Pictures; kitchen before/after

Thought I would post a couple pictures of the Kitchen I've been talking about in my last couple post.
Like I said earlier, we didn't really change the foot print of the kitchen, just changed from white to cherry.  More of a modern look.  The cherry cabinets were finished with clear pre-catalyzed lacquer so they will darken over time to a beautiful patina. 

The pictures were taken before I was even finished with the install and it's amazing how much they have darkened since they were installed.  Within a couple months they already began to blend with the other cherry furniture in the condo.

The first couple pictures were taken on the first day of installation, as you can see it was left up to me to clear out the kitchen. Not only was everything was left on the counters, but the cabinets were full also.

I had just finished putting back the final touches when I took these pictures with the new cabinets. The only thing left to do was to install a new piece of granite behind the slide in cooktop since they changed from a free standing stove to a slide in.  We had a piece of matching granite cut that went behind the stove up to the microwave.  When installed, it looked like it had always been there.

Next time I'm going to talk about dealing with a customer from California when I'm in South Carolina!

Installing the Kitchen Cabinets

In my last post, I talked about the kitchen remodel I was doing and the unique installation I found myself involved in.  How do you remove old cabinets and install new cabinets without disturbing the existing granite counter top?

Designing and building the Cherry cabinets was a piece of cake, but now it was time for "out with the old and in with the new"!

I started by removing the upper cabinets. After getting all the cabinets unloaded (that's right, the customer left all that for me to do).  I then removed all the doors and shelves.  I very carefully cut the caulking along the top, bottom and sides where the cabinets meet the wall.  Remember, this was brand new wall paper and they did not want to disturb it or have to redo anything that was already done.  Taking my time I slowly and very carefully removed each cabinet.  So far, so good; all the old upper cabinets are removed and not one thing disturbed on the wall.  I cheated when I built the new upper cabinets by making them 1/4" longer  and 1/8" deeper then the original ones and it worked out perfectly.
 
When I installed the new cabinets, they lipped the wallpaper by just a whisker and looked like it was always that way.  All the upper cabinets went in very simple and that part of the installation was pretty much the same as any other cabinet install.  I will have to admit that I am very slow when it comes to installing, but I think that just has to do with being so particular about everything being level, plumb and aligned.

Now came the fun part; how and where do I start with the base cabinets?  All the old appliances have been removed and the sink, disposal and hot water dispenser was removed.  If you were wondering, yes, I brought a plumber in to remove the dishwasher, sink, disposal and hot water dispenser.  I've done all that before, but this was on the sixth floor of a bunch of $600,000 condos and if water was going to flow, it was going to be somebody else's responsibility. 

I removed all the doors, drawers and shelves in the base cabinets.  I knew I would basically have to destroy each cabinet to be able to get it out from under the counter.  I started with the end cabinet that was next to the refrigerator opening.  I very carefully cut all the silicone I could see along the front edge and along the side that was the end of the counter.  Thank goodness for particle board sides and staples because I was able to slowly knock the side of the cabinet loose from the face fame, bottom shelf and back without disturbing the counter at all.   Once I got it loose enough, I was able to tip it to the side and remove the one side of the cabinet.  I left the back stringer of the cabinet screwed to the studs while I carefully removed the toe kick, bottom self and face frame.  Each was broken up and removed piece by piece.  I made a brace to support the front edge of the counter and since the back and back stringer was still attached to the wall the counter was supported and never moved.

Now I went to the next cabinet and carefully repeated the same procedure.  When I had the second cabinet removed, again with the back of the cabinet still in place screwed to the studs and the front supported by a temporary support, I then took one of the new base cabinets and slid it back under the counter part way.    If you've been following closely, your first question should be, if I couldn't get the old cabinet out from under the counter because the cabinets where literally sitting in a hole, then how could I get the new cabinet back in.   I originally thought of just building the 4" base for the toe kick separately; install that "in the hole" and then slide the new cabinets in between the base and the counter top.  The only problem with that scenario is, I had no idea how the floor ran in conjunction with the counter top.  How would I be able to level and keep the cabinets tight to the bottom side of the counters?  So what I did was build the cases minus the 4" base.  I used heavy duty cabinet leveling legs so I could adjust the legs up enough to slide the cabinet in under the counter and then adjust the legs to bring the cabinet up tight to the underside of the counter. 

