Progress is my middle name

Well, no, it's Kathleen… but you get the idea.

After a lengthy woodshop hiatus, I've managed to get some work done down there in the past couple of weeks.  I'm now done all three drawers and the cabinet door, although I have to sort out a couple of hardware challenges before I can paint everything and put it together for use. GW made a very good point the other day; at least once the drawers and cabinet are done, we can use the base of the hoosier properly and stop using a bookshelf for a pantry.  Tee hee.


First though, I wanted to share with you some handy-work that GW got up to today!  I called him down to help me with my woodwork, but there were things that I needed to get done first, so I set him a few challenges.  He had to use the chop saw and the table saw this time, and was successful with both!

I had him mount that mini-recycling bin on a home-made angle bracket thingy so we had somewhere to keep the paper recycling not just the containers.  I also had him put in a hook to hang our tennis racquets.  Lastly, he crafted something to hang our helmets on!  These are three mini projects that have been burning up the bottom of my 'to do' list, a little bit worse every time I walk by them in the basement.  Phew!  Hubby to the rescue!!

Okay, back to the drawers ;)

I really wanted to make them the proper way with dovetailed joints, but quite frankly I figured that making my own drawers with an inset bottom was enough of a challenge for a first try.  I'll get to dovetailing things later I think.  If you follow me on Instagram (projectjumanji) you'll have already seen some of these pics, but for those who haven't seen them yet…

The biggest excitement in this part was not the inset drawer bases… or that they all kind of went together without too much drama.  It's that I learned to use my router (a three hour adventure overall) and put the rounded edge on the cabinet door and drawer faces to match what we already have in the kitchen.  I know, why match it when it's not that awesome and you might want something else in the kitchen later… well, our kitchen is original 1939.  So it's authentic vintage… and that's good enough for me.

Once the drawers were built and the faces had their edges rounded (I only messed up 4 of 12 corners, lol - I call that a first-attempt-win!), I glued them together and got to building my version of "slides".  Our other drawers have wooden rails to slide on, so I thought we should do the same for at least the two smaller drawers.  Success!  I think I might do them for the bigger drawer too, but am worried about the weight of the drawer causing too much friction.  Hmm.

Taaa daaaa!  There's two of the drawers in, supported properly, and balanced correctly… I hope.  I'll know whether everything is balanced once I get hinges to put the door on, and get the bottom drawer installed too.  I'll be most displeased if something is visually off by even 1/8". . . but I'm crossing my fingers that if there is something 'off', I won't see it.  I usually see it.

Happy Canada Day to everyone tomorrow!!  I'm sure we'll make good use of the lovely Canadian weather we're expecting, and I'll hopefully have more photos to share with you then.

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