Error using SPWeb.GetList method in the FeatureActivated method of a custom feature

I was writing a custom SharePoint feature the other day and probably killed a few hours on this error and still don’t have an answer to it just yet. 

using (SPWeb web = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent) //since SPWeb is unmanaged code

{

    //check to see if our list exists already

    SPList storageList;

    try

    {

        //storageList = web.Lists[PAGE_VIEW_LIST_VALUE];

        storageList = web.GetList(web.ServerRelativeUrl + "/Lists/MyCustomList");

    }

    catch (Exception ex)

    {

        storageList = null;

    }

}

As you can see in the above code, I am merely trying to get a reference to my custom list using the SPWeb.GetList method.  Everything I have read says that the GetList method is the most efficient means of getting a reference to a SPList object as opposed to SPWeb.Lists[“MyCustomList"].  The problem was that everytime this code ran, it would NOT get a reference to my list and would instead throw an error.  I verified the URL countless times and tried everything, but still got an error whenever the feature was activated and this code ran.  I  then decided to write a quick win app with the same code and BAM!…it worked fine! 

So…..I still don’t have an answer at the moment (when I get time, I’ll revist this) but for the time being I switched over to the SPWeb.Lists[“MyCustomList”].

To all the SharePoint dev’s out there writing custom features…look out for this error.