Here's where it got tricky; I could only push the cabinet back in so far since I still had the back of the old cabinet screwed to the wall and was in the way.  I had to leave enough room between the new cabinet and the remaining parts of the old cabinet to be able to get behind and remove the back.   This meant that the back of the new cabinet was sitting in the hole and the front of the cabinet was sitting on the new floor.  I adjusted the legs so it sat flush with the bottom of the underside of the counter and gave support.   I then crawled in behind the new cabinet and carefully removed the old back and stringer, leaving the one that was on the end of the counter next to the refrigerator opening still in place for the added support I needed.  I then loosened the tension on the new cabinet just enough to slide it little by little back into the opening until all four legs were where they should be and could raise the cabinet tight to the bottom of the counter.  I did not fasten the cabinet to the wall yet.

I now took the new cabinet that was for the end next to the refrigerator opening and slide that cabinet back part way and adjusted it to the counter like I did the first one.  Carefully removed the rest of the old cabinet, put in a temporary support at the very edge of the back corner and then slide the new cabinet back into the hole so I could adjust the legs again to make it tight to the underside of the counter.   So far, no signs whats so ever that the counter has been disturbed at all. The caulking has not even cracked along the wall or between the back splash and counter.

  Would you believe that took me a full day just to get that far?  Two cabinets!   I'm exhausted, but pleased with the results, so it was time to call it a day and start the whole process over the next day.

The next day was another challenge because now I was going into a dead corner and supporting the "L" shape of the counter while removing the old and getting the new in took a long time also.  Two more cabinets and undercounter refrigerator and that was it for another day.  The great part was I had a complete run of cabinets done along one wall, around the corner up to the range opening.  The cabinets looked great and the counter top remained perfect!  But now comes the real challenge; I have the other wall to do which includes the opening for the dishwasher, the sink cabinet (with all the plumbing coming thru the wall) another cabinet and then a lazy susan base cabinet in the opposite corner.   Almost 10ft of run with the sink cut out to deal with. 

Let's deal with that on my next post!  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Kitchen remodel with a twist

     After 27 years of woodworking I did something with a kitchen remodel that I never tried before; and most everyone said it couldn't or shouldn't be attempted.  Let me give you a little background on this job before I get into the actual remodel.

     I have a customer I've done many projects for over the years, including their main home, his office, their cabin in the mountains and their condo at the beach.  They purchased a new upscale condo in North Myrtle Beach, SC about 5 years earlier and they were never that impressed with the kitchen, so I was asked to quote a price on designing and building a new kitchen.   So far, so good!

     Existing kitchen cabinets were white melamine cases with MDF termofoil 1pc. raised panel doors (typical cabinets used by contractors for many price level homes).   The counter tops were Granite with a 4" high Granite back splash.  The overall footprint of the kitchen was going to remain the same as the original layout.  New cabinets were to be Euro style (cherry inside and out) with modern style doors and drawer fronts.

So..........where's the twist?  Let's count the twist.
First; they had installed a new tile floor earlier and did not want to disturb that.
Second; they had just wallpapered the walls in the kitchen and did not want to disturb that.
Third; the upper cabinets were mounted tight to a soffett with no moulding and did not want to have to use moulding when the new cabinets were installed.
Fourth; All new appliances, including range, microwave/hood,dishwasher, refrigerator, sink and they wanted to add a small under counter refrigerator.
Fifth; They had beautiful Granite Counter tops and wanted to keep those.

