The long overdue cabinet entry - Part 1

It has been almost 2 weeks since the last blog entry, but that's only been because I've been so busy with the kitchen.  I did make sure to at least take pictures and leave myself notes to remind me what happened on what day.

Thursday, August 30th - My friend Ross came over to give Sarah a break, and he helped me hang the "northeast" upper cabinets.  IKEA's rail system for hanging upper cabinets made this quite easy.  Take your time getting the rail level, and your cabinets will be level too.  My drywall job was sliiiightly uneven by the new window, and the cabinet over the fridge did require just a little bit of shimming.  Nothing too drastic.

My method for maintaining "level" cabinets as they go around the corner:  Install the rail all the way to the corner along the one wall, and then rest the end of the 4' level on the rail, to get the level on the second wall.  Seemed to work quite well.  Might be the recommended way, not sure, it just made sense to me.

Much to the chagrin of my wife, a die-hard Steeler fan, Ross, one of the Browns' 4 remaining fans, wrote "Go Browns!" under the cabinet in the corner, where there will be tile.  It will forever be known as the Corner of Shame.

Friday, August 31st - Sarah and I hung the "northwest" upper cabinets.  My drywalling job in that corner was worse than the other side by the window.  We went to put the corner cabinet it (always do that one first), and it wouldn't sit flush against the wall.  When I mudded the corners, I didn't feather it out enough and/or sand it enough, so it stuck out.  We put the cabinet in place, marked with a pencil where the cabinet hit the drywall, then took the cabinet back down and chiseled out the drywall so it would sit flush.  Sadly, no pictures of this, but the good part is that it is hard to see once the cabinet is in, and will be invisible once the tile is in.

Northwest cabinet mounting rails

Saturday, September 1st - Sarah's dad came over, and following the same method as the first set of base cabinets a few days prior, we mounted the ledger board for the u-shaped section of base cabinets.  I hadn't installed back legs on the first section of cabinets, but decided to for this main section.  I figured that the ledger board and rear legs would just be extra support.  It ended up that because nothing is ever completely level, the rear legs came in quite handy for leveling the cabinets.

This was also the day that I noticed that without the rear leg on the end of the cabinet run, I wouldn't have anywhere for the toe kick to clip onto.  Also, I couldn't put the foot on the cabinet without unbolting it from the wall, as well as its' neighboring cabinet.  DOH!  After getting very, very close to removing the end cabinet to put a foot on it, I had a revelation.  The cabinets were already resting on the ledger board, so the foot wasn't really for structural stability, it was just meant to attach the toe kick.  So I cut the wide base of the foot off, screwed the foot all the way up, and was then able to fit it under the cabinet.  Unscrew the remains of the leg until it's firm against the floor, and the foot is ready to accept the toe kick!  No massive dis-assembly required.

The sink cabinet was by far the most... fun.  The drain goes out the back, and the supply lines come up from the basement.  I cut a hole in the back for the drain with the Dremel tool, using the adapter I used to cut the electrical outlet holes in the drywall.  I could have done large round holes for the pipes to fit through, except for the hot water pipe, that sticks out with a 2nd valve for the dishwasher.  So I measured and cut 1" wide slots for the pipes to fit through.  I un-nailed the back panel and pulled it back, and then we lowered the cabinet over the pipes, which fit into the slots.  Carefully and awkwardly nail the back panel on, and we're good to go.

Because of the pipe cutouts, I screwed two 1x3 boards along the bottom of the cabinet, for extra strength.  Also, for the dishwasher/garbage disposal outlet hole, I used a piece of trim strip normally used for fiberglass reinforced panels (FRP) to trim out the hole I cut.

Sunday, September 2nd - Didn't do much that day, mostly just installed the upper door hinge hardware and doors.

Countertop set in place, but not cut yet!

That is it for week one.  Next up?  Countertops!  Cut!  And installed!