In the morning, Brian and I finished installing the west side (range and oven) cabinets and we were acting pretty cocky by lunch time. Still to do are the hanging cabinets. The two on that wall straddle the hood, which should do up first, then we'll trim out the hanging cabinets with fillers. Levi Ross came by and installed the gas line extension, which goes from a floor mounted valve on steel pipe up to the Wolf range top via a flexible pipe. That way we'll be ready to set the range top in place when the counter tops show up. There is a third hanging cabinet (resting really) that goes on the right side of the refrigerator case. This cabinet is really a double door cabinet that sets on an appliance garage, where the coffee maker and toaster will be stored (sound familiar, Bill?). However, since this tall cabinet ultimately rests on the counter top, that must go in first, hence the delays on completing the kitchen (reddish) cabinets. These are quarter-sawn red oak with a burgundy stain and lacquer top coat. (Note to Shelly Little, they look great and you should see them installed soon).In the afternoon we brought all the cabinets for Island. There are 7 cabinets in this set that all get ganged together to form a 3' x 6' island. They are also quarter-sawn red oak but with a wheat (very light) stain and lacquer top coat. We set the prep sink cabinet first since it straddles plumbing and electrical. Once that was in place, we moved to the right with a recycling (two waste can) cabinet and a double drawer cabinet.
This finished off the far side half of the island so we anchored it all down and moved on to the more complicated back side (toward you in the photos). This side has (from left to right) a shallow cabinet (glasses?), two wine racks, and a spice cabinet with false door panel. Well this is where the trouble occurred. The spice cabinet was spec'd out at 23", but supplied as a standard 24" unit. No big deal, just had to cut an inch off the back end, but on the finished side. This meant getting a straight cut with no tear out of the plywood veneer. Brian and I covered the end with tape, cut through the veneer with a knife, then used a skilsaw to rip the inch off the cabinet. Then I planed the end down to the veneer line. It came out pretty good, but I still need to work it over so the seam with the wine rack is absolutely straight (this will show). The bigger problem is that the false door panel, which goes over the spice cabinet, was made about 2" too wide (factory error), so this panel will have to be replaced. So for now, we still have to screw together this side of the island cabinets then figure out how to attach the glass counter top that will float above the granite top. I'll likely loose some sleep over this one before its all done. Today, I'll do clean up and take an initial look at the range-top hood and see how this sucker is going to get bolted in place. It attaches to a 800 cfm blower that is already in place and I keep kidding Nancy that it will probably suck her hair straight up when she powers the fan up. We'll see.P.S. On Wednesday I finished the island cabinets. Still in a quandry about how the glass counter top will be supported off the end of the island, but I put extra wood backing in the island just in case we have to router a slot to accept glass corbels or mount metal standoffs.
P.P.S. On Thursday (New Years Eve) I worked all day and got almost nothing done. Took my two exterior doors (fir) that go between the main floor and basement and upstairs out to Bill McCutchen to have the birch thresholds that he made fitted to the doors. They turned out great. Otherwise, we'd have black aluminum thresholds with red birch on either side—butt ugly, prevented. In the afternoon, I spent 4 hours cutting a hole in the island cabinet for an electrical outlet, then wiring and fitting the outlet and cover. Turned out great, but that's not much progress for a whole day. Some days you kill the cat, some days it kills you (today). Happy New Year.
