Cabinets and Crooked Walls...and Ceilings...and Floors

Work started by 7:00 a.m. today, and we finished, sort of, by a little after 3:30.  In that time, we hung cabinets, installed base cabinets, built a face frame for the bookshelf, and prepped and stained the cabinets that will surround the washer and dryer on the south side of the room.

The first wall cabinet was a challenge because it needed to rest against the north wall, and the north wall in that room is anything but straight.  Also, the ceiling above where that cabinet hangs also has a few dimensional issues.  Rick had to do some creative planing to get the filler strip next to the wall to adjust to the way the wall was built.  In the end, he did a great job.  The cabinet is plumb, the filler strip conforms to the wall, and we hope that the crown molding will hide a multitude of sins regarding the ceiling.

With the first cabinet in place, Rick clamps the
face frames together to make sure they are plumb.

Our jig and jack that helped us lift the cabinets
to the proper height.

I am too weak to hold up heavy cabinets for too long, so Rick devised an ingenious way to get the cabinets where we needed them.  His invention started with a base scaffolding given to us by Stephanie's neighbor in Minnesota, topped with a cut-off piece of plywood.  We used a bottle jack which fit into an indentation in the bottom of a 2 x 4 structure which was topped with another cut-off piece of plywood that fit inside the bottom frame of a wall cabinet.  Once we got the cabinet up on the lifting structure, we simply had to balance it while we pumped up the jack, letting that do all of the heavy lifting.  Would this have been OSHA approved?  Hardly.  However, it worked for us and saved our backs.  Being able to adjust it up or down was fantastic, and we were able to get all of the upper cabinets in place without blood, backaches, or bruises.

Two down, one to go.

The second cabinet went up fairly well.  The third one took a bit of adjustment, but eventually, it, too, was plumb and secure.

The jack holds the third cabinet inlace while Rick
secures it to the wall.  Finding the studs was one of the
most difficult parts of hanging the cabinets!

With the laminate floor removed from the space,
we were ready to install the first base cabinet.

Once the uppers were hung, Rick cut out the floor so the base cabinets could rest on the subfloor.  Since the room has a floating laminate floor, we cannot put cabinets on top of it.  The floor must be allowed to expand and contract without moving the cabinets.  Thank God for Festool saws!  My hearing may never be the same after listening to the blade cut through laminate, but the result was a cut floor and room for base cabinets.

Another two down, one to go.

The base cabinets were a lot less taxing as far as weight was concerned, but the uneven walls did cause us to use quite a few shims to get everything level and plumb.  These base units will give us loads of storage space, and they will be easily accessible once we add pull-out shelves in them.

And then there were three!  The base cabinet
next to the wall is reserved for Owen's toys.

Once the cabinets were installed, we moved out to the garage to fill in pocket-screw holes, to sand the remaining cabinets, and to get them stained.  We finished all of that work a little after 3:30.

The face frame  of a set of bookshelves
balances above where my granite-topped
desk will be.

We both dreaded hanging the cabinets; however, in the end they were not as difficult as we thought they would be.  Yes, they took some adjusting, but if you have ever built anything with any Anderson in this family, then you know that they are built to last.  Nothing will make them come off the wall, and the base units are not about to fall apart or to budge either.  Rick's grandfather always said, "If two screws are good, then three are better."  I now have a room full of cabinets, and they are going to be here for a very, very long time.






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