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Yesterday I turned 59 and celebrated by installing the upper cabinets in my kitchen. My remodeling project has taken 2 1/2 years so far because daily life just gets in the way! After tearing out all the old site built plywood cabinets installed when the home was built in 1984 I had removed most of the drywall since changes needed to be made to the plumbing, electrical and AC duct work. Eventually all the new drywall went up, recessed LED lighting was installed and the new tile floor went in. All these parts of the project take time when you are doing most of the work on you own although my son helped when I needed a helper.
We painted the walls with a new color except where the cabinets and back splash would go, makes it easier to see where the wall studs are. The design of the cabinets took a while to complete, I do it the old fashioned way with a large sketch pad, pencil and ruler. As I mentioned earlier I had planned to make the boxes for the cabinets from birch ply as it is a good material, fairly cost effective and easy to work with. Then I just decided to do everything in birch, even the face frames and eventually the doors. That meant purchasing solid birch stock, ripping it in the shop, milling edges and a lot of sanding.
I should explain I built temporary lower cabinets from scrap lumber and some old white Formica'd counter top and put them all on wheels so I have a place to cook but can move things when necessary. Also, we have our stove on an island but it eventually be on the wall and the island will be a work/prep area. There is a cabinet above the island that will have glass doors on both sides and be a place for crystal and wine glasses, it is lit inside and underneath.
So here they are installed. First shot is just to show my idea for installation. As the boxes are large and bulky to get level and fitted I mounted small brackets I whipped up in the shop on to the wall, then just set the cabinet in place where I wanted it to go and attached it to the wall. Eventually a tile back splash will go up and hide any holes from these brackets but it made leveling and screwing them to the wall where I wanted them easy.
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