More Range Cabinets

I started working on the center unit that will go on both sides of the stove. It will rest on both of the bottom cabinets and will be attached to the wall through boards that are nailed to the studs in the two long slots cut into the wall shown in the last post. I am working on the unit with it laid on its back. You can see in this picture both of the sides being built up (you are looking at the bottom of the unit). I am also concentrating hard trying to figure out how to build the unit that is drawn up. I don't usually do any drawings on how anything is built...just sit there and think about it.

This one shows the installation of some of the trim pieces. They may look a little funny because they are designed to allow for tile to be installed on the inside face of the cabinets. You can see here the opening in the eventual front that will be where the drawer for spices will be located.

This is the right side of the cabinet that will eventually become a book case.

Here you can see me adding a glue line to the back side of the face frame on the bookcase side of the unit. This is also a nice view of the pocket screws that are used to attached the frame together.

And installing it onto the side. It is a little hard to tell but there is a 0.5" step that happens part way up. If you go back a couple posts you can see this jog in the picture of the whole cabinet.

Here is a picture of the other side. In the lower part is where the drawer comes out the front for spices. The upper part has a little opening that I am forming the bead around in this view. We are planning on either having a calendar or chalk board on the wall beneath the opening.

This is one of the two brackets that will give the visual support for the upper hood.

Lastly these are a couple views of where the whole unit is with the brackets and front panel just laid in place. The front panel is glued up but obviously is not cut to its final shape.

More Range Cabinets

All of the cabinet openings on the bottom units have a 1/4" diameter bead that runs around the whole inside. These are cut as separate pieces that are cut and glued into all of the openings. In this first picture you can see all of the painters tape that is holding the pieces in place while the glue dries.

This is what it looks like once all of the tape is taken off. There will still be a little cleanup prior to painting but it gives you the idea.

Plywood pieces were also added spanning the cabinet. These will be used to attach and support the countertop.

The baseboard trim was added to go from the door frame to the cabinets. This had been removed to allow for the sanding of the floor.

We were originally thinking about doing wood.....then soapstone....then concrete...then granite for the countertops. Well after making a trip to IKEA! last weekend we finally went full circle back to the wood countertop. They had a great deal on some solid wood (oak, but not sure what species because it looks more like walnut) pieces. This is a picture of one of the two pieces that we got.

Here is what it looks like just resting on top of one of the cabinets. Obviously there is still the trimming and any edge profiling left to do.

Last weekend we also had a chance to cut the holes in the walls to support a ledger board that will hold the top unit as well as route all of the new electrical for the lights, fan and outlets for the new stove position.

 

Stove Unit Started up

Now that the floor is all done we have started on the base for stove unit. We posted a picture of what the unit is going to look like a little while ago. It is basically two base cabinets on either side of the stove with a built in hood directly above. You can see the initial base in this picture, it is just made from ripped 3/4" plywood and shimmed so that it is level.

There is a air vent under the cabinet on the left. You can kind of see the hole in the floor and you can see the holes in the front of the kickplate to allow the air to get out. You can see the shims that are placed under both sides to get them level. Because the support is raised off the floor the popular outside is shimmed to the floor profile.

You can see in this picture the outside popular that goes on to cover the plywood base. This picture shows the portion that covers the holes for the vents. The slots were made on the router table with the spiral cut bit and the fence.

Here is a picture of the back showing the holes and slots.

It was painted dark brown so that it will hide once the rest of the cabinets are installed.

All of the pieces for the front and side panels were cut.

And layed out o make sure that they look correct.

All of the panels were cut and glued up.

I then had to try holding them in place to make sure they looked right.

Each base unit was then put together with its plywood base and back panel.

Kristen was then able to start to get paint on things. Both sides are now put together and there is a bunch of other items that will have to be done such as add the bead to all of the openings, make the drawers and the bases. I should be able to get that done this week and start on the more complicated top unit this coming weekend.

Kitchen Floor Urethane

 I put the third coat of urethane on the floor in the kitchen this morning! Here are some pictures after the second coat. You can see in the pictures where the new fir begins and the old fir ends.

 

I think that over time the transition should slowly disappear as the UV from the sun darkens the floor. You can see the cabinets are raised up 4 inches so that I can urethane under them and get the lift under them. There is one real dark spot that may have been the entrance to the room a long time ago. It will be interesting to see what the island will cover of it.

Work on Stairs

The top of the stairs had a funny little return that seemed to go to a 2X4 that ran along the wall. It is hard to determine what the stairs looked like in their original configuration but this return is a little strange. 

When we were down at the ReStore in Seattle a couple of weeks ago we picked up a carved fir wall plate that was from an old stairway. We plan on using that but in doing so we though that we would need an additional spindle in the space. Because it is going to be painted I glued up a couple pieces of popular and turned them on the lathe. Here is a picture of the finished spindle.

 Here is a picture of the finished spindle just held in place in its final position. It matches the originals pretty well but it is not exact. It was a fun challenge to work on my turning abilities.

Sanding and Painting

Well, we got most of the kitchen floor and the bedroom closet floor sanded last weekend. We have been slowly going around in the kitchen and hand sanding (with the random orbital) into all of the corners and along the walls. We don't have to get it perfect all the way to the wall because we will still have baseboard and shoe molding at the base of the walls.

 

Here is a picture of the removal of the carpet, pad and tack strips in the upstairs bedroom closet.

 Here is a picture after the floor has been sanded down in the closet. Quite a change.

 We also decided that this was a good time to paint the upstairs closet while we have all the clothes out and we are putting down the urethane. The color that we choose is a mustard yellow. You wont see much of it once the closet is complete but it should be nice. It is from the same restoration color palette as a couple of the other room colors upstairs.

 You can see that we are ready to urethane in this last picture.

We have been able to put three coats of urethane in both the downstairs fridge "nook" and the upstairs closet. Because of the smell and the fact that all of the clothes are out of the closet and on the bed we have been spending the last couple of nights in the guest bedroom. On went the coats which makes the floor look a lot better than the carpet.

Unfortunately we have not been able to get any urethane on the kitchen floor because the fridge is in the way and is too tall to make it through into the dinning room. Once the fridge "nook" is finished we can move the fridge in there and do the whole floor. It is probably good because it has given us the opportunity to slowly sand around the walls and get the floor ready to go. This also means a little bit of eating out because everything is covered up because of the sanding dust.

Rearranging the Kitchen

 

All of the new flooring is laid and it's time to get sanding!

 Our cabinets in their new home - the dining room. We will be kitchenless for at least the next week.

 The sink is no longer...