pacific coast maple...my biggest job

Chris Mire

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Southern Louisiana
what you'll see isn't even half of what went into this house. all pacific coast maple, a slightly softer and pinker cousin to traditional maple. stains much better and costs less.

this job was a total nightmare!!! from the doors that i got from a new company that were unacceptable to the many 1 hour trips to the job, to renting a uhaul to deliver in the rain to please the client, to you name it. if it could go wrong this job had it go wrong. still not sure if i even made any money or not.

this is definitely the biggest job i have done. it had 44 individual cabinets in it. almost double my previous biggest job. i had some firsts and never agains in this house. i always seem to get myself in trouble trying to push the envelope and do something different, when will i ever learn?

well here they are, not the best pics, i had my old camera with me that day.

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the gap over the fridge is purposeful. there is a trim kit that goes there, to make it look built in.

please tell me what you think of the detail on side of the island, i mixed the raised panel look with the inset panel with moulding. just trying to get a different look, i am still not positive how i truly feel about it. be honest, you won't hurt my feelings :p

thanks for checkin it out
chris
 
Hi Chris :wave:,
I knew you were not on vacation like some of the others said.:eek: :rofl:

Big job! :thumb: Lots to think about and a great learning experience. It has some real nice qualities to it. Will discuss later as time and energy allow. How close are you to done?
Double stile on the island side lends itself to conflicting grain and colors.
Push on! you get better every go.
Shaz :)
 
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From the end results, I could not tell that you had all of these problems, man that is one nice kitchen.

VERY nice work Chris, you should be proud of your work, especially considering the trials and tribulations you went through, kudos! :clap:
 
Despite the trials and tribulations, it looks like you won on this job. Very nice work, Chris. :thumb:

I suspect if you didn't push the envelope every once in a while, you'd get bored real quickly. ;) Plus, if these things were easy, everybody would be doing it. :p
 
nice eye shaz, i agree, if i had to do that again i know a better way to do it now.

thanks for the comments...job is done by the way, finally

stu, i am proud...it's just hard to think about it, bad memories....:doh:
thanks a bunch

vaughn, you are right, if i couldn't continually change and adapt to new things i'd wanna quit. that is one of my frustrations with the biz right now. not enough people wanting something different. they all want what their neighbor has.

thanks for the comments guys
chris
 
Customers can be fussy. Nothing to criticize there, to my eye. After they stop complaining to you, they will be bragging to their friends. Hope you did make some money on this project.
 
Very impressive job Chris!. Congratulations.:thumb::thumb:

Did you carve yourself the (I do not know the english word for it) details under the central island? How long did it take you?
 
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Chris, beautiful work! Man get shots of that to put in a portfolio. I know one cabinet maker that uses a professional photographer to keep his work documented. I cannot believe that the job did not present many many obstacles, but from the shots, you overcame them better than well!!! Great job.
 
Hip Hip Horray!

thanks chris for showin us some real flat work and not spinny stuff:D the island looks great and i like the detail above the stove area too the curve is nice.. in my eye the mix on the island of inset and and normal raised panels took some gettin used to.. the corbels lend them self to the rest of the kitchen and draw it together.. great job and i dint hear of your trials but the outcome was great!!!!! i do think i need to see you in production mode i could learn alot from your skills:thumb::thumb:
 
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Looks good Chris, sorry to hear about door problems. I build my own whenever I can. I had to buy 5 mitered doors for an entertainment unit project from Decore doors and wasn't happy. The miters were not tight, doors not all quite the same size and you can see the spline in the edge of the door. Turns out I had a similar knife for my hussey and could have made them.

But on the other hand with a job of that size it is alot work to build doors. Just keep plugging away.

Doug
 
Looks good Chris, and I really like it overall. I did notice the different grain in the double stiles, and I didn't really care for the mix of raised panels and inset panels, (just my taste, but each style looks fantastic on it's own). The craftsmanship and everything else I really like. I hope the numbers come out with a BIG Plus.:thumb:
 
frank, marty, ed, jonathan thanks for looking and for the kind words.

toni, thank, but no i did not carve those myself. i read a blog from a master carver who did some by hand once and it took him a long time. those would have taken me a lifetime.

larry, thank....you're welcome to stop by anytime, but i doubt you'd learn much. heck you'd prolly even teach me a few things. :thumb:

doug, thanks, i wish i had the time to build the doors. it was just a bad situation that i must learn from. nice avatar by the way, congrats i must have missed the event!!

norm, thank for you honesty. i know not everyone will like it. after it was done i was left scratching my head wonderin if i shoulda done it different. but the client was happy and liked it so i didn't worry to much.

thanks everyone.
chrfis
 
Yeah, Chris, thank goodness different people have different tastes, or EVERYTHING would all look alike, and I can just imagine how BORING that would look, much less how boring it would be to have to make the SAME things over and over. The main thing is that the Craftsmanship is superb, but MOST Importantly, The Customer Loves it, and THAT is what Really Matters.:thumb: On the Money side of it, I think that in Every profession that works on a contract, Some Jobs just naturally Fit the SIGN that was over the Checkout Counter at my old College Bookstore;:doh: "THIS is a Non Profit Organization,... It wasn't PLANNED that way, It Just Happened".:rolleyes::D I guess every once in a while we just have to make an "Educational" payment. :D
 
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