Finally, some rewarding progress! In all fairness, doing the travertine tile floor was rewarding but it took so long it was hard to appreciate. Now it’s covered up so it can’t be enjoyed.
I used contractors paper available at your local big box hardware store to cover the floor while the work continued elsewhere.
The kitchen cabinets arrived pretty much as expected. They are maple with a burnished coffee glaze and cabinet-grade plywood boxed. The drawers feature the hydraulic closing mechanism which is nice when the drawer is full.
At first they sat in the living room as the travertine was finished, then moved into the kitchen:
It is not difficult to hang kitchen cabinets if you haven’t any help. Simply attach a level board at the bottom line of the cabinet and hold the cabinet up with one hand while using a screw gun/drill with the other. Be sure to pre drill pilot holes were the studs will line up. Basically this is lot of measuring and line drawing.
Hanging Cabinets with One Person
I used 2 1/2 inch deck screws with a washer to connect cabinets to teh wall. Be sure to only screw through the frame portion of the cabinet. For cabinet to cabinet side screws, I used 1 5/8 deck screws. TIP: Drill a hole just big enough to slide the screw through in the first cabinet, and a normal pilot hole in the second joining cabinet. This way the screw won’t “grip” the first cabinet and push the two cabinets apart when it reaches the second…it will try to pull them snug together, which is what you want.
1 5/8 screws accommodate for the space between cabinets
2 1/2 inch deck screws with washer join cabinets to studs in the wall
If you play your cards right and get the first (corner if you have one) cabinet right, there wont be a lot of shimming and leveling on the others.
