Present Joys

It took one full working day to get the foyer cabinets fit, but the guys did not fasten them in on Monday. They intended to fasten both of these big bookshelves to the wall, leaving only the cornice to finish later. The left shelf went in just fine. We ran into a hiccup with the right side. After poking around in the wall, we realized an electric box that needed to move a few inches (to work on the back of the bookshelf) had a lot of wires happening inside it. Electricity feeding our guest room and stair lights all passed through this receptacle, and there was not enough slack in the wires to move the box. This would need attention before we could cover up the wall. The installers propped up the bookshelf so I had room to access the wall and I told them I’d fix the problems after they left.

So they moved onto the dining room. It took almost all day to scribe and install the monumental piece that’s going in the dining room, beginning with the 36″ × 95″ × 20″ base cabinet and countertop, then the 60″ × 95″ × 12-1/2″ upper cabinet with brackets on each end. They said the upper cabinet was one of the largest single pieces they’ve ever handled. Once these went in, it immediately changed the feeling of the dining room. I’m anxious that the new base cabinet, although it only projects about 15″ into the room, will feel too crowded. I won’t know for sure until we have the furniture back in place. Besides that one concern, I’m so excited to see my dream start becoming reality.

After the guys left, I immediately set to work trying to find slack in the wires. I tore open the wall (thankfully, behind where the bookshelf would cover it) and found enough slack in one wire to work. I had to rerun another two wires from scratch. It went surprisingly quick considering

A lot of the large pieces are now either installed or ready to be installed, but a lot of small work remains. The dining room backsplash and crown still need to be installed, as does the built-up crown molding on the foyer. And they haven’t done anything with the front parlor yet. Theoretically this will all get done tomorrow. I’m excited to see if that’s what will happen!

As I mentioned, this week we’re having built-in cabinets being installed in three rooms here at Bonebrake: two tall white oak bookshelves in the foyer, two base cabinets with doors in the front parlor, and a monumental sideboard-style piece in the dining room. I’ve been designing these pieces for over a year and also slowly getting these areas ready. We’ve been living with partially finished electric, portions of removed walls—it’s been ugly.

The front parlor cabinets that’d already been delivered were already sitting in my foyer, which sort of ruins the “before and after” image, but here’s what things looked like this morning:

The installers—two Amish guys, not including a driver, who helps load and unload but does not install the cabinets—only ended up working about five hours today. Most of this time was spent making the two foyer bookcases fit. I don’t think they used many tools beyond measuring tape, planer, and sander.

Before they left for the day, they brought inside additional cabinet boxes for the rooms they hadn’t got to yet. So now we can barely navigate through the front two rooms of our house—especially since we still have a handful of loose stair parts around, too! I have a decent list of things to do before these guys come back tomorrow. I need to pull some new electrical wires and conduit in the front parlor and I need to get some primer and paint on the dining room built-ins during this limited window before things are fastened together for good.

Schrocks is coming Monday to begin installation of built-in cabinets I designed for three rooms: foyer, front parlor, and dining room. In true Victorian style, we are prioritizing the beauty and majesty of these three “principal rooms” while we continue to ignore our miserable kitchen. I will write more about the cabinets in each of these rooms.

The installers will bring most of the large cabinets and many assorted small trim pieces when they come next week. For now, Karen’s uncle Hosea was passing by Columbus and offered to drop off the two cabinet boxes that will go in the front parlor. For how much these things cost, it’s hilarious to see them hanging out of the back of a pickup truck, but I figure Hosea knows what he’s doing.

I’d requested to get these two in particular early so I could get a head start on finishing them. The paneled ends of each cabinet here will be installed close to the mantelpiece which is already in place. Today I frantically applied dye stain and the first two coats of polyurethane, which is a good start.