The Kitchen: Reno Day 4

Protecting the newly sanded floor was our first step today; we taped down some heavy paper throughout the room.

Finally we could start with putting the kitchen back together. The first step was securing and levelling the bases for the lower cabinets. These frames are made of 2x4’s screwed together and raise the cabinets the 3.5” to create a toe kick. I levelled and shimmed each one, then screwed them directly into the hardwood floor. I built these ahead of time and neglected to take into account the sink pipes, so that one had to be taken apart and re-assembled once in place around the pipes.

Once all the base frames were in place, the actual cabinets could go on top. Since everything was already level, they went in easily and got screwed through the bottom and through the back into the wall studs. Again there were problems with the sink cabinet, we had to take the back off the cabinet, cut it for the pipes and re-assemble it. 

The cabinet which caused the most difficulty was the one to the right of the stove. When the counter tops arrived, they had larger blocking at the gable ends than I had anticipated and this was not accounted for in my dimensions. I wanted the cabinet to align with the existing microwave slot above and to have the end of the counter flush with the cabinet. In order to do this, we had to chip out part of the wall to give us the extra ¼”.We had a funny misunderstanding; I asked Tom to chip out part of the wall, the top layer of drywall, and he interpreted it as take out the entire section of the wall…in the end it worked out as it is hidden behind the cabinet.

I finally got the face frame on the island cabinet and clear coated the wine slots. Its now ready to be installed as well.

Pantry installation began with the base being put in place and the left side panel attached. I decide to align it with the door frame instead of perfectly level, so there wouldn’t be a small gap at one end. 

And now we know: take into account the plumbing pipes when assembling the sink cabinet. I mistakenly thought more of it would be disconnected when the sink was removed and that I could just drill a few holes thought the bottom.