Shelves and Slide-Outs

As I predicted in my last blog, the day after he injured himself, Rick was back in the garage working on the shelves for the new laundry room cabinets.  He used his new slot cutter bit on the router and cut a thin slot into the sides of the oak plywood shelves.  Then he inserted a plastic edging into the slot to cover and to protect the plywood side of the shelves.

The shelves dry in preparation for their installation in the upper cabinets.

The result are shelves that have a finished edge, and they cost substantially less than if we had used solid oak boards for all of the shelves.  Since most of the shelves will be behind cabinet doors anyway, this was a logical choice for us.  We have the same edging on the shelves in our kitchen, so I am happy with the look and result of his work.

He also finished the two solid oak shelves in the bookcase above my desk.  We don't have many weaving books, but what we have now will be accessible.  We also will have room for the many Handwoven magazines that we have collected over the years.  I am going to love all of the storage space in our new laundry/ weaving room.

Adding braces and sistered joists make for a more
stable floor under the washer and dryer.

Another task we completed was to reinforce the floor joists under the washer and dryer.  We sistered in 2 x 6 beams, and then Rick added braces to better stabilize the floor.  The Miele washing machine spins at such a high speed that it really does shake the whole room, so reinforcing the floors seems to help a bit.  I also stuffed foam pipe insulation between the washer and dryer, and that helps to minimize the vibrations, too.  I have to figure out a more permanent solution, but for now the insulation will do.

Lots of shelves means that we will have lots of storage opportunities.

Today we installed all of the shelves, and I brought up most of the books that we want to put on the bookshelves.  We are hesitant to load the other shelves since Alise -- who is coming to measure for the cabinet doors in a couple of weeks -- told us to make sure that the cabinets did not have anything in them.  We can't quite figure out why she cannot measure for doors if there is something on the shelves, but we will not overburden them at this point.

We also hung a picture in the room today and hung the warping board on the wall.  Now the room is starting to look lived in, and it is starting to resemble a weaving studio.

The one thing that we want to do is to complete the drawers and the slide outs before Alise comes.  That way, she will be able to mark where the drawer and slide-out hardware is located so the door manufacture can avoid those areas when he installs the hinges.

The slide-out lumber will make sturdy storage
for the base cabinets.

We purchased the lumber yesterday for the pull-outs.  Now Rick has to set up his dove-tail jig so he can cut the drawers and the slide-outs.  This week will be a week of building them so we could get everything in place before Alise arrives to measure for the doors.