Bob: Me, making the first mark for the cabinet wall. We decided to use bats to hang all the wall cabinets, to ease and strengthen the installation.
Nan: Ya gotta start somewhere. Does this look staged? Actually, its "Hey, Bob! Look
here!" I sorta snuck up on him.
Bob: The first bat is on the cabinet wall. The two-by-four ledger will support the thirty-inch-tall wall cabinets during installation.
Nan: Without the bats on the wall the cabinets would have waved hello to every one,
and never have straightened out. Now you won't notice that the wall is not
plumb/level/perpendicular in any place.
Bob: The first wall cabinet is in place.
Nan: This was another exciting moment for us! The first step of this stage.
Bob: At this point, I placed the first base cabinet back against the wall, checking for lateral alignment. The way we've designed this kitchen, the wall and base cabinets have to stay lined up to get the stove and microwave to line up. Well, I guess that's true with ANY kitchen. Other bats are visible here for the over-sink, and further, cabinets.
Nan: It was easier to fix it now, rather than fourteen feet and five cabinets later.
Bob: Now, there are two cabinets installed, with the doors open.
Nan: Another one down. Or is that another one up? Either way, it looks great.
Bob: Three cabinets installed.
Nan: Looking goooooooood!
Bob: The third cabinet centers nicely under the clock, as planned. You can also see the fourth cabinet installed, the over-microwave cabinet.
Nan: These are so beautiful!
Bob: The fifth cabinet, the last one on this wall, missed fitting by one-eighth-inch, due to the lean of the chimney. Talk about cutting it close; which I did, with the circular saw.
Nan: The upper wall is complete.
Bob: A shot of all five wall cabinets, and the bracket for the microwave.
Nan: This sure makes a lovely picture, doesn't it?
Bob: The microwave oven, installed. I had to get bolts for this baby, as the seller didn't send them along, and 1/4"-28-thread bolts aren't that common.
Nan: Now we can use this in place. It had been standing on a couple of upended
drawers in the computer room for several months. Now it has a home.
Bob: The first two base cabinets, installed. Also, all receptacle plates have been installed and leveled.
Nan: These are fastened down and not going anywhere now.
Bob: To improve the alignment and stability overall, I predrilled and screwed all the cabinets together at the front, using 2-1/2-inch tan cedar/oak screws through the stiles. Here is the third base cabinet getting the treatment: shank holes countersunk on the inside to screw to the cabinet on the left, and pilot holes from the outside on the right so the next cabinet can be screwed to this one.
Nan: You can barely see the screws (the color blended so well) and the joint lines
are nearly invisible. I guess I should say you can't see nuttin'.
Bob: These bats support the cabinets and bring them up to level. They're easy to make out of scraps of two-by-four on the ole table saw, then screw to the floor to keep them from shifting.
Nan: Does that mean the next step is a homer?
Bob: You mean like Homer Simpson? Doh!
Nan: Don't mention that yellow rat in my yellow kitchen, thank you.
Bob: Here, four base cabinets have been installed. Next will be the stove. That will take a little extra work. The scrap piece of the original countertop is for comparison.
Nan: Isn't the fourth base home plate? Maybe we're not playing baseball here?
Bob: Actually, plates do belong in a kitchen...
Bob: here are the stove and the fifth base cabinet, dry-fitted. The stove took some engineering: the curly pipe passes into/out of the wall to allow the stove to be pushed all the way back, and the infamous anti-tip device, also missing from previous owner, had to be fabricated from a piece of scrap strap iron. In the end, everything worked really good, and our receptacle placement was just right, too.
Nan: We dry fitted a lot of this as we went. We figured it was time well-spent if it
avoided a huge mistake.
Bob: This is the stove: plugged in, gassed up, oven light on, under-microwave lights on, burners on, clock says 10:14 PM; installation: complete.
Nan: This really is a thing of beauty. I can't wait to cook something on it.
Probably a pot of beans and some cornbread on one of those late nights.
