A day in the life of an average stay-at-home mom, who happens to be building cabinets for her kitchen.
7:30 - Wake up to the 3-year-old wandering into our room saying she's hungry. Get dressed groggily, then get her some breakfast.
8:00 - Baby is awake. Nurse him, then give him some solid food while I eat some cereal.
8:30 - Make sure the older kids have something to eat, feed the cat.
9:00 - If it's Jeff's work week, hand off the baby to the 7-year-old. She's such a great helper, and a loving big sister. If it isn't Jeff's work week, then he gets the baby.
After I make sure all the kids are occupied with something fun, and the baby is being taken care of, it's off to my work bench in the back yard to start building.
It's not glamorous, but it's mine and it gets the job done.
First I gather all my tools out of the shed. This includes a drill, a pocket hole kit, clamps of various sizes and uses, a carpenter's square, measuring tape, wood glue, pocket hole screws, hammer, nails, and saws.
I have a variety of saws, which I'm really proud of.
Today I'm working on making the face frame for the corner cabinet that I built yesterday.
Always use eye and ear protection when using power saws!
After getting everything out and set up, I spend the rest of the morning cutting wood, drilling holes, clamping joints, driving screws, and doing it all over again.
I have a limited amount of time in which to do my building. I can only work when my work area is in the shade - it's too hot without it and I tend to get migraines when I work in the sunshine. So I keep an eye on my shadow.
By lunchtime, my shade is gone and I'm ready to pack everything up and put it away. If I have a finished cabinet, Jeff and I bring it inside and find a place to stow it until installation time. If not, I put it in the shed to keep it protected from the elements until the next morning.
Today I have a finished corner cabinet (minus doors, but those will come later, after all the cabinets are built).
When I'm done putting everything away, I join the family for lunch, and spend the rest of the day being a mom. And resting. Lots of resting - carpentry is hard work!
This whole cabinet-building thing is taking a lot longer than I originally thought it would. Picturing this all in my mind a few months ago, I blissfully (ignorantly) thought that we'd have a new kitchen by now. Truth is, if we'd gone ahead and bought pre-made cabinets, we probably would. But I love the sense of accomplishment I get each time I finish building a cabinet. I love looking at my cabinets stashed all over the house and thinking to myself, I built that. And I know that, eventually, when we actually do have all these cabinets installed in our beautiful new kitchen, all the time and effort will be totally worth it.
In case anyone is interested, here's where I got the basic plans to build all the cabinets. They were pretty simple to modify and customize to fit my needs in my kitchen.
Plans for the wall cabinets
Plans for the base cabinets
Plans for the corner wall cabinet
Linking to:
Weekend Wrap-Up Party at Tatertots & Jello
Creative Showcase at Housewife Eclectic
Project Inspire{d} at Dukes and Duchesses
Think Tank Thursday at Joyful Homemaking
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