I returned to Nordegg on Monday January 16th. I actually left the house at about 10:30AM, but didn't make it out to the cottage until around 6:30PM. That's because I gave my friend Scott a ride out to Nordegg. Scott is the contractor that built both my cottage and guest cottage. I only hired him to do the site clearing, put in the foundations, frame the buildings, and finish the exterior to lockup. Then I took over and am doing everything else myself. Scott had to bring a dump truck up to Edmonton and needed a ride back home. While he was in the city, we also ran a bunch of errands and picked up some supplies. This included some hardwood and a water pump that I picked up for myself, plus some stuff for Scott.
On Tuesday I was kind of lazy and slept in a bit. Then I lounged around not doing much of anything until late morning. I went over to the guest cottage and assembled the first section of cabinet. I had cut and finished all the pieces the last time I was out. There will be three sections of cabinet required in the kitchen, plus a vanity for the bathroom. In sticking with our 1950's diner theme, the cabinets are all painted pastel blue. I pre-painted all the interior surfaces of the wood pieces that I fabricated last time. So on Tuesday all I did was put them all together. Surprisingly everything fit perfectly. I missed one rabbet in the floor panel, but it was easy to add that, and once I did the bottom dropped right into place.
The horizontal interior surfaces are finished with a light grey plastic laminate. All the rest of the surfaces are painted. I got everything all glued and nailed together, and then left it to dry over night.
On Wednesday I got up a lot earlier. I moved around a few things in the garage and put away the water pump that I brought out. This will be needed later, when my plumber comes out in the spring to finish up all the mechanical stuff in the guest cottage. I also hooked up cables onto the batteries of the ATV and Snowmobile so that I can keep them on maintainers over the winter months, or when not in regular use. It was a beautiful winter day and it started out sunny, then clouded over later in the afternoon. The sun came out again late in the day, while the temperature made it up to +4C.
I dug out my table saw and cut a bunch of hardwood to width for use on the face of the cabinets. I also cut up most of the plywood pieces for the second cabinet. I was short one piece, and didn't have any small leftovers to work with. So that piece will have to be cut out of a full sheet. But I couldn't handle a large 4x8 sheet of 3/4 playwood by myself on the tablesaw. So I will have to cut that last one with the circular saw. But I need to get the first cabinet out of the way in order to make room for that sheet, and for fabrication of the panels for the next one. I spent the rest of the afternoon fitting and installing all of the hardwood strips to the face of the first cabinet. I wanted hardwood as it is a lot more resistant to bumps and dings than plywood or particle board. I used some maple, but it won't actually be seen, and will get painted blue.
I won't bother to paint the exterior surfaces of the first cabinet until I have the other two sections ready. That way, when I dirty a paint roller, I can just finish everything all at once. I had some rough 3/4" plywood left over from construction, and I'm using that up on the backs of the cabinets where it won't be visible. For all the exposed surfaces I am used cabinet grade birch plywood. I brought more sheets out with me this time, but won't unload them and take them in until I get the first cabinet out of the way and clear some space to continue working.
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