Shaker Style Vanity (Poplar)

[John Morris]

Well, this has been quite the week for the ol Morris home! I had fully intended on finishing our Walnut Vanity, but we were informed an appraiser was going to come out this Tuesday to value our home for a VA refi. At first I had not thought of it, but it finally struck me, hey, if this guy is coming out to appraise, we should probably have our bathrooms fully functional. While the 1/4 bath downstairs with the Walnut Vanity is fully functional, the kids bathroom upstairs is not, it's still missing a vanity as well. I called the VA appraiser and asked him if the missing vanity would effect the value of our home, he stated maybe not, but the lender would not be too happy to see their investment missing parts of the home.

 

So my wife and spent an hour discussing what she'd like in the kids bathroom, we ho hummed over the HD and Lowes vanity's, too expensive, they ran anywhere from 300 bucks on up, and we are not ready to spend that much right now, school is getting ready to start for our kids in a couple weeks, and we need to get school clothes still.

So we talked about what she wanted, she wanted a white cabinet, and she liked the simplicity of shaker that I have been introducing into our home lately. So I told her, we can build a cabinet and paint it white! She loved it.

 

So we got into high gear and I ran out yesterday and grabbed a stack of poplar from the lumber dealer, and came home and drew something up to get approval by my wife. Just a simple shaker cabinet, with the drawer proportions to be worked out still, she is deciding what she is going to put in the drawers.

 

After I drew it up, and got approval from LOML, I started to cutting and joining the poplar boards to make the floor, and sides of the cabinet. I was not too concerned about grain matches etc, the cabinet will be painted on the outside, but I did want some grain symmetry for the floor of the cabinet, as the interior will be natural and varnished. This morning I was able to get the panels glued up and out of the clamps, squared up and cleaned up.

 

They look pretty good. Over this next week, I'll come home from work and put a couple hours a night on the vanity, tomorrow I'll be cutting in the dado's and assembling the floor and sides.

 

I called the appraiser and told him to hold off a week while I get this vanity wrapped up and installed. He agreed. So I have a week to get this wrapped up, painted, and installed, and functioning! Wish me luck!

[Buckaroo]

WAY TA'GO.

 

[LarryS]

Good luck!!

I'll be watching for more photos

[John Morris]

6 minutes ago, LarryS said:

Good luck!!

I'll be watching for more photos

The next photos should be more interesting, than seeing a few panels laying on a workbench.

[Gene Howe]

Talk about a time crunch.

Of course, we want lots of pictures and detailed explanations. 

That shouldn't slow you down....much.

[Cal]

I am surprised the appraiser did not offer to complete his appraisal "as-improved".  This simply means the appraisal is done with the assumption that the bath is complete and functional.  The lender then holds up closing until the "improvements" are completed.  This does require an additional inspection by someone - the appraiser, the bank or a building inspector to sign off on the improvements being what was considered in the appraisal.

 

Never dealt with the VA though, it may be something they do not do; or there could be other reasons not to do it.

 

Years ago the wife & I were going to build a house.  Had purchased a lot and drew up plans for a two story with unfinished basement.  Got bids for completion of the shell and first floor.  My plans would be to finish the upstairs.  Went to the bank and their response was "NO - too much money for a finished one bedroom one bath home.  Be glad to loan you another 20 grand to complete the upstairs so that we have a 3 BR 2 BA home for collateral..."   We ended up buying our present home and selling off the lot.

Cal

[John Morris]

1 hour ago, clhyer said:

 This does require an additional inspection by someone - the appraiser, the bank or a building inspector to sign off on the improvements being what was considered in the appraisal.

I can only imagine that a return trip would not be free Cal, in that case, whatever we can save out of pocket is more desirable, we are already spending 600 dollars on the appraisal out of pocket, so if we need to do it in one shot, fine. But to answer your question, no, they did not offer to appraise is "as-improved". Would have been nice to been offered though, at least give us some choices.

