5th time starting over on my 1st stompbox.. I'm losing my sanity (DOD OD-250)

[matopotato]

Perhaps too late for you now, but when I do strip board I use the DMM to verify that the cuts really have been cut so that there is no longer any connection. I sometimes check with mobile phone app magnifying class to make sure there are no copper ends sticking out that could reach any other copper piece. And if suspect use a knife of some sort to scrape or carefully cut off such splinters.
When I have soldered in a component I keep the leg and again measure connectivity between that leg and the copper strip is is soldered to, and verify there is no connectivity to the neighboring strips around it, or if a cut is next, over to the other side of the cut.
If it checks out, not until then do I cut the leg.
Doesn't this take much more time? Yes, it is a slow process, but at least for me, troubleshooting is an even slower one.

Don't give up, you will learn a lot from the process even if things might look gloomy at times.