Sink and Pinensula

After some morning coffee and a little necessary work time we are back at the base cabinets. Building the sink and 36" peninsula base cabinets is no trouble after learning the process yesterday. The much more challenging part of this day is removing the old cabinets and placing support beams. The technique for raising a cabinet to the correct height is called shimming. This involves placing a small wedge shaped piece of wood (a shim) under the cabinet with the skinny end first and then hammering it towards the cabinet. As the thicker part of the shim enters under the cabinet, the whole thing raises up. We use this same technique to raise the cabinets off of the old counters with the the two-by-fours. With the sawzall's help, we can remove the old sink cabinet and the granite stays up on the support beams.

At this point it is a matter of sliding the new cabinets into place while removing support beams. The key is to have some support beams placed outside of the space of the new cabinets. The sink cabinet takes a bit of effort, but nothing compared to the peninsula. This piece of granite is a separate piece, and at one point we have it held up by nothing but support beams. It is a delicate balancing act with brutal repercussions for a mistake. Luckily, even with some close calls, we are able to install the peninsula cabinet and remove all extraneous support beams. The shimming of the cabinets to the correct height becomes a very stressful process as every added shim changes some other unintended aspect of the counter. Eventually we are successful and ready to mount all of the base cabinets to the walls.