[lew]

...sounds like a plan...

[Chips N Dust]

That is a pretty good start

[Grandpadave52]

Looks like a "whole lot of shakin" is going at in the Morris house.

I'll be watching for the detailed PIP updates! 

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

Certainly a good catch on your part, and there's little doubt in my mind that your vanity will be a very nice one. But I hate it when I have to work against a deadline. Are you planning on oil based varnish on the inside?

Edited July 24, 2017 by Fred W. Hargis Jr

[John Morris]

The sides have been cleaned up and the floor of the cabinet as well.

As seen below I jigsawed some feet out one on side of the cabinet and cleaned them up with some files, this side will be exposed in view, the other side of the cabinet will be against a wall, so only the outside side of the cabinet get the feet along with the front face frame, I will incorporate feet like these in the bottom front frame piece.

I set a scrap piece of wood up for a straight edge for my router, to cut a 3/4" dado. I have a dedicated straight edge for this purpose, but couldn't find it. So I set the router to 3/8", half the depth of the 3/4" poplar, and set to cutting.

 

I like to climb cut one side of the dado in, then I approach the rest of the cut from the other side, this way I don't get any tear out when exiting with my router since it was already cut before hand.

 

Dado cut.

 

After I cut the dados on the sides of the vanity to hold the floor, I realized the bit I was using is one of those undersized bits for plywood that is a shy less than 3/4", as most ply is these days. Since this is lumber purchased from a hardwood dealer, this lumber is a full 3/4" thick, so my dados were a tad thin. I set the straightedge up at the 3/8" mark and used my beautiful LN Rabbet Plane to take the end of the board down in order to fit into the undersized dado.

 

I took it down about a 1/6"

 

Finally the boards fit into the side panel dado's, all is well. I made a test fit to make sure before blue up.

 

I glued up the sides to the floor using my 4' pipe clamps (process not shown, it's just a glue up, boring), after I let set for about an hour I removed the pipe clamps and drilled 1/4" holes into the lower floor from the sides for doweling. The dowels really weren't necessary, after all the strength in cabinets are monolithic to each part applied onto a cabinet carcass, each piece lending strength to the next, but I have always had this superstition, I like my parts to be able to stand on their own, not relying on the next to support or lend strength to it. So I went ahead and doweled the lower floor (shelf) into the sides.

Drilled the 1/4" holes

 

Then I doweled each hole as I went, glue dowel, cut dowel, move on to next hole. Many folks like to cut all the dowels first, then ram them home with glue, then cut them all at once. I like to use a long piece of dowel, and tap it in, cut it, then repeat, it's just a process I have been using for years, no special reason, your way is just as good if not better.

The dark area is moisture from my wet rag to wipe the glue off.

 

After I cut the dowels in place, I took my ROS and hit the area and took the dowels down to the surface, pretty aint they?

 

Tomorrow I'll get going on the face frame, hopefully! Depends on how I feel after work, should be high humidity the rest of the week and hot. Since my job is out doors, I'm usually beat by the time I roll in, but this cabinet has to be done by end of this weekend, so no rest!

Thanks for following along with me!

[lew]

Those dowel end just blend right in!

[John Morris]

10 minutes ago, lew said:

Those dowel end just blend right in!

They did Lew, normally I'd be concerned about grain orientation for the dowels, but this cabinet is getting painted.

[Grandpadave52]

Holy Cow, you ain't messing around with this project! I love the cutout design and proportion...

Looking forward to the next episode...try to stay cool and hydrated the next few days though!

[Chips N Dust]

You are moving along quite well! Great job

[Joeb41]

Way to go John, you'll get it done for sure.

[Cal]

Coming along very nicely John.  If you get a break tonight, post up some more pics!

Cal

[Gene Howe]

Man, you're fast. Good, too. That vanity will be really nice. 

The appraiser should be impressed. 

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

Yep, you're really hauling butt. Gonna be nice!