sons kitchen updates

Allen, Take your camera and go on a tour of some high dollar homes in a new subdivision that are being sold. You will fill your memory card finding flaws the so called 'pros' have made, at least out here in the west.

Be proud of what you have done. A little 'character' here and there is to be expected and appreciated...
 
allen both jim and brent are spot on with there replies,, we all here can see flws in our work that many never will.. its all part of it allen. look at what was there and what is there now.. can you see the great improvement from the before and after? if so then look at that as your family does and they see it as well as a great improvement. we as woodworkers need to realize that what we see in our work is never gonna be the final quality, we will always strive to do better
 
Sheesh! My grandma can do better trim work. :rolleyes: No, wait. She can't. She's been dead for decades. :D In fact, I don't think she'd be any good at trim work even if she was alive. Because, you know, she'd be like a hundred years old.

Seriously, don't beat yourself up over flaws. We all have 'em in our work, and they always seem huge...to ourselves and very few others.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
OK Alllen, my wife and I went through "parade of homes" a few weeks ago, if you are not familiar with them they are high end homes (in most cases) that are built and put on show for people to tour and purchase, some were contract built. Any way high end for this area. What you have done is nicer and better than 50% of those, no joke! Not knocking theirs, just boosting yours. We all see our flaws, I see mine every day in my kitchen, but folks that come over to visit never see them UNLESS I point them out. We just use our personal thoughts of our work for personal improvement. So in short well done Allen:thumb:
 
allen, the guys are right on this one. after looking at the pics you posted, the only one who could have done a better job at this is my dear ol dad (gotta stick with family). he is my harshest critic when it comes to woodworking. when i asked him to look over my couch after a test fit, he walked around it, looked it up one side and down the other, and said it was ok. i was surprised by that ok, since that was high praise from him, and i was sure that it was full of faults that only i could see. if he looked over your son's kitchen, i'm pretty certain you would get that ok too, and his only grouse would be about using so much expensive wood. you did a very goo job allen, and like the rest of us, you know where all the faults are (that one cabinet is off by 2/3 of a skinny cat hair by the way), but for some reason, we're the only ones who see them. even dave, who does some beautiful paintings, knows where the one brush stroke not enough, or too many (second wolf, about a third of the way down), yet we all see a beautiful painting. it's like my brother once told me when i was too harsh on myself about a project. he said if you keep your nose on the board in front of you, you will see the microscopic flaws, and run the risk of getting noseprints in the finish. he said to close my eyes, back away a few steps (making sure not to trip on anything), take a deep breath, and then open my eyes, and take a look at the whole project. it looked a lot better after that, and that's what i think you should do, take a few steps back, close the eyes, a few calming breaths, then look at the whole kitchen. it will look better than you think, and those noseprints will come out with a little light sanding. you done good allen!
 
ofcourse that cabinets off 2/3 of a hair, I didnt install that one, I just refaced it.
Im going to build the other two walls of cabinets, and Im going to build and install the cabinets plum and level, regardless how off the wall is, so I suspect my molding tasks will be much easier.

Thanx for the encouragement fellow woodworkers, Im not quitting, just hitting alot of roadblocks.

btw, I went to two arts and crafts fairs today, and walked in and out of a few restaurants and stores.

I got alot of strange looks, even from my wife, but she knew what I was doing, I was examining all the wooden crown moldings and trying to see how off the corners were. My wife was laughing at me.
I noticed as I was looking up, other people around me started looking up wondering what is this guy staring at?

anyway, there was one fabulous turner there, Ive never seen such beautiful work in my life up close where I could touch it like that. His pens were smokin! He had a segmented vase....whooooooa.

but, I noticed noone even showing any interest, just walking by. I waited on a 20 minute line in the blistering heat and humidity for a 1/2 gallon of pickles. The pickle people were packing away more dough than pickles.
In NY, at any craft show, it pays to sell pickles, zeppoles, or sausage and pepper heros, the lines are continous at these boths from 10am till the show closes.
 
I spent around 700 dollars today on more cherry and plywood for the boxes. One more sheet of 1/4 cherry.
Thats up at around 2000.00 so far, and I believe as far as lumber and hardware, Im done.
Maybe another sheet or two, but I have more than enough cherry to finish the other 2 walls.
Im putting in another 500-600 for a window, some plumbing work, and I will buy him the counter as a gift.
I think if I keep the total costs under 5 thousand, its a good number.

even with over 8000 btus of AC in the 320 sq foot garage, its just too hot to work out there.
Im waiting for next week when theres supposed to be a break in the heat.
 
Just what i was thinking Bob.:) But then Allens also figured out one cannot take it to the grave with you so heck he might as well spend it where he likes and make his kid happy. :)
I bet your boy would be able to flip the house now Allen and get a fair return if he chose to.:)


Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
well, Ive mentioned it 10 times, Ill mention it again, theres a reason I like making simple furniture from scratch, all the angles are true, walls, legs, aprons, straight, easy, glued up it all fits.
And then theres a 40 year old house with crooked windows, unlevel floors, un plum walls, wow.

today, I received another lesson in what real life constuction is.

