Monday, December 20, 2010

One Process Leads To Another

The thermoplastic panel process is complete. The kitchen cabinet process continues. One would think you could get the box of the cabinet the same color as the doors of the cabinet. No that was not possible and the sales lady assured me most people can't really tell the difference. I am not one of them.

The exposed sides of the cabinets - two over the sink and two on the stove side living room end - will need to have a thin, high quality piece of plywood stuck to them and stained the cherry color that matches the cabinets and all the other wood elements in the cabin. If I am feeling ambitious I might do the side next to the refrigerator.




















You may have noticed a loose wire hanging below the cabinets in a few pictures. That is for the under cabinet lighting. Now the plan was to attach molding on the cabinet bottoms to hide the light fixtures. That molding was ordered. Two years later when I opened the box that I assumed the molding was in, there was no molding to be found. It was just the lonely kick board.

With receipt in hand, a query deep into the Depot's old files found my molding had wandered off to Hendersonville. It got back to the Depot, but it never got to me and after two years, well buddy, that's just tough. Maybe we can offer you a discount on a new order, but you do know Mills Pride is no longer in business. We can't get molding specific to those cabinets. Bring in a door maybe we can match it with another cabinet line.

I'm going to make my own molding to match the trim of the cabinet doors. Thank goodness I picked a simple clean lined cabinet style.




















One would also think that manufactured thermoplastic panels would all be uniform. No they varied from an eighth to a quarter inch along the cut edges in relation to the pattern. I'm used to dealing with deviations in stated sizes now. It worked out fine. It is some what understandable in a natural substance like wood even though it has been run through a mill. A uniform plastic panel just doesn't seem like too much to expect.

Enough snow had melted that I could take a stroll in the wild cultivated garden. There isn't much to see. Mostly I pick up tree branches and hurl them over the fence. The lack of uniformity is not a problem in the wild cultivated garden. No two stumps, logs or fallen trees are exactly alike. By the time I get to cutting down all the remaining dried stalks in pre-spring, most of the fallen branches will have already been tossed.




















The cozy cabin is more closely situated in the micro-climate of that snow covered mountain across the scenic byway. It sits at the base of that snow covered zone and straddles the dividing line between sun and shade in the low winter sun.




















The other side of that mountain would be another world unto itself.




















I've almost made it to the top and looked down the other side. But it seems each time I hike over there something distracts me from getting to the very top.

6 comments:

Randy Emmitt said...

Christopher,
Shame about the cabinet problems. Our cabinets I waited 3 weeks for Lowes to give me a price, finally $7500 for maple shakers. We did a little research and found a local cabinet guy to build them for $6200 and he helped me install them. The bottoms were made extra deep for under the cabinet lighting.

I installed some of these cabinets where you have to add this apply that, took forever to finish. And the cabinets were sitting in a house with no heat, warped them after 2 years.

Lola said...

OMG, I'm sorry that you had this problem. I know that you can fix it tho.
One day you will make it to the top of that mtn. It will be worth it from the beauty that you will be able to see.
Stay warm.

Anonymous said...

Infuriating that Home (?) Depot could track the problem 2 years later, but then was not willing to do anything about it. I'd give them a hard time about that. It's interesting how the color of your cabinets looks completely different in the 2 photos. I cannot see the difference in the doors!
Everything's looking great!

bev

Anonymous said...

Chris,
What is the green stuff in pic 3?
Has your mom planted winter aconite?
Sallysmom

Christopher C. NC said...

Randy you get what you pay for and these cabinets were a going out of business sale of cheap compressed wood chip boxes with nice doors. I had to make a showing of being frugal some where.

Lola I think I should make an effort to get to the top before the trees leaf out next spring. After the snow melts of course.

Bev the color difference is between the doors and the cabinet boxes. I don't mind opening them to a different color inside. It is the exposed sides you will see with the cabinet doors in the big picture of the kitchen that is a bit annoying.

Sallysmom that green stuff is Lirope. It does pretty good at being evergreen. Some years it is completely killed back though.

Cindy, MCOK said...

I'd be the same way about the cabinets, Christopher. I think the box and the doors need to match properly. The frustrations of homebuilding and home renovation are endless!