Casework Update

The casework team has been full steam ahead over the past couple of weeks, but we still have a lot of ground to cover. Every room in the house has some casework component and we have taken on the responsibility of completing the casework ourselves, from design to fabrication to installation. At this point, we have finished the majority of fabrication for the kitchen casework and are waiting for the flooring to be installed before we install our cabinets.

In the meantime, we will be setting up a large painting operation at our warehouse on Henson Rd. We decided to use a low VOC paint product to comply with our environmental goals, but with every decision comes some pros and cons. With this decision, the water based paint dries hard - similar to the quality of a lacquer based paint - but it takes about thirty days to cure. Therefore, our small, 10x10 paint booth was simply inadequate for the large amount of painting that we have to do.

We should receive a new order of plywood from A&M Supply within the next couple of days to continue fabricating the cabinets for the swing space and the bedroom. The challenge for these cabinets has been integrating all of the necessary components within them. Integrated into all of our cabinets are the Mitsubishi mini-split units which provide the heating and air for the whole house. In addition to the HVAC, most of the cabinets include recessed lighting, so all of the MEP disciplines are coordinated into one piece of millwork. Needless to say, we will have our hands full, blitzing towards the finish line.

This picture has nothing to do with my post... but its beautiful.

Cabinet Excursion Part Deux

The cabinet production is in full effect now!!!!!! And we couldn't be happier!

With the help of our new found friends at A&M Supply, Blum Hardware, and Columbia Forest Products, we have been able to dive pretty deep in the construction of the base cabinets. They have been great help in the process of picking material and coordination.

It is still a learning process as our lead critic Steve likes to walk by and laugh at us as we struggling to figure the details out. I 'think' we have figured out the process of construction now and the wall cabinets should come together pretty quick. Although we are slightly behind schedule, we are trying to work day and night to get them done. We barely have time to breath, little alone blog, with how hard these 'research specialist' are working us.

As I digress, we are about 90% done with the base cabinets and should start the wall cabinets within the next couple of days. Hoping to install as soon as the flooring is installed, we are trying to get them finished by the middle of next week.

So until the next time I get a Union Break.... I bid you adieu!

Casework Materials

We have conducted numerous tests on different species of woods and different materials with multiple types of stains, paints and finishes. Working closely with the interior design team we have gone through many iterations of color and finish to come to a point of satisfaction with the casework. As shown below, you can see that we have decided to use a medium density fiber board (MDF) with a brush of stain and poly. After multiple sample pieces, we have come to the conclusion use a golden oak stain shown at the front of the first image, with a brush on poly.

The image below shows earlier tests on various types of plywood using wipe on poly and diluted water based paints

The image below is a few different sample woods with various stains, to be used as flooring, to the front face of the cabinetry in the kitchen

In order to reduce material waste we have constructed all of our casework mock ups and samples from scrap materials from other projects.

Cabinets & Casework

As the house continues to advance, we have come to a point where we need to buckle down and make some pretty important decisions about the interior construction and aesthetic. One major component is the built-in kitchen casework. We know that we are trying to achieve a clean, simple, and elegant look, but we are unsure as to how to advance with the construction. One method would be to order premanufactured cabinet boxes in standard sizes and then complete them by producing our own cabinet doors and custom components. While this limits us to standard cabinet sizes, it gives us the advantage of saving some time - keeping us from fabricating all of the components ourselves.

But in the interest of saving some cold, hard cash, we are pursuing the option of fabricating all of the casework ourselves. More than just saving money, this will allow us to produce more custom cabinetry to suite the needs of the house and it will prove to be an invaluable educational tool for all the students involved in the design and construction of the cabinets. In addition to the traditional woodworking tools found in the woodshop, we also have a CNC router available to aid in our attempt to create beautiful casework. Using CNC (computer numerical control) router, we can build a 3-dimensional model of the cabinets in the computer and have each piece precisely cut out on the router. This ensures precision and helps save material as it fits the most amount of pieces possible on each sheet of plywood. After the pieces are cut out, we just need to assemble them with a minimal amount of finishing of the materials.

We plan to use this week to ensure that we are competent to complete the casework in a timely fashion. By the end of the week, we will finish designing the cabinets and hopefully build one cabinet box using the CNC router, recognizing any weaknesses we have in our process.