Well I think that Dad would be proud of this weeks work

I say this because when Dad was a finish carpenter he would build the cabinets in the house as well as trim out the normal stuff. Of course this all stopped by the mid 70's but prior to that Dad built quite a few kitchens and vanities in the houses he worked in. Now these were not big houses they were just your normal starter homes for working class families. But in those days the finish carpenter not only hung doors and installed the trim but they built the stairs and all the cabinets in the house. So without further ado here's what we have.
On Sunday we worked on finishing all the side walls and getting them ready for installation. Unfortunately this led to some frustration as I could not find my 30" bar clamps to use to clamp the facing onto the wall pieces. I thought they might be in Mom's garage but they weren't and I still could not find them in my garage. Oh well I'm sure they'll turn up soon or later. Therefore I ended up using my 6ft clamps instead. It worked but was much more awkward in moving them around. While two sections were clamped up and drying we installed the 1/4" backing cherry plywood in the locations it would be needed. In the end this turned out to be just the sink cabinet as well as the two counter cabinets. All the remaining cabinets will be drawer units and do not need backing plywood. Once this was done while waiting for the glue to dry I decided do some more work on the battens and trim work on the side porch. I installed some of the Fir trim work and then finished up by installing the short battens over the doorway area. Here's a picture showing some of the side walls in laying ready with their facing strips. As well you can see the backing plywood installed. I used some filler pieces in the sink cabinet as the sink will cover the area not covered with plywood. Second picture shows the work on the Fir trim and Oak battens.

On Tuesday we started by completing the cabinet that will be between the stove and the refrigerator. This was a small 26" wide cabinet so would be a good place to start. I first carefully leveled and installed the two side walls and then began the process of trimming out the face. First we installed some small blocks on the side walls which would be behind the horizontal trim that would separate the drawers. I used a small framing square to insure it was 90deg to the front wall before securing it in place with a couple of screws and glue. I then installed the drawer separators. These pieces of wood were 1.5" wide. The lower trim on the bottom shelf was 3/4" and the upper piece under the counter is 2" wide. The three drawers are essentially 6", 9", and 12" deep. All the drawers will be of the same configuration just different widths. Here are a few pictures of what it looked like by the end of the day. First one shows the method of installing the small support blocks. Second one shows the completed cabinet and the third one shows the start of the cabinets across from the first one. The hole in the third photo is so that I can access my central vacuum system and can install my vacuum pan on the outer cabinet wall once the varathaning is done and the floor is installed.

On Wednesday we continued working on the cabinets and managed to get to the point that we had all the work done that could be done with the exception of the sink cabinet. The reason the sink cabinet needed to be last was that I could not install those last two cabinet walls until I had installed the shelf in the corner cabinets. I did not want to install the shelf until I had a chance to put on a few coats of varathane to the backing and area as it would be to difficult once all the pieces were in place. So by the end of the day all the pieces were ready and we could put the first coat of varathane on the two shelves as well as the inside of the corner cabinets and the sink cabinet. Once this work was done I proceeded to work on installing the dryer vent as I could not finish installing the battens until the vent was in place. Here are a few shots showing the work at the end of the day. In the first picture you can see the first coat of varathane on the back walls and the two shelves on the left side of the picture.

On Thursday we painted a second coat of Varathane over all the surface areas and on Friday we painted a third coat of varathane on select surfaces like the top of the shelf and the lower shelf.

On Saturday we finished off all the major work on the construction of the cabinet carcass. This also included installed a support system for the man made countertop that will eventually be installed over top. The job was a little tedious and there were a couple of swear words mentioned when I made a few mistakes but on the whole it looks pretty good. I still need to fill in the nail holes and then sand everything smooth before we put the first coat of varathane on. As well I'll probably also make the two fake fronts for under the sink above the two doors and install them before varathaning as well. So here are a few pictures showing the work completed today.

So hopefully this coming week we will be able to make the majority of the drawers and get the ball rolling on installing a countertop. I already have a sink here and the taps will hopefully be on the way shortly. So who know maybe in a few weeks we'll have a functional kitchen. It may still take a while to build doors but who cares I can live with cabinets without doors for quite a while. 

Well until next week batten down the hatches and keep warm, because they say winter is coming.

Harold