ListWise

Monday, October 24, 2005

The Sore Thumb

I started to think after yesterday’s post that it is probably not a good idea to tell people there is a problem with the cabinets that is bugging me and then let them scrutinize the picture looking for it. If you look long enough at just about anything you can find a problem with it. Maybe I shouldn’t encourage people.

Cabinets


So I’ll just go ahead and tell you what is bugging me in case you didn’t already see it for yourself. If you look at the top board of the center face frame – the horizontal board just below the sink – there are 3 grooves milled in to it. The middle groove is not centered properly. It just drives me nuts to look at it. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do it over. The board is in there pretty good and the sink is all hooked up, so I’m a little hesitant to. What makes matters worse, at least for me, is that I cut a test piece first and the test piece has the same off-center middle groove – Grrrr! Why didn’t I see this?!?!

Test Cut


Because I’m such a cheap bastard and refuse to pay for new wood, when I need a board I go to The Big Pile and dig something out I can use. What this means most of the time is if I want a board that is, say, 5X36-inches with no nail holes in it I usually end up digging in the pile for 5 or 10 minutes to find the right piece of wood. You don’t want to get anything too over-sized and waste wood, and of course you can’t use anything under-sized at all. Inevitably the piece is several inches wider and longer than I need and it takes several more minutes to cut off the ends and trim the sides where all the nails are. Then sometimes I may have to strip paint off it, and maybe send it for a few trips through the planer. What I end up with is a beautiful piece of old redwood that would cost $10.00 down at the lumberyard. Ten dollars isn’t a lot, but it adds up over the course of a project. It adds up quickly.

By the time I have the right size board I’ve invested a lot of time in it. When it comes time to do something other than a straight cut I’m hesitant to just go for it on the “new” board I’ve invested so much time an energy in. Instead I grab an even worse off piece of wood and do a test cut first. And this is what I did with the top part of the center face frame. And I screwed it up anyway. Very frustrating.

8 comments:

Gary said...
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Gary said...

Sorry, bad spelling error in previous post!

Yeah! Like I would notice that! If it bugs you, rather than replace it, paint a subtle colored (like the green in the walls)pinstripe border around the grooves to draw the eye.

Aunt Jo said...

Here I was going to ask if you'd build cabinets for me and you go and have a microscopically off-center groove. Pfft.

Seriously, your cabinets looks great and I would be proud to have them in my house.

amanda said...

I would have never seen that even if I had looked for a million years. However, I understand little things 'bugging you' so if you can't stand it, then you should fix it. It still looks beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I know you don't want to hear this but, you should re-do it. If you don't it'll drive you crazy for the rest of it's existence. If you notice it now, you'll continue to notice it. I'm the same way. Re-do it. :)

Ms. P in Jackson said...

Greg, it took you pointing it out for me to notice. I suppose if I were around it all the time I might notice it but I really doubt that as the more you are around the every day things, the less you see. Also, you will be placing a counter top that will have a certain amount of overhang.

K said...

Even when you point it out, I STILL can't see it. Hmm, maybe that says something about me. Never let me build cabinets.

Anonymous said...

Thought that was it. Don't worry, it's nothing a little photoshop won't fix :)

Seriously, I think that you should either replace it because it's all you 'll ever see, or take Gary's suggestion, and use it as a design element in a larger graphic statement. It could work, and work well.