# Our Kitchen Remodel



## MT Stringer

The time has finally come to tear up our kitchen! I built some cabinets for a couple of other folks before finally getting around to ours.

Our plan is to replace all of our cabinets with new ones with a Silstone counter top. Originally, the completion date was set for just before Christmas so we could have our traditional family Christmas dinner get together. But we learned our youngest daughter is expecting. And that would be Christmas week.

To speed up the work, we decided to outsource the doors and drawer fronts. That will save me a lot of work.

The plan goes like this:


Demo the upper cabinets.
Build new upper cabinets using prefinished 3/4 inch birch for the sides, top and bottoms. 1/2 inch for the backs. Increase the height to 39 inches.
Build face frames using knotty alder. Use General Finishes Colonial Maple for the stain and apply aa glaze using General Finishes Van **** Brown. Final clear protective finish is Parks Pro Finishes Clear Satin.
Build two new diagonal corner cabinets for 18 inch round lazy Susan's
Relocate the microwave to the wall beside the refrigerator.
Build a vegetable storage bin and attach under the cabinet adjacent to the stove.
Build a medicine/key cabinet and attach it to the right end of the cabinet adjacent to the sink.
Replace the orginal 90 deg sink with aa single tub rectangular sink.
Build in a dual trash receptacle pull out to replace existing stand alone can.
Build a special utensil drawer with six cans to hold the utensils.
Replace the existing counter top with Silstone.
Lower cabinets will be all drawers. At least one corner cabinet will be a diagonal corner cabinet with three drawers.
I think that does it. It will be nice to recover the unused space of the upper cabinets as well as one of the corners of the lower cabinets.

Here are a few pics of the "Before" layout.
More to come soon.


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## MT Stringer

*Hammer Time!*

And then it was time to demo the upper cabinets. Actually no camera was needed. Just an impact driver and a couple of shop made jacks. The jacks worked great. Better than I ever expected.

We found a home for the cabinets and they were carted off to their new home. Some are going in a workshop and the rest in a craft room. They will be coming back for the lower cabinets when they are ready to be picked up.


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## MT Stringer

*And in With the New*

The new cabinets went together with no problem. I hired a friend to draw up the plans for the corner cabinets. I don't think I could have built them without his drawings. They were right on the money.

They turned out nice. New doors are being ordered tomorrow.


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## MT Stringer

*Corner Cabinet Construction*

The corner cabinets were a treat. I had never built anything like this before, but we managed and got a good fit.


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## MT Stringer

*Hang 'em High!*

Luckily, I have an in house cabinet installer! 

I used a laser to mark the wall and attached a 2x4 ledger for the cabinets to rest on while being installed.

We would simply sit the cabinet on the jacks/ledge combo and tweak the jack to get the cabinet to fit. Almost too easy.


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## MT Stringer

*Fill 'er Up!*

And POOF! just like that, she had the shelves stocked!


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## Gottagofishin

Those are going to be nice. Great work as usual


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## Viking48

Lookin' good


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## MT Stringer

We took a road trip to Brenham today to visit Evans Custom Doors. We toured their shop a few weeks ago and liked what we saw. I turned in my order today. They will call Monday with a quote. Should take 12-15 days. That will be perfect. When I go to pick them up, I should have a list for everything that goes on the bottom cabinets.

Then we went to the Blue Bell Creamery! 

All work and no play ain't fun!


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## Gottagofishin

We had custom cabinets built for our kitchen remodel last year. We used a local shop that does great work. His shop is phenomenal. The doors are particularly nice. 

I asked him how he got the doors so perfect. He said he orders them from a place that specializes in doors because they build them better and cheaper than he could. He sends them the measurements, style, and wood type. They send him the doors a week later. 

Based on that you made the right call.


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## MT Stringer

Gottagofishin said:


> We had custom cabinets built for our kitchen remodel last year. We used a local shop that does great work. His shop is phenomenal. The doors are particularly nice.
> 
> I asked him how he got the doors so perfect. He said he orders them from a place that specializes in doors because they build them better and cheaper than he could. He sends them the measurements, style, and wood type. They send him the doors a week later.
> 
> Based on that you made the right call.


