ListWise

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Houston Control…

…We have lift off of the Petch House Cabinets.

I used a couple of saw horses and an old door to make a platform so I could be up higher. There were a few nervous moments but all in all it went well. No busted walls, windows, or bones.

The cabinets came out a smidge wider than I wanted so the trim is going to be tight on either side of the window. I started with the doors so that sort of defined the width of the cabinets. The rails (or are they the stiles) are only 2 inches wide and I didn’t want to make them any thinner for aesthetics reasons.

I could have trimmed the doors but that leads to other problems. You can’t only trim one side because then the panels are no longer centered. If I trim both sides I then have to do the mortise for the hinges again. Also, if you trim too much the latches look crowded, and I could always screw up. This leads to the issue of going against one of my basic philosophies of old house restoration: Never Cut Old Wood.

They also could use to be an inch or so taller. I made the cabinets tall enough but I didn’t mount them high enough. I will be able to over come this but it would have been easier if I had mounted them an inch or two higher. I’ll chalk that up to inexperience.

Preliminary Inspection



They're Up!


And Level! Whew!


Final Inspection


Doors & Latches On

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You do such beautiful work. I have been following your progress as a lurker. I am so envious . This is what I always wanted to do but I am now too old to think about following my dream.

Anonymous said...

Dear Greg,
Can you please come to our house and teach us how to make awesome things like you do? Do you have a shed full of tools that rivals Norm Abrams? How do you do all this?
thanks,
Jenne

Jocelyn said...

what's Really amazing is that I know you do all this without all the high-end tools ala Norm Abrams woodshop! It takes ingenuity and perserverance and I can say this because we work with limited tools and make it work somehow as well.
applause for you again Greg!
and I have to ask, did Mortimer jump up there on his own? My guess is he did.

K said...

Beautiful! You're my hero! (and those cats will always find a way to sneak into the photos)

Ms. P in Jackson said...

Greg,

Those are wonderful. I can't believe you hung them all on your own, much less made them yourself. Truly amazing, lovely work.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful job, Greg! (as usual) You are very creative and skilled, and I wish you weren't 3000 miles away - you'd be my bestest friend for sure!

Mortimer looks exactly like my L'il Bat, it's eerie. He would be in the same places too. You know your project isn't done until you get the paw of approval.

BTW to anonymous - it's NEVER too late to follow a dream. You may have to modify it, but you can always go for it. Get out those tools and get going.

Greg said...

Thanks for the comments everyone. I’m very happy with them so far. I put the crown molding on them tonight and it looks pretty cool. Too tired to post, though.

Thank you for the comment Anonymous. The words of encouragement help. Like Suzanne said, it’s never too late. Maybe you don’t have to take on a whole house. There is lots of old furniture out there that needs restoration. Notice I didn’t say “That needs refinishing”.

And yes, Mortimer likes the work as much as I do. There are some days he is underfoot no matter how noisy or dangerous the work is. Nothing fazes this cat. He "protected" me the other day from a large Husky that wandered in to the yard. I feared for the dog.

Lynette said...

It's beautiful Greg. If we manage to do anything even half as good I'll be happy.

slateberry said...

I think I read somewhere that 17" above the counter is either a standard or minimum height for upper cabinets. Standard schmandard. I want my uppers higher than my mixer and blender. Hope yours clear. (Of course they look GREAT!)