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ShopCam HiLites for 12/9/00
On Site

The Friday drop-off of the lower cabinets occured without a hitch. When I returned Saturday, with Mr. D.'s help, we removed much of the molding in the way of the built-in and started scribing where necessary.

This is the best photo of the whole space as seen from just inside the front door. After scribing, the whole assembly ended up 3/32" off center to the fireplace. Can you tell which way? ;)

One of the more interesting aspects of this job was seeing how much walnut can fade when exposed to sunlight. This is a shot of the breakfast knook where the original owners of the house had an oval rug which apparently didn't move for 4 years - the age of the house.
Back to the installation, here's a close-up of the lower right corner where the drawer cabinet meets the wall. Instead of removing the old baseboard molding, we opted to make a plumb cut with a bayonet saw. The slight gap shown in the picture will be covered with the new walnut baseboard which will be coped to the old molding.
To the left of the drawer cabinet, Mr. D. installed electrical outlets, printer and phone lines. these will be accessed through the little door cut in the left side of the upper cabinet.
The drawer cabinet is screwed to both walls through the back and right side. I like to use laminate shims whenever I'm installing cabinets since they won't compress under load, as will tapered cedar shims. These shims come from one of numerous sample chains I've picked up over the years. The chains are periodically replaced when the laminate manufacturers discontinue or introduce colors.
The hearth support is recessed 3/4" behind the plane of the two base cabinets to enhance the visual appeal of the whole assembly. Once the cabinets are scribed and leveled, two screws are run in from behind the faceframes into the edge of the hearth support.
Then the hearth support is anchored to the floor with two screws at each end.
The last task of the day is cutting a cardboard template for the piece of stone Mr. D. will get for the new hearth. If all goes as planned, it will be ready by next weekend when I return with the rest of the finished parts. So far so good! :)

If you have any questions or comments about Mr. D's Walnut Wall Unit, please post them at the Info Exchange.

Jim Mattson

Onward to the Next Installment

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