Second Cabinet

On Wednesday January 18th, after working for the day in the guest cottage, I went over to the rink in town.  There is regularly scheduled drop in hockey every Wednesday and Saturday evening at 7:00PM.  It was really mild all day, and got up to about +4C.  The skies were mostly overcast, and there was a light breeze, so the snow didn't melt much at all.  The rink in town is very shaded by trees, so the ice stands up pretty well.  By game time the temperature had dropped off a little, to right around zero.  The turnout was good and we had two goalies and about a dozen skaters.  A bunch of the younger players were from Frontier Lodge, and students of Prairie College in Three Hills who come out here to do their outdoor training.  One of them was Isaac... the son of our next door neighbors back in Edmonton.  Hockey was fantastic, and by the time we quit two hours later, the temperature was still hovering a degree or two below freezing.

On Thursday I was up at the crack of dawn... which is not very early at this time of year.  Official sunrise in Nordegg is at about 8:45AM... but by the time the sun breaks over Eagle Peak, it is usually 30 minutes or so later than that.  I had a shower, morning coffee, something to eat, and then got busy.  I had my neighbor Dan give me a hand to lift the first cabinet down off of my sawhorses and make room for the days work.  After that, I put it on a furniture dolly so that I could move it around as needed.  I set and filled all the nail holes, and left the filler to dry.  Then I used my skilsaw to cut the last piece of plywood for cabinet number two from a full sheet of birch plywood.  I then set about applying a coat of primer to all of the pieces that I had cut for the next cabinet.  Once the filler had dried on cabinet one, I sanded it out and then applied some primer to the hardwood face that I had installed the day prior.  Eventually the exterior of this cabinet will be painted pastel blue, just like the interior.

By mid afternoon I was winding things down.  I glued plastic laminate onto the floor and the intermediate shelf of the second cabinet.  Then I kind of shut things down for the day and organized the workspace for the next day.  When I return to work I will have to flush trim the plastic laminate, and then use my router to cut the dados and rabbets into these pieces that all got primed today.  Once that is done, then I can paint all the interior exposed surfaces in pastel blue.  And once that paint is dry, I can assemble the body of the second cabinet.

There will be one more cabinet section to build after that, and then later the bathroom vanity.  The main cabinet in the kitchen will be an L-shaped section comprised of cabinet 2 and cabinet 3.  The sink will be installed into the middle of this, beneath the kitchen window.  The fridge and the range butt up to either end of this L-shaped section.  Beyond the range is another short section of cabinet, which is number one.  The microwave oven will be placed on this one.

Later still I have to build a tall, narrow pantry which will be in the corner, beyond the fridge.  It will only be about 16 inches wide or thereabouts... but will be about 6-1/2 feet high.  This will be built to cover up the exposed main vent stack from the plumbing system.  Once all this cabinet work, and the related painting is complete, I will be able to clean up and start on installation of the floor tiles.