This is my first post of many.......I hope!

And being my very first post about my life in the wonderful world of construction, but first I'll need to introduce myself. Okay here goes.........
My name is Dominick Allan DiTaranto, I'm a middle aged married male (that's me below) from Central New Jersey.

My story begins many years ago....(fade)..... I met a really sweet young lady while working as a Supervisor on a construction site who soon became my wife. We both discussed our future as Husband and Wife, and how we wanted to bring up our children in this crazy world of ours. Which is when we had (I think it was me) the CRAZY idea to start our own construction business......since I was born into a construction family, and with all of my experience in the construction industry, this seemed like the PERFECT idea!

Well it's been 25 years since then, and WHAT A RIDE it has been!

Through the years, when I would come home to my beautiful wife, I would tell her of my day and the sometimes exciting, sometimes unbelievable, sometimes horrible day that I had. She would listen with a concerned, but yet interested face. She would indulge herself in the conversation, and comment or suggest, so I always knew that she listened and cared.

There was so many times that we swore that we should write a book!  

Well it took me 25 years, so here I go!
This blog is going to be many different things.....Mostly stories of things that I go through owning a construction business. There will also be tips and tricks of the construction trade, and who knows where this will evolve. Suggestions will be appreciated also!

Today for my first post, I'm going to give a really good tip:

Whatever you do, whatever your thinking, what ever your experience.......DON'T start a construction business........Alright, I'm just kidding, it really isn't that bad....here is the tip of the day:

Squaring off an area: 
If you need to make an area square, whether it's a patio, or a deck, or your doing a tile floor, here's a good way to do it.
Let's pretend were going to build a patio off of the back of our house.....
Our patio is going to be 15' X 15' starting at the corner of our house.
First measure from the corner of the house and make a mark (on the foundation) at 15'.

Measure your first line, fifteen feet (away from the house) at a (somewhat)90 degree angle.   Put a stake at that point. (steel stakes are my choice)
You should now have two lines....One against the house and one going into the yard.
Measure across 15' (parallel to the house) and put another stake there. It helps here to have two tape measures, because you can measure the 15' from the house where you put the pencil mark. 
You should now have somewhat of a square. Run a line from your first point onto all of the stakes.....you should have the outside of the patio lined out.
The best way to check the square is the 3 4 5 method. From one of the stakes measure out 3' and make a mark on the line, then from the same stake measure out four feet in the other direction, and again make a mark on the line. Now measure from mark to mark.....If you have a good eye, the total between the marks will be 5'. If not, adjust your stake in or out to achieve your goal of five feet. The illustration below should help. And now your square, and that's my tip!  
One more quick thing....
If you have a really large area to square off.......double the numbers...Example: 6 8 10 and so on...Hope this helped!

See you next time......from beyond.........