Vacation TODO: Day 7

Today was the least productive day so far. It’s about 6pm and I haven’t yet gone into the shop. I doubt I will make it.

All’s not lost. As I write, Trissa is working on list item #7, “3 interior doors”. This morning we set up a second set of sawhorses so we could get two doors going at once, and she’s on her second coat of varnish of the day. If we’re lucky there will be a third before bed time.

The main work that I accomplished today was researching and choosing the drawer-slide hardware. This took much longer than expected, and really, is kind of complicated. I started by looking at the Rockler catalog and finding some slides that met my criteria: full extension, fully concealed, and self closing. Rockler offers a couple of slides that meed these criteria; the one I focussed in on is the Blum Tandem model. I went over to Rockler to check it out and it looked like it might to the trick. The main downside is the price. At $39 per drawer, we’ll be over $500 for a kitchen’s worth. My list mentions 7 drawers, but in reality there are 14 if you count a few that are in the dining room, and a few for the island, nook, and refrigerator cabinet that dont yet have face frames.

Rockler has a sale tomorrow morning of 25% off of any one item. Trissa and I were scheming that we could get 4 drawer slides at 25% off if we each go to both of the two Rocklers in Seattle. Maybe we could get 8 if we go on both days of the sale. And maybe we could get 12 if they let Atticus buy one (or maybe I can just take a friend of mine with me?) Quite a racket, if ever there was one.

The guy at Rockler also offered to give us 10% off if we buy at least 10 slides. So maybe that’s the easier route even if it costs a bit more.

I came home from Rockler and did some more research on these Blum slides. I found two suppliers online that have them for about $8 cheaper per slide than Rockler’s base price. One of these is out of state and wont charge sales tax, but shipping is pretty high. I also found out that there are some parts that are required for the slides that don’t appear to be included with the core package, at least when ordered online. The missing part is a “locking mechanism”, which attaches the slide to the drawer. Apparently there is a different locking mechanism used for drawers that are mounted flush with the face frame vs. on top of the face frame. I’m pretty sure the Rockler slides include all the parts in a single “kit”, including the locking mechanism for drawers that sit atop of the face frame. My dilemma is that this is the wrong locking mechanism for our application - our drawers are flush with the face frame.

My plan is to go back to Rockler for the sale tomorrow morning with Atticus and Trissa and see if we can get the slides with flush locking hardware. If we can I’ll probably try to get 2 (or 3) at 25% off, and the remaining at 10% off. If I can do that I’ll be happy.

In any event, now that I’ve picked out the hardware, I can build the drawers themselves. The hardware is critical because it determines the actual dimensions of the drawer box. I’ve got the Russian plywood downstairs ready to run through the Sawstop - all I need now is a cut list. If I get the slides tomorrow I hope to power through and have a couple drawers done and installed by tomorrow night.

We did one other list-related item today. In today’s email was an offer from Restoration Hardware for 20% off an entire purchase. So we went over there after Rockler and picked out and bought all of the drawer and door pulls and knobs (“Deluth”). The 20% off saved us $40! Here’s what we got (the wider pull, and the smaller knob):

In any event, here’s the state of the list:

1. Kitchen cabinet doors. 11 total. 4 important ones for the base cabinets.
2. Kitchen cabinet drawers. 7 total.
3. Upper cabinet crown.
4. Kitchen nook seating and table.
5. Kitchen island trim and panels.
6. Kitchen under-cabinet lighting.
7. 3 interior doors: sand, varnish, install with hardware. (Important baby-proofing item…)
8. Paint kitchen ceiling and walls (already primed).
9. Paint foyer ceiling and walls.
10. Electrical panel - re-order the breakers and document them all.
11. Strip and sand baseboard for the living / dining room. Determine if it can be re-varnished.
12. Cable TV to the kitchen. Forgot this when we had the walls open (DOH!)
13. Window sill for kitchen nook. Started this but is incomplete.
14. Exterior lights by the back doors.
15. Dining room chandelier (choose, purchase, install).
16. Dining room speakers (purchase, install - I prewired for them before we drywalled…)
17. Cat door platform (ask Trissa…)
18. Clean the upstairs hall closet - it’s a MESS!

Edit: I made it into the shop last night. After dinner Trissa decided to put another coat of varnish on the doors so I decided to cut the plywood for the drawer boxes. I’ve got 6 cut out and ready for the dado that will accept the drawer bottom.