-I recently built an all-brick house that had two arches at the front of the house. I showed my brick mason the picture of the facade, which was to scale, and expected him to lay the brick as the plans indicated. While the plans did not have measurements and specifications for the dimensions of the arches, I expected him to measure off of the plans.

I drove up to the house one day to find that the arches were being built in the wrong places - they were to close together. The work had to be torn out and the arches had to be rebuilt. The mason argued that I should have provided him with the exact dimensions.

Whether was right about this or not, I will definitely provided future masons with the exact specifications. I can't afford the time delay caused by a miscommunication like this.

The lesson: take nothing for granted. Assume that things will not get done properly unless you spell them out clearly.

Former builder and instructor of "Save Time and Money in Home Remodeling" cont. ed. course at Emory University