Bob: In order to modify the kitchen this way, I had to create an access panel to the gas valve for the stove in base cabinet five. A little ingenuity and some extra oak-faced chipboard material did the trick. I had to disassemble the cabinet and remove the bottom to do a nice job on the cutting.
Nan: Neither of us wanted a hole in the bottom of the cabinet, but in order to set the
stove back against the wall, it was necessary. This will not interfere with the use of the
cabinet, and looks nice also.
Bob: This one is over the Baking Center. It was pretty amazing to get all these cabinets as straight as I did, because no surface in this room was plumb, square or level...
Nan: This will hold the bowls for my KitchenAid, and the canisters and other essentials
for baking. This is why we call it the Baking Center.
Bob: The Baking Center base cabinet is installed. This is the modified vanity cabinet, and is only thirty inches tall to accomodate Nan and the KitchenAid mixer.
Nan: This is going to make it so much easier for me to sit on a stool and work with
my mixer. My arms and shoulders will appreciate the help!
Bob: Now we're getting down to the details. This filler strip was made from scrap left over from cutting down the Baking Center base cabinet. It has been beveled at thirty and sixty degrees, and is blind-screwed from behind through a sixty-degree crutch screwed through the stile of the Baking Center wall cabinet.
Nan: We were just admiring the cabinets right after getting them all installed, when I noticed that the lean of the chimney made this last wall cabinet look like it was leaning backward. We checked it for level, plumb and perpendicular and it was straight, but it didn't look it. We finally devised a cure for that. When Bob held up the board in place, it was amazing how the problem disappeared.
It's a thing of beauty!
Bob: I've installed the filler strip on the wall cabinet over the refrigerator (will that refrigerator EVER get here?) Two more were added at the left end of the cabinet wall opposite here, one on the wall cabinet and one on the base cabinet. These are all attached with screws through the stiles.
Nan: No, it's not milk or butter, but it's just as good. The filler strips cost a small
amount, but make a huge difference in how the cabinets settle into the walls when the strips
are in place.
Bob: As an additional knick-knack home, and to cover the ends of these bats, I made some little pine shelves out of scraps from the other pine projects for this room. They, too, will look beautiful when stained with golden oak stain and coated with polyurethane.
Nan: We pondered about how to hide the bats that were so necessary on the lath and
plaster walls. Finally Bob came up with this set of shelves. The angle on the edges
mirrors the thirtyfive-degree angle on the old baseboard throughout the house. It's
a nice tie-in.
Bob: A new over-sink light really sharpens the appearance here. The bulbs cost almost as much as the fixture, though! And at that, I still had to add a switch to it, as one was not included.
Nan: This light adds so much to the look of the cabinets, and I'll actually be
able to see the dishes when I wash them. No more dirty dishes now, not in my new kitchen. :)
Bob: With the stove on jacks (two-by-sixes), the rubber matting can be spliced in with leftover scrap pieces salvaged from under the Baking Center and the stove, and glued into place with building caulk.
Nan: Filling in the final supports for reinstalling the laminate flooring. Even this
little step made a visible improvement in the over-all ambience of the room.
Bob: At last, the laminate flooring can be reinstalled, using all the same pieces and padding. They were a little beat up from the previous installer, yet I was still able to make them snap back together.
Nan: All dressed up and SOMEPLACE to perform! The floor is coming back by popular demand.
Bob: With a little luck, I was able to almost perfectly splice out the old broom closet cabinet hole near the refrigerator. It's not perfect because, unseen here, two of these pieces don't interlock, the same problem I had in the pantry. I will fasten them down with some strategically placed nails. ;-}~
Nan: Drats! Now I won't have a place to sweep trash into. I'll have to pick
it up with the dustpan.
Bob: All laminate flooring is now reinstalled.
Nan: Soon we will be able to take a picture showing the 3D Home Architect view of our new kitchen, only this time it will be in "real" reality, not virtual reality.
Bob: Next, after we lower the stove off the jacks, will come floor mouldings, kick panels,
trim paint, countertops, water pipes, sink reinstallation and curtains. In other words,
not too much. Step right this way, to the finishing touches!