Cam came to town for 8 plus 2 days to help build cabinets and to share his knowledge and experience with me.  In a very full and very fun ten days, we made some jigs for the equipment, and built and installed base cabinets for the kitchen, guest bathroom and ensuite.  We also built 5 drawers, and two cabinet drawers.  We also put in two door jambs and cut the material for 2 interior doors and did a number of other odd jobs.  Photo below is Cam cutting tenons for a cabinet door.  A man with many skills and much patience.

New (to me) planer. A two year old machine with helical cutters that I got for less than 1/2 the price of a new one.  Powerful machine that does a great job surfacing wood and planing it to the thickness desired.  Glad I put in the 220 v outlets.

Drawers and doors – Drawers are Baltic birch bottoms, maple veneer plywood sides, and cherry hardwood edging and fronts.  There will be a bank of five drawers in the peninsula (and another 25 or so scattered around the kitchen).  Drawers now need to be scraped and sanded, sprayed with 3 coats of polyurethane, and then have the fronts installed and the finished drawers installed in the cabinets.  The doors are 3/4″ cherry hardwood with 1/2″ cherry veneered sheets.  These will be oiled.  Over time, the cherry will darken into a warm rich hue.  The helmet is for the ATV, Cam’s preferred choice of transport between the rental house and the building site.

This is the first of many interior fir doors.  The wood is mostly clear, much of it vertical grained.  The rails and stiles are 1 1/2″ thick so the doors will weigh a lot (they will need 4 hinges).  Joinery is mortise and tenon and they will be finished with tung oil.  We cut and fit the material for two doors – guest bathroom and guest bedroom.  They need to be sanded, assembled, sanded, oiled and then hung.  Assembly has to wait until I can get 4 more 40″ Bessey clamps – I had to order some as none were to be had here in Kelowna.  The rest of the interior doors will be a fall project.

This wood all came from the Oyama Sawmill which stopped cutting about 4 years ago and has been selling off all its wood. Got to know the only guy left working there (2 days a week) and have been getting really good deals (like 75% off lumber store prices) and really good wood.  But it has become harder and harder to find what I want as the good stuff has been mostly picked over (I should have been there 2 years ago).  As such, I decided to load up and get most of what I will need for the interior doors, interior trim, and the exterior post and beams for the two porches. Because there was not enough clear 1×6 for the interior trim, I got several hundred feet of 1×3 clear T&G flooring that I will edge joint and use instead.  Not shown is the cherry and the various veneered plywood – good place in town that specializes in hardwood and veneers.  This wood will keep me busy for many many months, once I get time to start on it.  Truck will have to park outside for the winter.

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