Yellow House Kitchen

This week I am home alone, Becky and Oliver are attending a CounterPunch retreat in Long Beach. I was invited but I really want to get this kitchen of ours finished. Besides we have animals to look after and the weather has been heavenly.

Goats and Alpacas

Sometimes I wonder if I just like to do things the hard way. The way that I am building the kitchen is more like a mix of furniture construction and cabinet construction. If there is a visible side to the cabinet it is made of wood and involves mortise and tenon joinery and frame and panel construction. All the wood for the frames and panels are cut from two inch thick maple slabs that I had milled about a decade ago.

Frame and Panel construction

Last July I milled all the wood for the face frames and panels and also cut all the mortise and tenon joinery so that the frames could go together and not be mixed up while they wait for phase two. This is phase two, (six months later) the back edges of the frames are rabbeted for the plywood (backs and sides) and the parts are sanded and finished before being glued up. The frames that get panels are  dadoed with a router and the panels are cut to fit and then sanded and finished before being glued up. Plywood is cut for the sides and backs (that aren't exposed) and sanded and finished (4 coats shellac) before assembly.

Dado cut with a router.

The end of this phase will be installing the cabinet carcasses and preparing the countertops for zinc. Phase three will be making the doors and drawers but I will have to go back to work before phase three happens, unless of course I receive some sort of perquisite to cover the cost of living.