Cupboards and Countertops

There's been some dispute about my carpentry skills (looking at you Aunt Kathy!). I want to put a rest to this question. I've really only showed you the cuts that work. But there are sooo many more pieces that were an 1/8" too short and had to be tossed (or used elsewhere) and parts that needed to be cut 5 times to get down to the right size. What I lack in talent I make up for in persistence. Exhibit A: 

These are about 1/3 of the wrong cuts I made making bulkead or the dinette. I saved them to use for cabinet doors.

Cabinet Doors

Knowing that my carpentry skills needed help, I enlisted a friend who is a master carpenter. Enter Scott Sery. He can visualize the whole project ahead of time in his mind and every cut turns out right. I am truly amazed how he never seems to make a wrong cut. Since I'm short on time, his help was invaluable.

Scott was able to take the correct measurements in about 5 minutes. He also noticed that all of my pallet wood was warped (I didn't notice) and gave me salvaged lumber from an old barn. He really saved the project. We were so busy, I didn't get near enough photos.

Note Scott's fingers under the blade.

Scott helped me get all of the cuts right the first time and then lent me use of his router table to make the panels flush. The finished product surpassed my hopes.

I also installed the icebox at the same time as the doors. (We decided to go low-tech and use an honest-to-goodness icebox. An RV fridge costs about $1,100 and Icebox costs about $100. You can buy a lot of ice for $1K. And ice is for sale at every gas station in America.)

Countertop

Like many items in Eisley, the countertop was a happy accident. We went to the box stores to get black countertops, but really didn't like the laminate. There happened to be a faux-marble piece that Sara liked, but it was the last one and broken on one side. The manager offered about 40% off and I accepted. Because I'm making my own countertop, I figured there would be a good chance I could avoid the broken edges.

Cutting laminate sheet is really easy. All you need to have is a straight edge and lots of razor blades. I probably went through 15 blades because the laminate dulls the blade so fast. Once you have a deep enough score, it just snaps along the line.

It also helps to have a good helper, who, when done building bunkers to shoot at cars, knows when to relax.

I had one seam in the length (the countertop is so long). There were some helpful youtube videos on how to keep the seams tight. The secret is lots of tape. The final countertop looked pretty good.

The worst part of having something looking pretty good is needing to put holes in it for the next step.

But the final result was worth it. Click on any image to make it bigger.