Day 396: The wee cabinet in the corner

Corners are not just for naughty children anymore - cabinets can go in there too. Children can also go in corner cabinets, but that isn't advised.

So this weekend's dilemma was how to fit a fridge and hopefully a somewhat usable cabinet space in a short span of wall. We found some rather slim, but tall 400mm cabinets that should do the trick.

First, I put in some supports onto the wall to hold the countertop.

Next came the base cabinet. This was fixed to the wall using the support and some corner brackets. A bit more stone cladding on the right side to make every thing look tidy.

A countertop was then cut using some of the leftovers from the breakfast bar. There wasn't much material remaining to use, so once again, very little room for missed cuts.The cabinet mounts were then placed on the wall with care .. and some brick dust .. cough. 

And the tall cabinet fit snugly against the wall .. completely level of course.

Now with the doors on and the wee microwave we ordered to just fit the gap. 

Next some pelmet action. Think I was spending more time by now taking photos than doing any real work ... oh well

And some more stone cladding ... I elected to do this after installing the pelmet so that I could measure the exact size needed (much better than trying to add).

And finally I closed things off with a door. Sorry bad daddy humour; builder humour unfortunately can't be printed on a PG rated website.

A little nifty work was required to finish off that small gap between the base cabinet and the wall. I put 2 pieces of cladding together at a right angle so that I could fasten it without any screws being visible from out outside. The wider edge was then screwed from the inside of the cabinet. Very nifty.

 

And the (almost) finished product. I just need to do a bit of cornice work at the top to make things look pretty. So we managed to squeeze the fridge and a somewhat useable cabinet into a very small space in the corner. More great things are planned for this cabinet, but that will be the subject of a future post... stay tuned.Just need to now find a new corner to put the naughty kids ...

Day 382: Getting stoned

With the Great Peninsula of Surbiton firmly fixed, on came the stone colour match cladding. 

This was generally pretty easy to do. Measure the gap, tape the ends and cut to length. I used my squeeze grips to hold in place and fixed with 30mm wood screws.

The back was a bit more tricky as there was a gap between the back of the cabinet and the cladding. So I had 2 options: 1) screw it on from the front and have the screws visible (the lazy way) or 2) find a way of fixing the panel from the back.Fearing that I'd risk losing my loyal following to this blog (a cast of millions) and be subject to the "your screw is showing" criticisms at home - I opted for the more challenging option. I put some wood to bridge the space and some corner brackets on the bottom. I'm sure that there is probably a much easier way to do this, but I couldn't think of one. 

So there you go, my peninsula is now stoned and looking fine. The cladding makes a huge difference to the overall look of the cabinets. And for the record, none of my screws are showing.

Day 367: The Great Peninsula

This weekend's little task was to complete the worktop on the peninsula. If you've read my previous posts on worktops, you'll know that we have a bit of a love-hate relationship going on... mostly hate.

What I don't like about them:

• They are heavy
• They are unforgiving
• Cutting is messy

But a kitchen without a worktop wouldn't get me any Brownie points. And I'd probably lose my DIY license around the house. So off I go.

The countertop was rough cut to size and scribed previously but not fastened down. I still needed a sliver of counter to go on the other side of the range. The fancy jig shown below was to keep everything straight whilst the glue was setting. In the end, it wasn't at all necessary. But still a cool setup.

Next came the edging. As the countertop had to be cut to size, there was one rough edge. This was lightly sanded down to prepare for the edging strip. The capital pine worktop has a rounded ABS edge that is impact resistant and can be sanded down to get a nice rounded edge. It is quite thick and sold in rolls, making it somewhat difficult to fix in place. 

I held it down with a straight piece of wood and clamps and applied contact adhesive to both the edging strip and the cut edge of the worktop. I should mention now that the adhesive was all green, tree hugger, save the dolphin friendly. I could probably drink the stuff. And did it work ... NO! So lesson learned, drive a Prius if you want to save the whales but make sure to use solvents if you want your countertop edging to stick.

With the edging on (finally) the countertop was ready to go back into place and fastened down.

 

And the fit was of course perfect.

Amazon to the rescue. My super solvent, hazardous, ozone and small animal killing extreme mega grip contact adhesive showed up not a minute too soon. And did it work ... YES!!!!!

Countertop's on and fastened down, edging tightly glued, drawers installed .. welcome to the Great Peninsula

Day 369: A spooky Halloween update

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, I was stripping Artex and knocking down walls. The only Halloween decoration was a half-filled skip out front of the house. The place had natural spooky appeal I guess. Kids didn't want to go near the place as they were under the impression we were hosting a meth lab. Check out the Walter White costume - BTW this was pointed out to me after the fact, not at all intentional.

This year, We added a few skeletons, spiders (the original ones gave up and left), tomb stones and lots of scary sound effects. And a spooky vampire princess and witch to boot. And the kids came ... in significant numbers I may add. What a difference a year makes. Next year the plan is to set up a Halloween shot bar out front for the adults, and continue with the treats for the kiddies.