The corner of the barn with the washing machine and freezer has been a little neglected. It's very nearly three years (!) since I put in the framework for the worksurface and cupboards, but somehow I hadn't quite got around to making the last doors and drawers. This casual attitude seemed to rub off on the users:
The main reason for the delay was my aversion to dovetail joints: they have always seemed to be just a little more difficult than they ought to be, and never turn out quite how they should. Drawers absolutely have to be dovetailed: it's what stops you pulling the front off when you try to pull out a heavy drawer. But Jay had kindly made me some dovetail gauges and I'd recently cleaned up and sharpened an old dovetail saw of Tad's, so there was nothing to stop me. And in the event some of the joints at least came out quite tight when they were glued and clamped:
What I did realise was that if the wood was warped (which this was, quite badly, despite running it through the planer to remove the worst of the dishing) the drawer needed to be clamped up with at least four sash clamps, and I have only three. So a bit of improvisation was called for -
This held reasonably well, though the "pump action" clamps with the rope do not ever get very tight.
A further issue with the final drawer was that I hadn't built anything to support it inside the cupboard where it is supposed to go -
This was partly because all the pipes made fixing a framework to the wall a bit tricky. But I had a large sheet of waterproof chipboard, and some oak offcuts, so putting them all together gave me this:
Now I can't quite yet say that it is all finished, as there's always a catch - or, in my case, a complete absence of catches and door/drawer knobs. But I hope to get the catches done soon - I have some small brass ones that are OK, and I've ordered some china knobs from e-bay that should do. In the meantime it already looks a lot better:
I have slightly cheated by tidying up first: but I'm pretty sure it will be back to normal quite soon. The colours of the wood are it's true a little miscellaneous. The wood that is visible is all oak. The framework is new oak bought from the merchant in Aurillac, as is the dummy panel under the sink, while all the rest is re-cycled floor-boards from the barn's original floor, complete with nice woodworm holes in some places to make it look authentic. I must say I prefer the old wood, though there's almost no difference in working it.
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