New / Old Cabinet is Done!

Our New / Old cabinet is finally done!  ...well ... for now! I have coated the top doors with stain and the outside of the doors with one coat of polyurethane. I will touch up the stain and finish the polyurethane as soon as warmer weather comes and I can move the pieces of the cabinet outside in the air! (Not real fond of feeling sick!)
Here is our finished project!

And from another view

So now we can relax !

 

 

Snag in Polyurethaning The Cabinet

 

I worked staining the cabinet with 'Special Walnut' Tripp Carver Wipe on stain in the middle of the living room while it snowed outside. Roger worked on moving the light switch to an area I will be able to reach.

The light over the washer and dryer unit will need to by-pass the light switch behind the new cabinet to the area near the other light switch. Good thing we made the wall removable there! :0)

And Roger did a very nice job.

See? It is a very sturdy cabinet! That's why we like old furniture and home-made ones. You can stand, or sit, on them!

Nice job Roger! :0)

 

After staining all of the pieces, I coated them with High-Build Polyurethane, finishing up about midnight.

 

My plan to sand lightly and re-coat in the morning changed somewhere about 3 AM when I awoke with a very bad headache, a very bad sore throat and a slight pain on the right side of the middle of my chest. I woke up Roger who told me that he also had a bad headache. FUMES. I quickly opened our bedroom and kitchen windows, turned on all of the ceiling fans and awoke both kids to see if they were having any headaches. They weren't so I informed them that in the event that they started having any ill effects that they were to wake me up.  I went back to bed breathing in the cold fresh 33 degree air from the open window next to me. It felt good and after about 30 mins. of watching tv my headache went away. I asked Rog if his had gone away, but he still had his headache. It was nice and warm under the quilts and we slept with the windows open the rest of the night. This morning the headaches were gone, as was the pain and the sore throat. We had errands to run this morning so we left the windows open and when we got back we noticed that the smell had gone away some.

 

So now our cabinets are mostly all coated once in polyuretnae, (but only one side of the shelves and none of the appliance garage). :0(

So, after some debate and no forecast of suddenly quite warm unseasonable weather outside, I decided to have Roger and the kids assemble the cabinet top as is. We will attempt to use it until it is warm enough OUTSIDE to top coat, (and finish), the polyurethane-ing.

 

 

More Work Done on the Top of the Cabinet

Today is Valentine's Day 2013. Roger, Jenny and Justin are working on the top of the cabinet.
I took Justin to college today as I had grocery shopping to do. Jenny and Rog stayed home to work on the cabinet topper.

After class we came back home where Justin joined Jen and Rog working on the topper.

The top is being constructed on the kitchen floor. HEAVY! ..as it is not made with fake boards!

The shelf placement was measured by using different items which might be stored on the shelves.

Well ...even some things which may not go on the shelves, nor in the appliance garage!

 

 

After measuring for the shelves the shelves started being cut and the top of the topper was constructed.

 

The start of the top of the cupboard

Roger started the top of the cupboard this afternoon.

We thought about what we are going to possibly store in our cupboard and measured around the items.

Designing the cupboard and conferring with Roger on my designs.

Good guy that Roger! (Putting up with me!)

 

 

UPDATE on New / Old Cabinet

When I last wrote I had just finished designing a cover-up cabinet for our washer and dryer units. I had also just finished talking my dear husband, Roger, into building it with the help of our youngest two children, Jenny and Justin.  Today the bottom half is finished and I have completed the staining with the "Special Walnut" stain and the 2 coats of Polyurethane. Roger and the kids re-assembled the take-apart-able cabinet this morning. This is how it looks!

This is the way it looks when closed. When we are using the front loading doors on the washer and dryer it opens to access them. Like this:

 

The upper controls are accessed through the top of the cabinet by folding back the top, which can be pushed up to open by pushing the hinged top up through the open front doors. Like this:

 

The board that doesn't flip up keeps the framing in position for the doors. (Remember there isn't a back on this cabinet so we can have a dryer vent and air circulation and electric and water hookups).

 

 

The cabinet is an Anniversary present from Roger, (and the kids), to me! :) The next step will be to build the top to the cabinet, which will be built in a step-back style to allow access to the light switch and the electrical outlets.