During our E.L.L.Y. survey, we routinely ran a measuring tape from the east face all the way to the west face, and we got a reading of 8 feet-1/4 inch, not 8 feet exactly. Now, this is a tiny difference (1/4-inch is a very small fraction of 8 feet: 1/384th, to be exact). Perhaps a quarter of an inch doesn't matter when you're slapping up 4-by-8 foot panels on the side of a barn, but 1/4-inch represents a length of 19 inches in 00-scale!
The point is: we want to minimize all errors in our 1/12-scale structural model, and our architect's ruler is accurate down to a quarter of an inch on the 1-in-12 scale (see the close-up of the ruler in Plate 178).
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When we made the paper template for the structural model (Plate 179), we assumed that the baseboard was exactly 8 feet long, and this was a bad assumption. We must learn the following lesson: never assume anything about the dimensions of purchased lumber when constructing small-scale layouts. Measure and record every important structural dimension of your layout as construction progresses.
For the record, the other dimension of the baseboard was exactly 4 feet.
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