If You Can't Stand The Heat.....

   In the dash towards the finish line, the biggest remaining hurdle is the kitchen.  So very tempting to just go to Ikea and buy off the shelf stuff and make it fit---but decided against it.
   With ObamaGas costing $5 a gallon we combine trips down the hill---this was doctor visit/tandem bike date night/lumber run.  No way I'm making my date ride in the old truck for date night, so just figured we'd make it work one way or another...

   What a great time---AnnaMarie's working on painting while I'm doing other stuff for the kitchen.  She's deciding stuff as we go, and really getting into it.  Also it gave her lots of time to think about what color the kitchen wall would be.  Very little of that wall shows but it's a dramatic difference contrasted to all the white.

   The microwave will go right where she's vacuuming, the outlet's below it there.  She wants the microwave hidden from view from the livingroom.
   Her favorite counter material happens to be one of the least expensive, too---formica.  All the pieces we needed were in the culled lumber bin for less than half price.  Where there were chips and scratches, were all parts I could cut away.  I cut off the backsplashes except where it's actually against a wall and trimmed it with more of that jacareuba, with a comfortable angle where the bar stools are. 

  
    So the counter insets where your legs go for the bar.  The thin drawers on the opposite side slide just under the countertop and are rounded over so no one will hurt their knees...The big open box is the firewood crib and the slot next to it is for the fireplace tools (poker, tongs, etc).  The color she chose for the wall is 'fresh guacamole'.  When I first built the trim for the bar, I carefully shaped the very hard jacareuba and made it big on purpose, thinking 'bar'.  When AnnaMarie saw it she made THE FACE....Uh oh.  So it got re-shaped to the thinnest it could be, then she liked it.

    I won't bore you with the details of building cabinet doors, but the challenge was making the slot for the interior panels but still having room for the biscuit joinery.  I noticed the panels and the biscuits were the exact same thickness, so I just jammed the guide back on the joner, flipped it over, and used it as a wood shaper---basically cut the trough for the panel at the same time, and the panel acts a a giant biscuit.

Here you can see how the doors wnet together.  If I was careful when cutting the trough it was completely hidden.  On some doors, like this one, there's a little bit showing so it got filled with wood putty.  The biscuits expand with glue and one in place are very strong

     If you look a few pictures back to the pic of AnnaMarie painting, the cabinet behind her needs 4 identical doors.  So cut all the pieces, assembled them quick, and clamped them all at the same time.  The bedroom was the perfect place for assembly because it's not dusty, and it doesn't matter if some glue gets on the floor.