The great thing about building a house is that its a multitaskers dream. There is always something to do, so I opened the 60 pound box of pulls and knobs for the various cabinets in our house, which my lovely wife and purchasing agent procured via the internet (Lee Valley Hardware, Canada). Being a student of master carpenter Bill Hart, I figured that I'd make a little corner jig for the cabinet doors and rail jig for the drawers. Use the jig to drill the holes for the knobs and pulls, respectively, in the same place every time. Seemed like a no brainer, but it wasn't that simple. Spouse extraordinaire decided that the drawer pulls needed to be centered in the recessed panels, and there are six different-height panels. So I made 6 jigs for the recessed panels and just measured for the pulls on all the door corners (4" up and 1 3/8" in, see photo to right). OK, so that wasn't so hard (2 hours).Then I had to deal with the screws for the pulls
and knobs. All the knobs go through 3/4" cabinet faces, so the standard 1" screws worked fine. However, the drawers have two configurations: recessed panels @ 1 3/8" thick and non-recessed panel @ 1 5/8" thick. So, all the supplied 1" screws for the pulls were worthless. Off to Hadlock Building Supply, after a free BBQ at Carls (monthly event at Carls). Bought 1.5" 8-32 pan-head machine screws for the recessed panels, and 2" 8-32 pan-head machine screws for the non-recessed panels. Here is where the work started. In order to use the 2" screws for the 1 5/8" panels, you have to cut off 1/4", grind the end, then re-tap the screwed up screw so it will go into the pull. Add 2 hours for modifying 40 screws, and the day is pretty much gone. 8 hours of labor and I got about 30 pulls and knobs mounted. Have another dozen to do in the kitchen, a dozen in the pantry, and a dozen in the master bath (36 total) for a full days work.So how much would your cabinet guy charge you to mount the knobs and pulls? Looks like 16 hours @ $40 for $640 plus tax for a total of $700. Add $500 for hardware, and you have instant heartburn. So Saturday looks like grouting and trim for the shower faucets (then a shower), and Sunday is more knobs and pulls.
Nancy continues to souldier along with the boxes piled everywhere in the house. At least they are in their respective rooms. By Friday the kitchen, living room and dining room were box free, and the pantry had about 50% open floor space. John Plake of Home Storage Solutions (Stor-X cabinets, Vancouver, Canada) came by on Thursday and installed our storage in the closet. Overhead poles, shelves, and pull out drawers. Quite organized, I'd say. So all the clothes and jackets are hanging up again, and I can actually find something to wear other than my usual T-shirt and mortar impregnated Dockers.By next week, we might actually try to pull some weeds, lay some more irrigation pipe, and plant some more shrubby bushes. If it doesn't rain. Cheers at Day 562.
P.S., nice seeing you at the Safeway pitstop, Amy.