That's exactly what we did. I took them a list, and pictures.

While they are building the doors, we are working on the lower cabinets. At this point, we are way ahead of schedule. And that's a good thing.


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## TheSamarai

First, with all of your skills, its a travesty that u have waited this long to get rid of those cabinets. Im sure your new kitchen is gonna be a work of art.


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## MT Stringer

Sorry for not posting any updates. We have been kinda busy.

With the upper cabinets in place, we turned our attention to the base cabinets. I built them the same way using the prefinished birch and knotty alder for the face frames.

First things first. We built ladder frames for the cabs to sit on. That helps to get the base level. Also, I was able to cut six sides out of one sheet of plywood (23 1/4" x 31" each).

The base cabinets are all drawers. I used some left over maple to build the top six drawers. I just barely had enough. then for the rest, I bought 4/4 poplar. I had to mill and glue up panels for the drawer pieces. They turned out to be 9 inches deep.

One cabinet now has a dual pull out trash can receptacle. I got it from Rev-A-Shelf.

All drawers got half blind dovetail joints on the front and a simple dado for the rear. The drawer bottoms are 1/4 inch for the small drawers and 1/2 inch for the bigger ones. One reason I used the 1/2 inch was so I could use up the off cuts from cutting the cabinet backs. I had several big pieces that were used for the bottoms.

For our cabinet doors and drawer fronts, I ordered them from Evans Custom Door in Brenham. They did a great job and everything fit perfectly.

We used General finishes Columbia Maple followed by GF Van **** Brown glaze. Both were brushed on with a foam brush then wiped off with a rag,

Everything (including the drawers) was sprayed with Parks Pro Finishes Clear Satin water based finish.

Here are a few pics.
Mike


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## MT Stringer

Here are a few more construction pics.
We had a little help along the way. 
And I couldn't have done this without the help of my cabinet installer! I call it teamwork!

All drawer hardware is ball bearing full extension soft close drawer slides. The six drawers in the two corner units are 28 inches long. That's a long drawer!


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## MT Stringer

Time for some drawer construction pics.

After milling almost 200 lineal feet of lumber to get them flat on one side, square to one edge and ripped straight on the other side, I cut everything to it's rough length. I made sure to label everything. In fact, I wrote on the boards in pencil to label them with each drawer ID and whether it was a side or end. Then I took a picture of each. Believe me it can get confusing when everything has been planed and all notes are gone!

Note: In one of the pics, you will see a note that says "No Glue". That is because I was gluing up drawer pieces with two boards each. Total of four boards in the clamps which yielded two sides or two ends or whatever. I just didn't want to make the mistake of gluing all four together! I only wrote on this one set for documentation purposes.

Next step was to cut the half blind dovetails using the Porter Cable Dovetail Jig and my router. I spent a couple of hours getting it set up and made several test cuts. Overall, the joints came out pretty nice. Several were not exactly registered properly when assembled, but a few passes with a hand plane and a little sanding and I had a smooth joint.

Prior to cutting the dovetails, I laid out every drawer - all 21 of them - and labeled each piece with an "A" for the left front corner and a "B" for the right. I also drew a reference line as to where the groove for the bottom should be cut. that saves a lot of confusion.

I must be getting better because I didn't screw up any of the cuts.

I assembled each drawer with a mallet to drive home the dovetail joints. A little glue will keep them snug for a long time. For the rear piece, I cut it to the correct length and ripped the width so it would fit the drawer flush on the top and even with thee bottom groove. That way, all I had to do was slide in the bottom when I was through and secure it with a couple of staples. That makes it easier for a one person assembly job.


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## MT Stringer

Here are some detail pics of cutting the half blind dovetails. 

I use this method for two reasons. A drawer front will be attached to each drawer so there is no need to cut a through dovetail. Also, with this jig, only one router setup is needed. I don't have to use a second bit when cutting the half blind style. A time saver for me.


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## MT Stringer

Here are some pics showing how I cut the dado for the drawer bottom and the dado for the rear piece to fit into.

