Winter's Work, part three

The Beginning of Carpentry

For my wedding, my groomsmen gave me 10 bottles of wine. Each bottle was intentionally chosen to age and be ready to be opened on each of our first 10 anniversaries. It was a magnificent, extravagant gift. Sara and I were poor. She worked at Starbucks, I worked nights at a boys' treatment center. We didn't have a wine rack and didn't think we had the money to buy one. ​However, there was a local lumber mill that had a scrap pile. So one day I scavenged scrap wood from the pile and cobbled together a wine rack. It was the ugliest thing. 

This winter, I began the process of building the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom cabinets, the interior walls, and all things made of wood. I am still a terrible, terrible carpenter. I really cannot emphasize this enough. I can do plumbing; I'm pretty good with electricity; I've hung and finished drywall; and, I can paint expertly. Carpentry and I do not go well together. I did not let that stop me.

Beginning supports

Cabinet faces and toe kick

Thin countertop

Bulkhead walls

I could have used pre-made cabinets, but they are heavy and expensive. So I built them out of 1x2s and 1x3s. Basically, I measured up our kitchen countertops and tried to get the dimensions as close to normal as I could, with as little lumber as I could.

The doors are all unique sizes, based on the area underneath. Two were based on the wheel well, one  based on the size of the water heater, and the three others just fit in the area between. Also, the wall of the Airstream is not perfectly straight, so it was hard to make the front square. I had to cut just about every piece in the cabinet more than once. Mostly, I'm not good at precision, but also its just hard for me to visualize each piece until the others get there too. In the end, I was able to get its depth within 1/2" of square over the 117" length of cabinets. 

​For most of the winter, I was certain that the cabinets would turn out like the infamous wine rack. Today I finished them. I'm dying to post pics, but I have more steps to write about before I can do that.