We ripped down the wall between the dining area and the kitchen.

My son has alot of rewiring to do, so we didnt fix up and sheetrock,(very little sheetrock will need to be done, we took it all down), he will work on the moving electric lines and making new outlets end of the month when hes on vacation.
I didnt know I needed an electric line for the toe kick heater, so that adds another job for him.

then we installed the 2 halogen spots above the sink, and removed the 40 year old fluorescent fixture.

Problem again, for me, was that I cut everything square, and nothing around the window, especially the soffit was close to even or square

what I didnt realize when I designed the upper panels, is that the soffit bellies a bit more than an 1/8 of an inch above the sink, for whatever reasons, years of a leaking window, I dont know why. With it painted white, it wasnt really noticed.
So I put the lower 1.5 inch crown leaving only a bit of space, where I should have made the crown wider and left a full 1/2 inch to cover any bellying or uneveness. Live and learn. Right now Im leaving it be, see how it looks with a few coats of stain.

The next problem was the cabinets I refaced, and not perfectly aligned with the soffits, so when I attached the top ply panel to cover the soffit, I had alot of space, which again, Ill figure some kind of molding later on.

The window, I decided to just trim out easily but ofcourse, none of that was even, but the bad spots on top, we decided not to cope and go nuts, a valance will cover the seams and that will hide that. If you cant fix it, hide it.

and thats about it, some shots of the bellying, the bad spots where nothing is square or even, and what the new window looks like with a little cherry trim. Im not thrilled with the window area, but after some window treatment and valance I will take another look and figure it all out again.

some more shots of the wall down and the blue tape is where Im putting in base cabinets for a sort of pseudo island.

old window areakitchen reface 074 (Medium).jpg

new window areakitchen reface 093 (Medium).jpg

and now, finally, I can get started on the last cabinets, fridge area, island and a couple of uppers on opposite wall.
Im hoping to have all my work finished and installed by mid to late october, maybe beginning of november., Im including all my down time, a few car trips, etc...........
btw, the ceiling fan is coming down, its in the way of the new cabs on top of fridge, he hasnt decided what type of light to install yet. No rush, hes got plenty of time.
 

Attachments

  • kitchen reface 092 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 092 (Medium).jpg
    50.7 KB · Views: 40
  • kitchen reface 094 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 094 (Medium).jpg
    61.9 KB · Views: 41
  • kitchen reface 096 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 096 (Medium).jpg
    61.9 KB · Views: 47
  • kitchen reface 097 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 097 (Medium).jpg
    49.9 KB · Views: 43
  • kitchen reface 098 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 098 (Medium).jpg
    60.2 KB · Views: 44
  • kitchen reface 100 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 100 (Medium).jpg
    43.5 KB · Views: 41
  • kitchen reface 101 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 101 (Medium).jpg
    53.4 KB · Views: 39
  • kitchen reface 102 (Medium).jpg
    kitchen reface 102 (Medium).jpg
    55.6 KB · Views: 38
Last edited:
got all of the new base and wall cabinets made, finished making the face frames today, will sand and start staining tomorrow.
Im not real enthusiastic about working in the garage, even with the ac running, its still humid and not the best working conditions for me.
I figure after the road trip to larrys house Ill get real serious and hopefully the weather in another month will be a bit cooler.
My son has moved all the electrical outlets, switches, and put in power for the kickspace heater.
so were moving along, just a bit slow due to the heavy heat and humidity.
 
I get by with a little help from my friends.

I was not having a good time this morning with the spray gun, and ofcourse, only used it once, seemed to be ok when it all dried. Today I just wasnt getting the desired coverage, spray was thick, heavy, couldnt seem to adjust right.

a neighbor that recently did some body work on my little car stopped off to give me something, and I asked him to show me how to work a spray gun.
He said the gun wasnt the problem, it was me.
He turned one screw, told me I wasnt getting enough pressure and too little lacquer.
I asked him if I should sand off the first coat, he said, no, just wait a bit, spray another coat on with the adjusted gun, and I did. Looks around 30 times better.
One more coat and Ill call it a day.

Hope I catch on to this spraying sooner or later.

em6000 water based, easy enough for even a novice like me.

finished the face frames this morning, just need a bit of sanding when they dry.

Ill attach the faceframes, and start on the shelves(forgot to make them so I could spray with cabinets), and make the pull out drawers(dovetailed). hoping to get all the guts of the cabinets made and sprayed, and a bit of milling up some cherry for all the doors and panels within the next 2 weeks so I can put the project to rest until I get back from larrys.
 
Last edited:
Top