Some of the progress can be seen on Day 182- Trouble in Paradise. Eric will cover the rest of the story in this post.
During the time we were dealing with the appliance fiasco, we purchased a used electric stove top to formally move our cooking off of the camp stove. Here it is after a minor wiring repair during it’s maiden test run.
Tools were everywhere during this phase, as evidenced by a freshly cleaned glue trowel adjacent to dinner cooking.
Our end cap issue has been fixed! Temporary plywood countertop finding a home prior to cooktop installation.
One thing that wasn’t addressed was the congruence of the island toe kick area. On one end it was completely closed, on the other open. Eric made some blocks to fill in the open toe kick areas, and glued them in place.
Toe kick filler installed prior to caulking. These blend in perfectly, and give us the finished look we wanted to complete.
For some reason, Thomasville does not like to sell color match paint under $100 a pint and multi week wait time. Eric was able to color match some at our local hardware store, and it came in handy on a number of trim projects for the island.
For some reason, our 30 inch oven cabinet was nominally larger than the 30 inch oven that was being installed. Eric was able to utilize some more leftovers to create a structural filler for the oven to be mounted to. These were biscuit joined for strength.
Maybe overkill, but they are finished.
More devil in the details. Another issue that wasn’t explored during the design was how we were going to conceal the cabinet joints facing the kitchen. Some additional material was ordered, and was radiused with a router bit to create a tight interface. Test fitting here.
Checking fit on the island. A little touch up hides these joints completely as well.
Trim fit and electrical outlets finished.
Kick molding installed, and same trim was used to conceal the joints.
Some more trim getting a little touch up paint sprayed prior to installation.
Flooring continued around the island once the SNAFU was fixed.
Our next major challenge developed when we began the process of manufacturing our island counter top. We were told that the counter blanks we purchased would be “contractor finished” meaning rough cut and zero finish.
That wasn’t the case when we opened the boxes to start. The planks were sanded and had 1/8 inch round overs on all edges. This meant we couldn’t simply join the counters as planned, as a significant dip would be visible on the joint. “Why not trim 1/8″ off both edges?”
Fantastic question! The counter planks were supposed to be 25 inches wide, but were already finished down to 24 and 15/16 inches. This is already shy of the 50 inches we needed to overhang the island, and trimming an additional 1/4 inch total would be noticeable. The decision to remove the 1/8 inch round over came by way of sanding down 50 square feet of counter the needed amount. This would preserve the most critical visual element in the width, and we would lose zero optic in the height.
Hours and hours of methodical sanding through this drum sander over a number of days was the next task. Of course the sander wasn’t wide enough to do these in one pass, so the work load multiplied by rotating each pass.
Finally sanding counter number 2! It was warm, and some shade helped keep the wood temperature steady.
First test fit! Holy cow was this part a speed bump in our progress, but was it worth the effort.
Both boards are in their final orientation. These are heavy by themselves, and the finished counter would need at least four people to move. Luckily for us, it made sense to glue and clamp in place.
The counter ends were biscuit joined, and a good bit of saw dust was mixed with the glue to help it blend the joint.
Clamp time! It just so happened that Eric was able to borrow 8 pipe clamps for this task. You can see with the level that there is a significant deflection across the surface, since the clamps are pulling at the top. Ideally, the clamps would have been under the work piece to use gravity to counteract this. Once the glue cured, the counter went right back to level.
Time to mock up the cooktop opening. You can see a few alternate measurements in pencil.
It is tough to see, but the final mock up is ready to commit to. Gulp, point of no return!
At this point the counter was shifted and raised a bit to allow a full cut without damaging the cabinets below.
Finish sanding in progress.
Glue joint prior to sanding.
What you are looking at here is an adjustment in the bottom of the counter surface to allow the oven to fit perfectly flush. A tiny bit of material needed to be removed, and this level was a great guide.
Cooktop installed, and first round of oiling done.
Time to celebrate! The large chuck of material removed for the cooktop was turned into a cutting board.
Wine fridge with trim finished.
Kitchen is completed! All new appliances installed, and counter oiled multiple times. It darkened up a lot in this phase, and has since lightened back to where we wanted it to be. This was a journey that had more twists and turns than we imagined, but at the end it was worth the hassles and delays to get exactly what we wanted.