I recently had a request from my cousin Jim’s wife Carol to make a plaque with an image of their cat. Carol provided me with a photo of Mikky which I used to design the plaque you see below.
Mikky
Using my Onefinity CNC I carved the image into a nice piece of red cedar with a live edge. The word “Mikky” and the heart were also carved with a V-bit.
After carving, I sealed the wood with 2 coats of shellac and carefully hand painted the red in the heart. The black is epoxy which I poured into the opening where the Mikky’s image was cut out. I’ve had mixed results with epoxy in the past, so I was very, very careful and this one turned out nice. The photo above was taken while the epoxy was curing, hence the bubble level on top.
We put the finishing touches on the kitchen today and we can now call it complete!
When this job started, we thought we had prepared for everything. And most everything went smoothly, but it only takes one thing to mess things up. Our demolition went according to schedule. The new cabinets arrived and were installed on time. And they are perfect. We purchased a dishwasher way ahead of time and it was delivered. But then there was the sink.
That sink. I ordered it from Amazon.ca because we needed an odd size and it was the only one we could find. To my surprise it shipped from New Jersey. Amazon didn’t indcate it was coming from outside the country. Anyway, it was late. Very late. Finally, I got a notice from Amazon saying they considered it lost in shipping and I could have a refund. Time was now critical. We needed a sink in the new kitchen and we needed it ASAP. So off we went to Home Depot and found a sink, smaller than we wanted but at lease it was a sink!
Arranged to have the plumber out to install the sink and dishwasher. They got started but then got called away on another job they said was an emergency. That was Friday. We painted the old cupboards to the exact same shade of white as the new cabinets on the weekend. The plumber returned on Monday and finished the job.
Oh, and that sink that Amazon lost? Well it showed up just hours after the replacement was installed!
We did some finishing touches today and called it done!
The cabinets were installed earlier this week. All went well and I was told the floors were nice and level, which was a bonus!
New cabinets
As you can see the dishwasher is yet to be installed. That’s because we are still waiting for the new sink to arrive so we can call the plumber to hook everything up. We ordered a small sink – smaller than a single sink but bigger than a bar sink – from Amazon.ca but it turns out it was shipped from the US. It has been stuck in Cheektowaga, NY for over a week now if you can believe the tracking info. Interesting because it was listed as “Sold by” and “Shipped by” Amazon.ca with no mention of it being sourced outside the country. Anyway, the job is on hold until we acquire a sink. I would have sourced it locally but no one had the size we needed. We may now have to install a sink of a different size, if we can find one.
Finishing touches included sanding the drywall where I had patched it and Wendy has painted it. She matched the colours perfectly!
After the demolition last week, it was obvious what needed to be done in order to get this kitchen ready for the new cabinets that are being installed on Friday.
Yesterday, we had the plumber out and he cut all the pipes below the floor and capped them in the basement. Where the old cabinets had been was partly on the original hardwood floor and partly just sub-floor. I needed to bring this up even to the existing floor in the rest of the kitchen. Where there was just sub-floor, I had to raise it up an inch and a half, so it took two layers of 3/4 inch plywood. Areas where the original floor was still in place needed to be raised an inch and an eighth, so I used a layer 3/4 inch plywood plus a layer of 3/8 inch plywood.
Given the price of plywood these days, I decided to use some scraps I had lying around from old projects. I had to bite the bullet and purchase some 3/8 plywood at the hardware store. I calculated that I needed about a half sheet and they sold me a piece 32″ x 46″ for just $15. My lucky day!
Plywood installed
The above photo shows the area raised up using 3/4 inch plywood with 3/8 in plywood on top. I used 1 1/2in screws to fasten the 3/4 in ply and brad nails to fasten the 3/8 inch ply on top of it.
recycled plywood
On the other side, I just needed a small piece of 3/8 in ply to cover an area about 15″ x 19″ where the original floor was intact. The rest of the opening was covered with a layer of 3/4 in plywood and screwed in place. Then the whole area was covered with another layer of 3/4 in plywood to bring it flush to the most recent laminate floor. This time I screwed everything down with the same 1 1/2 in screws.
Patchin the drywall
With the floors levelled, the next job was to patch a number of ugly holes in the walls. There was one particularly big one shown in the upper left of above photo. Another trip to the hardware store for drywall compound and a couple of drywall patches. The patches were 7″x 7″ and one patch just barely covered the bigger hole. I was able to cut the other patch in half and use these pieces to cover the other two hole. While I had the drywall compound out, I decided to spruce up the numerous small holes and cracks in the walls.
drywall patches in place.
There’s more work to do here, but I am confident this will be ready for Friday when the cabinets arrive. More updates to come.
