Step Four of The Island Project: Start Putting It All Together

The Day of Cartwheels

It was two months later. Two months after I had joined some boards together with my grandpa's old biscuit joiner. Life has a way of getting in the way. We had proms and graduations and a beach vacation. 

No where in that mix did a good solid day of devotion to The Island Project present itself?

But I came home from my beach vacation full of piss and vinegar and one idea, one word: FINISH. This is not a concept I'm super familiar with. I'm not a huge fan of FINISH. I'm world's number one fan of START. And I don't get down on myself about that. We need all kinds. I'm the starter. Here - you FINISH. But this time it was on me. And I had some motivation from my favorite guy, who, often lacks vision, but was also beginning to see what we might have here. (Which was awesomeness. We had awesomeness.)

In fact - it was on this sunny June day that he said, "I'm beginning to think I won't be embarrassed to have this in my house."

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So, do you remember the boards for the base? Here they are. They are glued and joined. Then routered dado joints to hold two dividers of the future drawers. Doesn't it look pretty?

Finally, I was the step I wanted to be at. Trim work and all the touches that would turn this strange, awkward grouping of wood into something magnificent. Something my eye had seen months and months ago. One problem I had in my design phase was what to do with the plywood on the "new" cabinet? And how to "marry" the professional looking freebie to the homemade cabinet? Wood/cabinet shops use veneers or very expensive hardwood ply. I had used cheap, construction grade. I had painted it to shut up the naysayers that said you DO NOT use plywood (oh but you do) and the paint hadn't helped. But in my design phase I had come up with a solution. And the solution had been a free one.

So months before, while visiting "home," we had pulled and pryed and crow-bar-ed and sweated and cursed to end up with a lot of free wood.....

And that is how my kitchen island ended up on the Pallet Board Bandwagon. I cut the pallet boards to length, sanded them and sanded them (and then I decided to sand them.) I picked and chose the best pieces I could. I was careful to leave some space at each end for the eventual corner trim and facing that would go on.

A closer view. I was ecstatic. Doing cartwheels. Bye bye ugly plywood.

Oh dear god. I did some more cartwheels. Here I had started to trim out the corners and edges. Now - something wonderful had happened a few weeks prior. My wonderful guy had come home with his van packed (slight exaggeration) full of oak trim. The job site he had been on had made a mistake or there had been a change order or something and who cares? I had free oak trim. So I made some quick design modifications to use FREE. I always want to use FREE when I can. I'm actually not always a fan of CHEAP because sometimes that leads to CRAPPY and I have plenty of crappy. But FREE often leads to such inspiration and fun and greatness.

Loving. More cartwheels.

Here's where I pulled a hamstring. I shouldn't be doing so many cartwheels. Honestly, I haven't done them in years. What business did I have? Oh geez. Look at this. Ends are on the base. Oak trim on the face of the cabinet covering ugly plywood ends. This is the "back" of the island. On the backside of the microwave is a spot for cookbooks. 

We were now on a Mutual Mission to FINISH. And soon. With my helper fully on board, it's just a matter of weeks until this is completed......

How excited was I? OH SO EXCITED. Yes.