To cut the dado for the rear piece to fit into each side piece, I used an exact width dado jig and a flush trim bit. Mine is similar to this one.
http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/exact-width-dado-jig/

The pieces fit nicely. No fussing with dado set up on the table saw or trying to match up router bits for the router table. Since my rear workpiece is 5/8 inch thick, I made a pass down one side and back up the other. rinse, repeat!


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## MT Stringer

Time to assemble and spray the finish. I have an outdoor spray booth!


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## MT Stringer

For the past several days, we have been installing the drawer fronts and last night we finished up installing the drawer pulls and door knobs.

We are just about through. 
Our punch list is getting really short:


Schedule the counter top installer to make the template
Install brick backsplash after counter top has been installed
Install crown moulding
Fire up the gumbo pot!


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## MT Stringer

I forgot about the picture frame I was asked to build. My wife put a tile mosaic on the wall above, and behind the stove. That was the reason we relocated the microwave.

She asked if I could make a frame for her picture. OK.

It is made from poplar, stained to match the scene and other stuff in our house. I cut a rabbit to fit over the tile and made a cove cut along the outside of each piece. I small roundover bit was used to ease the sharp edge on the inside of the frame. I think it turned out nice...and she likes it.


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## Gottagofishin

It's handy having a helper that fits inside the cabinet. Nice job


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## Law Dog

Great job, Congrats!


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## bluefin

Wow! Very nice.
Bet those cabinets outlast the house. 
Congrats on the big job. Looks great.


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## JakeNeil

Green to you for repurposing the old cabinets. It kills me watching the DIY channel when they destroy perfectly good old cabinets.


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## MT Stringer

JakeNeil said:


> Green to you for repurposing the old cabinets. It kills me watching the DIY channel when they destroy perfectly good old cabinets.


Me too, Jake. All it took was a cordless impact driver and down they came.

The only damage is going to be the bar top. It is nailed and glued to the knee wall. The countertop guy said they would put down some new plywood so tear it out. I bet I can save some of it, but 14 inches wide isn't much to work with.


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## MT Stringer

bluefin said:


> Wow! Very nice.
> Bet those cabinets outlast the house.
> Congrats on the big job. Looks great.


Yes sir, they should. 

Thank y'all for the kind words. The crown moulding will be installed Friday and the countertops should be in soon.

Final install pics will be along shortly thereafter.
Mike


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## bill

All looks Fantastic!

So much for taking it easy after retirement LOL


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## MT Stringer

Our remodel is complete and ready for Dinner Thursday. The crown molding was installed, and the counter top guys installed the Silstone counter tops. They did a great job.

My sweetie installed the brick back splash and sealed it. My job was reduced to cutting the brick with a tile saw.

It definitely was a team effort. We are both very happy with the end result.

Here are the final pics of the remodel.


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## MT Stringer

More.


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## MT Stringer

Last set.


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## carryyourbooks

MT Stringer said:


> Last set.


I love the sink and faucet. It looks perfect! Can you build me some custom frames? I can email you details.


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## 3192

WOW!! Looks like pictures out of a Architecture Digest magazine!! Incredible work and detail. Congrats! gb


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## MT Stringer

carryyourbooks said:


> I love the sink and faucet. It looks perfect! Can you build me some custom frames? I can email you details.


Thanks Carry.
It would have to be after the first of the year. Shoot me your details and let me take a look at what you need.


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## MT Stringer

galvbay said:


> WOW!! Looks like pictures out of a Architecture Digest magazine!! Incredible work and detail. Congrats! gb


Thank you very much.


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## Haute Pursuit

Wow! Awesome job Mike. The kitchen came out great. Those bins are an awesome idea. Your helper needs a raise! LOL


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## Gottagofishin

That is just beautiful. Those cabinets are stunning and the brick and counters really compliment them.

Happy Thanksgiving.


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## MT Stringer

Well, alrighty then! Time to break it in. Thanksgiving Dinner is in the works!
Mike


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## Bubbaette

Wow, looks awesome. My husband has been promising me a redo for 15 years now. Looks like he might be getting serious soon and all this might give us some ideas.


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