Building the Dishwasher Platform and Cabinet

Before counter top installation day, we had to build in the new dishwasher cabinet since that was going to provide support to a larger section of a much heavier counter material. This was a Nick project, though we collaborated on the best way to go about doing it.

A few months ago we cut out the end cabinet space and set the dishwasher in place, though not secured to anything. We did use it a few times, but had to be careful while loading because it was prone to tipping forward. Not a problem now that it's entirely built in.

Here's where we left off after the cabinet removal to make space for the dishwasher:

First we created a base. The floor where the cabinet was removed from was slightly lower than the tile surrounding it, so we evened that out by screwing down a thin piece of MDF board. On top of that Nick screwed down plywood to provide some height and an attachment point for the support frame.

Dishwasher fits on the plywood base, which overlaps onto the tile. Now it sits level.

In preparation for the dishwasher installation, we had to do some electrical work. We had a friend's stepdad, who is a contractor, help with this. Nick assisted so he could learn more about it as well. That project didn't really warrant its own post, but makes sense to mention it here.

The large range outlet to the right in the photo below used to be where the silver box on the lower left is, which is where the dishwasher would go. In order to get it out of the way and keep it more accessible, we moved it over about a foot to the right. The white cord with the yellow cap that's tucked into the wall above the silver box is the newly-installed direct power supply line to the dishwasher. You can see it in the photo above after the dishwasher has been hooked up. We left the cord long so we can pull out the dishwasher pretty far if we need to. 

Because this electrical work included sawing out parts of the drywall, we had to repair it. I spackled the area, but it still needs to be painted. I'm planning to do that before the end panel is secured in place. 

Now back to the dishwasher cabinet. Nick continued building what was basically a very sturdy frame,

Nick used the original counter top and a level to make sure the upper frame was flat so there wouldn't be any gaps or slanting when they set the new counter top. We were working with precise measurements, since we wanted to have a nearly seamless transition from the counter to the range, with little to no gap between the dishwasher cabinet end and the oven. Nick did a really fantastic job on this. Now that it's installed, the side edge of the new counter top and the dishwasher cabinet line up perfectly.

We still need to stain and finish the visible areas of the frame so it matches the rest of the cabinetry. Once that is done we can actually secure the dishwasher to the upper and side frame pieces with screws using the available anchoring holes.

Just about done

After all that, we'll be securing a detachable end piece in case we need to access anything back there in the future. We're also going to include a sound-muffling layer to make the dishwasher quieter.

Finally, here's a look at the entire kitchen with the new dishwasher cabinet frame in place. Next post will be about the counter top installation and finally some pictures of what it looks like now, which is absolutely stunning!

Ready for the new counter top to be installed

Chicken Coop Improvements

In early January we had two consecutive weekends of partly-sunny skies and mid-40s temperatures, which gave us a jump start on some outdoor projects. The chicken coop needs some improvements before we can bring home a couple hens in the spring, so we started there.

The chicken run/yard area around the coop was really overgrown with weeds and blackberries, so first we cleared all of that out. Now we can finally walk around inside the entire enclosure!

Here's a before shot from early spring last year, before the yard became overgrown:

Fire thing Nick did was unhinge and flip that wall with the door as shown below so now the little chicken entrance is on the right side of the coop, which solved the problem of the chicken ladder being in the way of the human entrance. Nick also fastened extra gate latches to make the human entrance door more secure from predators. He also attached hook and eye latches in such a way that we can now keep the hinged front wall shown below open and safely attached to the 2 x 4 supports above when we need to clean out the inside of the coop.

Painting was the next big piece. The coop was white, but we wanted something more colorful. We selected this reddish-orange, which kind of makes the coop resemble one of those big red barns. 

Kind of matches Nick's vest too

First coat complete

On another nice weekend we'll put on a second coat of paint, clean out the inside of the coop, increase the size of the access door to the nesting box. After that we'll be adding a removable tray to the nesting box to make it easier to clean and finally line the coop with shavings. Then just add chickens. They don't really lay eggs unless it's warmer so now is the perfect time to get this all prepared for spring.