So.........what's the big deal?   Well to start off, the granite people said they could not pull the old Granite counter top off without breaking it. Their excuse was; the granite was siliconed down and since the area around the sink cut-out was only a couple inches wide, they were sure it would break at that location since the counter ran from wall to wall and it was approx. 10ft. long.  Now; my customer does not like to take "No" for an answer, so you can see where this is headed. 

Now my customer wanted to know if there was any way I could remove the old base cabinets and install new base cabinets without removing the granite counter tops and back splash?

I had to give this one a little thought.  Let's see, I have granite counter tops "siliconed" to the old cabinets, a new tile floor that was installed after the cabinets were.........which means the cabinets are sitting basically in a hole so even if I can somehow cut the silicone, I can not pry the counter tops up and I can't slide the cabinets forward because of the floor.  Anyone besides myself see a problem here?

All I'm going to say for now is, I took on the challenge.  I'll tell you how I handled it and how things turned out in my next blog.

What was I thinking?

     Obviously I've been doing a lot more thinking then actually writing.  It's been a long time since I've posted on my blog, so I believe it's about time to get back at it and see if I can catch up on a few things that's been happening over the past two years.

     Let me make a quick list, then I'll try to fill in some of the details as I go along.

 2008:  "Best" year I ever had as far as business went. Designed, built, finished and delivered more furniture then any previous year.

2009:  "Worst" year I ever had as far as business went. Designed, built, finished and delivered less then 50% compared to 2008

2010:  Worked harder then ever to pull things back from the brink of nothing and ended with something in between 2008 and 2009.

2011:  Here we go again!  Back to even worst then 2009.  This is really taking all the fun out of woodworking.  I've got to make some decisions, so in July of 2011, I sent a letter to all my customers letting them know that I planned on retiring the Hufford Furniture Group in July of 2012.  One more year and that would be it.

I'll have to admit, it did generate some business for the remainder of 2011 and the start of 2012. 

In October of 2011, Tracy's great aunt passed away and Tracy had a chance to acquire her property in Delaware.  From September of 2011 to March of 2012, Tracy made 12 trips to Delaware to take care of the estate, etc.   From October of 2011 to March of 2012, I made 6 or 7 trips to Delaware to help take care of the property, etc. and still operated my business in Myrtle Beach, SC.  So in March of 2012, we made the decision that I would retire a couple months early and we would move to Delaware.

Well...........that's it in a nutshell!  I'll fill in the details as I try to catch up with life.  I had no idea being "retired" kept you so busy.
 

I'm back!

Spraying Sealer on Gun Cabinet.

Finally the weather is beginning to break and I'm going to do some spraying. It's been raining for the past few days, so I don't do any spraying in weather like that. Too much moisture in the air. We took a few pictures while I was spraying the sealer coats. As you can see in the pictures, I left the doors, backs, drawers, shelves and all the hardware off the cabinets.

If you click on the pictures, you will see the doors and shelves in the back ground (they already have two coats of sealer sprayed on them). I have the base turned upside down so I can spray sealer on the bottom so everything will be sealed equally.

If you look closely on the second picture, you can see where I'm spraying how the color changes when the sealer is applied. I will spray two coats of sealer on the bottom, then when dry, I will flip the cabinet right side up and spray all the rest of it with two coats of sealer.

The sealer begins to bring out the warm golden brown color the fuming did to the white oak and it gets richer with each coat.

I have an installation in Raleigh, NC. tomorrow so will leave early in the morning and I'm sure it will be quite late by the time I get home tomorrow night. No chance of working on the gun cabinet tomorrow........but that's a good thing. This will give the sealer a long time to dry and will be ready to sand. I will sand everything (inside, outside, top and bottom). Once everything is sanded with 220 grit sandpaper and wiped down real good, I'll be ready to start spraying the clear top coat. I will be using ML Campbell pre-catalyzed lacquer (15 sheen) for the final finish. Again, two coats on everything.

OK, that's enough for tonight, I've got to get the Van loaded for tomorrow so I can hit the road early.

"Fuming" the gun cabinet

I haven't posted in a week or so, but that's not because I haven't been working on the gun cabinet.

