After a full day's work, the base kitchen cabinets are in!
The left corner cabinet went in without a hitch, matching my layout lines. The sink cabinet took a bit more work. The drain pipe extended from the wall, but the water lines came up from the floor. In order to get the cabinet in, I needed to cut the water lines, which meant shutting the water off for a while. I needed to replace the existing valves anyway as they were non-functional, but it meant I needed to sweat some copper.
I transferred measurements for the drain and water lines to the back and bottom of the cabinet, after spending 15 minutes making sure I was accounting for the widths of the face frames correctly. I drilled my holes, told Maggie to use the bathroom one last time, and cut the water lines. I slid the cabinet in place, and shimmed it level. At this point, I realized something was off - in order to get the sink cabinet level with the corner cabinet and get the face frames to align, I needed to shim the right side of the cabinet higher than my level line. I attributed this to the cabinet construction, and I had previously found the right corner of the room was low. I screwed everything together, and switched hats from carpenter to plumber. I initially bought 'Shark Bite' press-on fittings, but changed my mind and decided to use quarter-turn valves with compression fittings and sweated couplings in the basement. I feel these connections will last longer, and the fittings are much less expensive.
I cleaned, fluxed, and soldered my connections in the basement without setting fire to the joists, installed the compression valves, and held my breath as I turned the water back on. There was a slight trickle from one of the compression fittings; I carefully tightened the compression nut another quarter-turn, and that did it.
I then moved onto the right corner cabinet. The cabinet was about 1/8th-inch too wide, so I trimmed the face frame, using a belt sander. I wish I had opted for a circular saw as my line wandered more than I would have liked, but the cabinet slid into place. I ended up having to shim this cabinet even higher than I anticipated to get everything level. I turned the corner for the remaining two cabinets, placing, shimming, and screwing things into place. By the time I got to the end cabinet, it was about an inch off the floor, and about a 1/2-inch higher than my layout line. I stood back and scratched my head, wondering what on earth I had done wrong. I laid my 4-foot level across the three cabinets along the window wall - they were dead level, side-to-side and front-to-back. The cabinets along the pass-through wall were a bit high moving left-to-right, but the bubble on my level was still within the two lines of the sight tube. All of the edges of the face frames matched perfectly. I am not sure if my installation was correct, but if the face frame edges match and the top is level, it seems like it should be correct. I know the flooring and baseboard will cover the gap with the floor.
I then moved to the left side and placed the last two cabinets. This was the high side of the kitchen. I held my breath as I placed and leveled the cabinets. These matched my layout line almost perfectly, with just thin shim or two to level them back-to-front.
We have one last cabinet to install where the refrigerator will go. We will then be ready for flooring. Then it is just knobs, kitchen sink, faucet, counter-tops, backsplash, stove/oven, and vent!
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