Pierre checking out the coop

Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing, Part 2: Cabinet Interiors & Drawers

I didn't take photos of the cabinet staining process because it was pretty boring photo-wise: I brushed several coats of Minwax 'Jacobean' stain over all of the areas that I had stripped the paint from the previous week, then after both coats were dry I brushed a layer of polyurethane over it. Once done I started painting the rest of the cabinet interiors with a Benjamin Moore color called 'Spanish Olive.' 

I painted an entire section of cabinet at a time, shelf by shelf. It took about a day to do each whole section, including the drying time of two coats. Also each day I had to re-shelve the stuff I'd taken down the previous day in order to paint that area and then remove everything from the next section. 

You can see below the new stain finish and the new green interior compared to the old white interior:

Taking a break from my second section of interior cabinet painting

Lower cabinet interior drying

We are incredibly happy with how the green and the dark stain look together and how both look with the newly tiled floor! Now to replace those old doors and drawer fronts. You've seen some photos of the kitchen cabinets before, so here's a shot of the old drawers from before. Even before I stained the frame around the drawers shown. The tiles weren't even set yet either, just laid out along the cabinets to get a look at what they'd be like: 

Photo doesn't accurately represent how ugly these were

We researched cabinet doors for a while before finding the right ones. Both of us dislike the look of raised-panel, so we were looking exclusively for slab style. One evening while browsing manufacturers we found exactly what we wanted at a place called Barker Door. When we saw that it was a local place in Tualatin, Oregon, Nick went to the showroom to check out the quality and what the slab doors looked like in person. That they were available unfinished sealed the deal, since we could then stain them with the exact stain as the bases instead of trying to match it to the options available by companies that only offer a pre-stained door selection.

Unfortunately they don't allow product pick up from their facility, so we had to wait for them to be delivered. But that only took one day since we are so close. We ordered the doors on November 7th and they arrived on the doorstep on November 21st. Not bad at all.

Photo below shows a couple doors with a first coat and the rest of the drawer fronts unfinished as they arrived via Fed Ex Ground, ready for staining right out of the boxes. I got to work right away.

Unfinished doors

And first coat complete.

First coat of stain drying

The drawers were basically a project all by themselves, which is why the rest of this post is about them.

Between applying coats of stain on both the front and back of the new drawer faces and the seemingly endless hours of each coat drying, I got to do some 'demolition,' by which I mean remove the rest of the ugly old drawer fronts and get the entire box to their final, finished state. I positioned the chisel and hammered along the drawer front edges both inside and out, rotating the entire thing as I went. I knew this would work and we'd end up with a clean removal and solid box because I'd removed the front of one of the three large drawers before we ordered the replacements.

My tools for this: chisel and mallet

After pulling out the nails used to attach the old front, I ended up with this below. I filled any nail holes with spackle, sanded after that hardened, and made sure those edges were level so the new front could sit upon on the base with no gaps.

Early green on what was the 'test' drawer front

All that was left for this drawer was two coats of the Spanish Olive paint. Between coats I would work on the other 4 drawers, which were in various stages of demolition and reconstruction. For example, while this final coat below was drying, I had spackle drying to fill the nail holes of another drawer, and would start removing the front of the next. The kitchen was a mess during this project because everything in these drawers were in bags on the floor or scattered around the counter top.

One done, four to go

I did all of this on the weekdays leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday break, when Nick was able to join in with the fun over his four day weekend. The drawer boxes were done, and it took the two of us to hold the newly-stained replacement fronts up to see how they'd fit best on those bases. Nick measured and marked and measured again and carefully attached the drawer faces to the boxes using thin finishing nails:

After the nail was in so far that the hammer was nearly hitting the wood, he switched to hammering using a screw in between. This also allowed him to continue pushing the nail into the wood enough that I would be able to cover it with wood filler. 

Finishing the drawers took another two days. Once the wood filler was dry I lightly sanded it smooth and dabbed stain over the area after wiping it down. After another full coat of stain dried on top of that, I applied the polyurethane: two coats on the outside and one on the inside face of the drawer. All coats needed to dry and then they were ready to come back inside, since I did all of this in the garage to prevent the smell in the house. 

Nick still needed to re-attach the drawers to the runners, which took some straightening of slanted runners and choosing more secure attachment points on the bottom. 

We're incredibly happy with how the drawers turned out once installed, as seen below before their pulls have been attached, though you can see what hardware we've selected on the cabinet doors to the right. You'll see the finished drawers inside and out on the Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing Finale I'll post later this week.