If I had a hammer....

If I had a hammer....

January 13th -- If I had a hammer there is no way I could ever do what these finish carpenters can do.  While still awaiting for the trim materials, the head finish carpenter and one of his crew showed up this morning ready to start on the custom carpentry and the built-ins.  The plan was to first come up with a design and then while the head of the carpentry company went to another job site, one carpenter would work to build the custom chest of drawers that will fit between the western wall and the fireplace in the master bedroom.

They drew their design on a piece of board, called me in to discuss their thoughts, and to ask for my contributions.  After they sketched things out and discussed measurements, the rest of the day was spent on building the chest of drawers.

The board that they sketched their plan on is actually the bottom of the cabinet, as shown below:

  

Here is the location of the chest of drawers.  It needs to be custom made because the height of the mantel and the height of the chest should meet and be smooth, as well as fill the space below between the fireplace and the west-facing wall of the master bedroom.  The overhang of the mantel and the chest of drawers will meet, and below the trim will be a designed gap so that I have access to the electrical control switch on the side of the fireplace.

By the end of the day, the main structure of the chest of drawers was built, with each of the drawers and the installation of the drawer hardware to come tomorrow and the next few days.

 

As you can see, there will be two smaller, shallow drawers at the top of the chest, with three deeper drawers below.  The chest trim will align with the fireplace trim.

 

 I am just blown away by how skillful these carpenters are and how much they seem to enjoy their work.  The guy who spent the day building this chest of drawers was signing along to the songs on the radio as he worked.  When I him how much I admired his work he smiled, and then said that the more difficult part was to come with the building of the actual drawers.