The night before, we had to move duct work. Sounds a bit hard, but really, after bearing the attack of NACTs (see note at end) under the house, Rich was able to make it to the area on a belly crawl, detach the old ducting from its hold on the old wood with roofing nails (because it's clearly a roof in the sub floor?), move the (thankfully) flexible ducting to its new location, mark the hole in the floor, and have me jigsaw the floor from above, in a strange ellipse-meets-rectangle shape, to accommodate a round duct turning into a rectangle and then turning at a 90 degree angle to shoot straight out at your feet from the toe kick while you're cooking. After jigsawing the floor and tugging the duct work through the hole, I practiced my tin-punching skills with the hammer and awl and tried to get a new roofing nail (maybe they should rename the nail?) into the flange of the duct work to hold it in place while Rich crawled his way out of the crawlspace again.
Once Rich got above ground, he finished the job of hammering from an angle to the nails in the flange (not my strong suit), and then we wedged the duct work more sturdily (is that a word?) in place with wooden blocks and stuffed any holes with insulation, because although the secret stash of mouse poop the former owner had under the cabinets was adorable and I'm sure worthy of keeping in some circles, I decided it was NOT timeless and it did NOT go with the cabinet color.
Then we put down strips of 3/4" wood on the floor, along where the edges of the cabinets would be, and started installing base cabinets on top of that, against a non-plumb wall, on a non-level floor. With much shimming and maneuvering and leveling and shimming again, we were able to get them installed perfectly level, and perfectly in line with each other at the same time.
By the way . . . so GLAD we got ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinetry! While all the walls were down, we had placed the cabinets in their positions to make sure I had ordered correctly and all was well with the world. We thought we had even walked the cabinets through the various openings from the dance hall, where they were assembled, to the kitchen. However, we must not have taken drywall or something else into account because the lazy susan corner cabinet would not fit!! Luckily, we were able to pull the cabinet apart in its various pieces and slide it through doorways and re-assemble in place. Crisis averted. Finally, something that worked in our favor!!
Sir Gimpy Dane came by to help install some stuff and pass the time, and his help was much appreciated, because I didn't have to do my Sisyphus impression again. I think I'll have to change his name back to Sir Dane, though. Looking less and less gimpy each time we see him!
Got the lazy susan in, a 36" cabinet next to it in, the space for the dishwasher accommodated, the kitchen sink cabinet aligned properly, and the 12" base next to that one in. Then we put in the upper above the fridge and the shelving unit next to that. All of the base cabinets needed to be mounted on 3/4" stock so they will align with the 3/4" flooring we're planning on putting in there later. Yes, that was an intentional plan on our part. :o)
Tonight, I'm hoping we'll get 1/2" plywood down underneath the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen (against the living room wall) so we can get the pantry and 5 other cabinets installed. The reason for the plywood depth discrepancy is that the pantry is exactly 8 feet high, and the distance between subfloor and ceiling is about 8'1/2". It'll be an interesting tight fit, I think. Should be fun.
A word about previous mentioned NACTs:
Pronounced "en-ay-see-tees" n. 1. crickets under the house, colloquially known as "camel crickets", that look like spiders with at least 1 cm wide bodies, but can jump 6 feet high, and land on your face presumably to inflict a numbing bite and then devour your appendages. They congregate in aggressive bunches in moist dark areas of Raleigh basements and crawlspaces, and plot their attack on humans. Never seen by this author until arriving in Raleigh. The "camel" in their name must refer to the hump on their back that is much like a camel's hump, but stores human blood instead of water. 2. Nasty-Ass-Cricket-Things
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