I finally took the crowbar to my kitchen cabinets. Above is a close-up of the spirit level on the counter. Leveling the counter appeared to be the only way to level it.
This section of counter is perpendicular to the outside wall and juts into the room barely leaving space to open the refrigerator door. This house may have been built before built-in cabinets were standard in American kitchens. Someone built these cabinets out of pine and plywood in place. They cut the cabinet doors to match the angles of the kitchen where the outside wall is about 2 inches lower than the rest of the kitchen. The vertical lines are plumb, but the horizontal lines look like the carnival fun house. The picture below is not distorted in Photoshop.
We have been planning to renovate the kitchen for years, but remain frozen by the possibilities and the work and mess involved. It’s been cold this week and this provided a great opportunity to burn these kitchen cabinets in the fireplace.
Update: Now That’s More Like It
Have fun! We did this about four years ago in our kitchen, which looks to be about the same age as yours (1946). It took longer than expected. Personally I count it as one of my favorite adventures. However Tricia really complained about washing dishes in the bathroom.
The tax records say that the house was built in 1949, but other documents put it at 1946. The pipes connected to an old in-the-counter dishwasher that was removed before I bought the house in 1993. Now I know how all those cockroaches get in.
See the wire hanging to the left of those pipes? Apparently that’s the ground wire for the electrical outlet. I’ve never known it was dangling there, not grounded to anything, all these years. Makes me wonder why we haven’t had an electrical fire yet. — mss
I *love* the ungrounded grounding wire.
I may have posted this before, but the first time I knew that AJM was right for you, was when you complained about the kitchen, and he said in an enthusiastic tone: “But you’re suffering for ART!”
Your story was coming up in the next post. It was the hexagonal tiles that AJM admired. And I said he wouldn’t like them if he had to try to keep the grout clean. When he was smashing them to bits yesterday, I said to him, “Poor, M2. She’ll be so disappointed. In her mind, these tiles sealed our relationship.” So I saved one as a keepsake. — mss