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They call it labor day for a reason...

I finished the kitchen cabinets on schedule and my brother and sister-in-law came up this weekend and attacked the project with gusto...

First the sheet rock came down, and then most of the wall studs came out.

Then the carpet and the kitchen floor had to be cut back to the subfloor level so cabinets could sit down where they needed to be.

Once the final dimensions were figured out, the end post to support the overhead beam went in place (the beam was pocket screwed into the ceiling joists).

At the end of the first day, the beam was all done, and the cabinets were sitting in place.

At the end of the second day the cabinets were permanently set (the were screwed together and pocked screwed into the floor), and the temporary counter top was installed.

And finally around 1:00pm today (day three) the three massive drawers were installed (they were built on day 2), and the sliding trash bin was also installed.

Everybody is now tired, including Reba the Wonder Dog, and Grace the cat.

It's Time for a Cabinet Meeting

The great cabinet build started in earnest on Thursday.  Before any cabinets got built, however, I had to wait for a little help to show up to cut the full sheets of plywood down.  While waiting I gave the shop a pretty good cleaning and even managed to organize my sheet good pile.

I even manged to measure and label all of the partial sheets with their size, including thickness.

With the layout of my shop, cleaning up this space was very important in order to have a clear path for feeding the plywood over my table saw.

As it turned out, after much initial frustration of not getting consistent sized cuts off my table saw, I found my rip fence was loose when locked down and was moving as much as 1/8" during the cut of the big sheets.  Once I figured what was happening and snugged the fence adjustment down, I ended up with my cuts being a full 3/8" narrower than I had planed.  It's not the end of the world though as long as they are all ripped to the same exact size.

Using the tablesaw, bandsaw, and mitre saw, my wife and I (she came home early to help) got all the pieces cut, assembly line style, for all 4 cabinets.


Here is the first:

This will be the only cabinet with an exposed end and will eventually hold the trash can for the kitchen.



When we stopped working that night we had the first cabinet's twin also done:

The second cabinet will have one door and a sliding shelf.  These cabinets are both 15" wide.




Saturday we went into my wife's office and painted all the walls to freshen the place up, but I did get out into the shop around 4:00 and put together the last cabinet in the row (skipping the 3rd cabinet because it is the biggest at 36" wide and I was working by myself).

This cabinet will up with two doors opening into a 28 1/2" space with one or two sliding shelves (I'm thinking about putting a "false bottom" shelf in for easy access.



That just leaves the last big cabinet that is going to have 3 drawers in it (a 12" deep, a 9" deep, and a 6" deep).  Right now it is sitting in parts waiting it's turn (maybe tomorrow).

As with any new project, the opportunity presents itself to add a new tool to the arsenal, and surprisingly enough my wife grabbed this little gem off the shelf at the Big Blue Box Store and threw it in the cart while I was getting some more pocket screws.

As funny as it sound, I think I might prefer the Multi-Mark to my regular adjustable square (I'm not big fan of the way a regular square tightens down I guess).  I just wish this came with a12" ruler instead of the 6".

That's all for now.

One Project Down, Another Project Ready To Go

Finally finished the face frames on the built-in bookcases, and they are now done except for painting (and my lovely wife is going to take care of that).

Here is the "finished" product that still needs some "finish".

Now on to new and (gasp) even bigger things.  We are going to take a wall out of the Kitchen and open it up to the dining room, and where the wall was, we're going to put in a new set of Cabinets with a built in breakfast bar.  The run of cabinets is going to be 8' long.

We started out with a hand sketch:

I then took this to Sketchup and rendered some views:

Did I mention I have to have these cabinets done by Friday?  No?  Thank goodness for the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig!  I really just need to get the cabinet(s) into this stage shown below.  I'm going to build in 4 pieces and bring them into the house one at a time.

Maybe I will be able to post a quick update each day this week to show progress.