The Kitchen Project

[Matt Meiser]

Today I finished spraying all the drawers I started yesterday and got the slides mounted on them. I sprayed the first coat on the rest (the pullouts.)

Also sprayed the WB shellac on the cherry parts I'd put the seal-a-cell on yesterday and so far have the first coat of EM6000 on both sides of all of them.

And while waiting for stuff to cure (dry to the touch but too early to respray) earlier in the day I got the edges sanded on about 1/2 of the panels.

[Matt Meiser]

Tomorrow is the big day--the contractor will be starting demolition. We stopped over to let my daughter take a few swings at the walls. Needless to say she got a little carried away. We also discovered an old window opening between the 1860's part of the house and the 1960's addition under the drywall. Kind of interesting, but it will be covered back up.

[Matt Meiser]

I've been out of town until just now, but my mom sent these photos of the demo progress.

Its a shame we can't expose that brick wall, but the stud wall in front of it is load bearing. Kind of scary considering the construction. This part of the house had a flat roof, but about 18 years ago they had a roof built over the old one that ties into the rest of the house, taking most of the load off what you see. Still, I suspect there will be some work to do there.

[richard poitras]

Matt, could you put up a lam beam and some posts and wrap them in the same wood as the project and or tie it into the design?

[Matt Meiser]

I'm sure it could be done, but I'd imagine it would add to the cost rather significantly. I'm not doing any of that work--its contracted out. Since that brick wall is 1' thick, I was wondering if they could probably put a ledger board in and use joist hangers, kind of like a deck.

[Brian Effinger]

Actually, they probably could put a ledger and hang the joists from it. Or if they were going so far as to cut the joists back for the ledger, they could cut them back a little further and put in a LVL beam. Both ledger and LVL would have to be buried in the ceiling so that the beautiful brickwork above the doors and widows would be seen.

[Matt Meiser]

LOTS of progress today. Several friends including creeker's Steve Sawyer, Damon Marxer, and Jim Biddle) came over to help. We (they) sanded all the panels, applied Seal-a-cell to every last one, mounted all the drawers in their respective boxes (with the exception of the pantry pullouts to be done after installation) and got the island totally completed, and plastic wrapped for transport. Phew! I think I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow.

[Art Mulder]

Creekers? I don't see any creekers! Shy, I guess.

[Matt Meiser]

Look very closely at the first two.

The rest I just took after Damon left.

[Greg McCallister]

Matt, very nice... wish my shop was a big as yours
Can't wait until the final pics.

[frank shic]

love that telescoping drying rack, matt! what diameters of pvc did you use?

[Matt Meiser]

Actually, its not really telescoping. I needed the arms longer for face frames so rather than remove them and install bigger, I just bougth some PVC that would fit inside the existing. The inner is 1/2" and the outer is 3/4" but with a thin wall.

I didn't do a lick of real work today, but met with the contractor today to go over window placement, receptacles, switches, plumbing rough in, and all that fun stuff.

[Kerry Adams]

Good Morning,

In your first picture above-how wide are those drawers?

Thanks,
Kerry

[Matt Meiser]

Kerry, the drawers themselves are 34"--the island is 36" wide by 24" deep.

[tim weidman]

matt am new to this forum and am thinking of redoing my own kitchen. i am completely astounded at the progress of your project. the cabinets and rolling cab look amazing! i don't have half the kitchen this appears to be and would probably take me ten times the amount of time it has taken you. you've done your parents proud! hats off to ya! can't wait to see the install and end pics!