I finished all the building process this past week and now it's time to start the finishing process. I'm doing a little different process then is normally done when finishing. Usually we would pick out a color of stain to use and stain the entire cabinet before applying the actual finish, but I will be "fuming" the gun cabinet instead of staining.

Note of interest: Ammonia fuming is a traditional process for darkening and richening the color of Oak. Supposedly it was discovered by observing the way that oak beams in stables were darkened on exposure to the fumes from horse urine. Thanks to Haber and Bosch, we can now do this with convenient ammonia, and I don't need to keep a horse in the shop!....in modern times, ammonia fuming is best known through the work of Gustav Stickley ( Stickley Furniture).

And you ask.....How do I do it? The first thing I have to do is build a "tent" or "box" big enough for the cabinet to fit in and be able to seal it off pretty tight. This I did on our back porch pad using some of my scrape plywood along both sides and one end. I did a double layer of plastic across the top and down the other end ( this I will use for the door to be able to put the cabinet in.

If you look closely, you can see I already have the cabinet in the "box". You don't want the box any bigger then it needs to be so you can get the best concentration of fumes from the ammonia

You're not able to see in the picture, but I removed the doors, drawers, drawer fronts and all the hinges and drawer slides. Ammonia could be corrosive to the slides and hinges. I also didn't want any of the doors or drawer fronts to be covering part of the cabinet (this would leave a tan line when fumed.) I will have to do the doors, drawer fronts and shelves in the next batch.

Now it's time to put the ammonia in the box. I used 4 plastic open containers and filled each about a 1/3 of the way.

You'd think I was working with nuclear waste or something the way I'm dressed, but just following directions. I placed one container on each side of the cabinet and one in front and one behind the cabinet. Once they where in place, I closed the box up and sealed if off the best I could.

How long do I leave it in there? I read anywhere from 12 to 48 hours, but once it gets to a certain point, it will not get any darker. I did a little experiment before I did the cabinet. I took 3 pieces of oak and put them in a small sealed container with some ammonia so I could see the reaction from different times. I took the first piece out after just 6 hours and was surprised how much it had changed. It had such a warm brown look to it. I took the second piece out after 12 hours and could see a difference from the first piece. I left the 3rd piece in for 24 hours and when I took that one out that was quite a bit darker then the first two. I sprayed all three with the Lacquer I will be using for the finish to see what the final result was. Wow! there is no way you can achieve that look with stain. I was impressed!

After comparing the three samples, I liked the second one the best.(12 hours). Not too light.....and not too dark...... But just right! So here I go with the big piece. Boy was I nervous! If I screw this up after all the work I've put in it, I'm not sure what I'll do.

It's 8:30AM and it's in the "box". I'll come back at 8:30 tonight and see what I've got! Not really, I checked on it a couple times during the day and when I pulled it out at 8:30 PM ,I compared it to the samples I made and realized that the tone was about the same as my sample @ 6 hours, so I figured the size of the box compared to the small container I had the samples in and the amount of ammonia compared to the size, it would just take longer to achieve the same tone........So back in the box and sealed it up again. This time I pulled it out after a total of 24 hours of fuming and Wham! there it was. The look I wanted.

I pulled the cabinet out and decided it was time to do the doors, drawer fronts and shelves. This was a little tricky because you can't just lay them down, because it won't fume if it doesn't get air circulation around it, but I hung the upper doors and used some special painters pyramids to support the drawer fronts, shelves and lower doors. Back to the box, added a little fresh ammonia and sealed it up again. This time I left them for a straight 24 hours and then checked them. Perfect! This is so cool.

Sorry, I'm not posting any more pictures until it's delivered to Pennsylvania! The rest has to be a surprise for everyone. BTW.....It's been raining for the past 2 days and I haven't been able to do any spraying, but it is suppose to clear up by this week end and the clear finishing is easy. I've ordered the hardware and as soon as I get the upper doors finished, I'll take them to the glass Co. and let them install the glass.

It won't be long now!!