coupling, and it’s a simple matter of some Teflon tape and a quick trip into the crawl space. The reason is obvious: practice makes perfect.

But catch me doing something for the first time, and you’ll probably find me using inappropriate language at some point, sitting at some point with my head in my hands, standing at some point staring at what I just messed up.

Today, I put up the stair railing that we took down over two years ago when we remodeled our kitchen. Following the principle that one doesn’t want to rush into anything unadvisedly, I’d put this off for ages. When necessity finally overcame procrastination, I thought it would be a simple process — after all, it looked simple on the YouTube video. And in hindsight, it should have been terribly simple. Yet not being a professional handyman, I screwed things up (poor pun intended). I mismeasured once even though I checked it. Somehow 29 3/8″ morphed into 31 3/8″ in my head, and though I’d written down 29 3/8″ and drilled the first hole 29 3/8″ from the stair tread, I drilled the pilot hole for the last bracket a full two inches higher than needed.

That wasn’t the first error, and it wasn’t the last, and as a result, I have a number of superfluous holes that need to be patched, sanded, and repainted.

What I wouldn’t give for a second shot with clean walls…