Mother's $10-Per-Square-Foot (or Less!) Earth Sheltered House: Part IV

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Prior to placing the shelves and hanging the doors, our cabinetmaker had to set each unit's toeboards, which serve as pedestals. Rather than use 2 X 4's (which are actually 3-1/2" wide), he trimmed some pressure-treated 2 X 6's down to 4" in width, then arranged them to match the cupboards' framing. In the case of the wall unit, Dean first leveled his boards along that surface and then used this row as a standard by which to set the remaining feet. The island, on the other hand, required a bit more attention because of the irregularities common in slab foundations: Each of its toeboards had to be scribed to duplicate the contour of the floor, then the high spots had to be taken down with a drawknife and a block plane. When leveled in this manner, the base was fastened to the cabinet's frame with finishing nails.

Once the cabinets were mounted, the finish work could be done easily. The doors were hung first to dictate the width of the drawer faces. With that dimension known, those poplar panels were trimmed to size and screwed from the inside to the drawer fronts. You'll notice that the drawer and cabinet pulls are made from quarter sections of (MOTHER's own homegrown) bamboo. Since these handles are glued into dadoes, it was much easier to precut those slots early on and to secure the pulls later.

The last components to be installed were the countertops. The subsurface is 3/4" particleboard, chosen primarily because that material is more stable than plywood. This platform, in both cabinets, was cut with a 3/4" overhang along the edges exposed to traffic . . . but the sit-down counter area was given a total of 11-1/2" of overhang to provide some legroom. To offer something for the perimeter trim to rest against, Dean fastened some additional composite board to the underside of the overhangs. Before cutting that decorative wooden edging, he sized and cemented the surface laminate in place, then carefully laid masking tape along the top of its perimeter. Laminated plastic veneers tend to chip at exposed edges, so—to assure that the surface material was protected—he deliberately oversized the poplar trim slightly so it'd be raised above the level of the countertop when installed. Some close handwork with the files brought this discrepancy to a minimum, while the tape protected the plastic surface during the operation.

Rather than attempting to bend the trim around some of the sharp curves existing on the island counter, Dean merely cut and fastened his straight sections after covering the rounded corners with wood cut to the exact shape with a band saw. The wall counter, which features only a slight contour, required no custom-cutting, since the edge board could be pulled in with some pipe clamps . . . though steam-bending could be used for more extreme contours.

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