Unfulfilled Expectations

I had big plans for Christmas Break... In addition to a trip to Seattle to see the family, I would have five uninterrupted days in Tahoe to get some real work done around the place. In my mind, I would finish three custom closets, trim out the interior doors and hallway, build a few pieces of furniture, and maybe replace the hot water heater. In reality, I built one piece of furniture, and trimmed out most of the hallway. I also took long walks with the dogs, finished reading The Great Crash Ahead* and delved well into Steve Jobs' bigoraphy.** 

Alex laughed at me because it took me a whole day to produce this...

One of the drawbacks to having a freestanding kitchen is that there are no base cabinets to hide unmentionables like cleaning supplies and garbage cans. We've solved the cleaning supplies issue. We needed some way to hide our kitchen garbage and recycle cans.

I spent and evening several weeks ago designing and redesigning a piece of furniture that would solve that problem. It is loosely based on a piece I found on Ana-White.com. However, I modified her design to match the construction of the pie safe and jelly cabinet that we purchased. It took several iterations in the design process to come up with a cabinet that fit well into the space under the window and didn't make it feel like the pie safe was shoved into the corner. I originally designed the cabinet to hold both the recycle and the garbage cans, but the piece became too large. So, I guess that I have only solved half of the problem because the cabinet only holds the garbage can.

The front of the door pivots out from the bottom, allowing access to the trash receptacle. I finished it with the same red paint that the other pieces of kitchen furniture are finished in, added matching hardware, and stained the door and top to match the rest of the furniture as well.

I'm pretty proud of the results. Although it is not perfect, one would be hard pressed to determine that my little garbage can was not purchased from the same manufacturer as the pie safe and jelly cabinet.

I say that Alex laughed at me because it took so long, but, in my defense, this was the first time that I'd built a piece of furniture with an inlaid panel door. I also chose to build the top rather than purchase a pre-fabricated one. When I began the whole process last Thursday morning the cabinet was simply a pile of pine boards... a 1x12x6', a 1x6x8', and four 1x4x8' boards to be exact. Throw in a couple of hinges, a handle, some leftover t&g panelling from a long ago project, and a whole days worth of labor and you too can have your very own garbage can.

Now that I think about it... given all the time that I am spending on this whole project... well... it must be a labor of love.

Labor... Love... whatever it is, it drove me to spend the better part of three days milling the door casing and trim boards for the hallway. Day one: pull nails; day two: rough cut to size and plain; day three: sand and sand and sand and oil and oil and oil.

There is so much work involved in turning old barnwood into trim. The first few times that I set up the trim shop it was a new and novel process. The novelty has worn off. This time I found myself cussing Jessie, the purveyor of barnwood, out in my head during the whole process. But, once I started oiling the wood all was forgiven. The stuff turns out so beautiful and unique.

I am still dreading the next time I have to set up the trim mill to finish the windows, bedrooms, and bathroom; but, I am willing to do so because the final product is so cool. That, and I am kinda OCD about finishing something that I started...

I was looking forward to the installation process because I would finally get to see the fruits of three days worth of labor. The process was not without its foul-ups, bleeps, and blunders... not the least of which involved hacking out chunks of wavy drywall to insure a tight fit between casing and jam. Its hard to take a picture of a hallway, but this is how it turned out.

It is easier to take a picture of a bedroom door...

Pay particular attention to the unfinished closet at the end of the hall. If the picture of the bedroom door included the closet, you'd see that it is unfinished too. But the dogs liked their walks, and I'm having a hard time putting Jobs' biography down.

 * not a particularly well-written book, but Dent's take on the future of our economy is very insightful. Dent may not be an author, but he is a skilled economist.


** Jobs' biography is a must read. The guy was pretty amazing. If I'd known what I know now, I'd have purchased a lot more of Apple's stock when it was cheap.