2 On the Road

We never used the dishwasher in our park model so I decided to take it out and put a trash cabinet in its place.  Upon starting the project, I figured out the cabinets had been refaced with solid wood panels right over the stock park model quality cabinets.  This makes them much more durable and prettier than the ones that came with the unit.  Before starting the project we searched home salvage yards and online for a door to match the ones we had.  I finally had to order one special made.  I also had trouble finding a cabinet pull.  Didn't find one to match exactly but found one close that had the same shape as the rest of the cabinets.  I used it to replace one that no one other than the owners would see so I could use the matching one for this project.

After pulling the dishwasher out we found several problems.  First the shut off valve wouldn't shut the water off all the way so we needed to replace the valve.  We did this so that any future owners could still have a dishwasher here if they desired. Secondly, the outside opening for the water heater opened up into this space also.  The water heater is behind the panel to the right.

Got the valve replaced but we still wanted to put a cap on it.  That and all the other materials - stain, varnish, brushes, sanding pads, etc, took several trips to the home improvement store.  In this picture you can see two other problems but you might have to look closely for them.  The first is at the top right under the cabinet.  Yes there's a hole where the dishwasher drain line ran through the cabinets over to the sink drain.  The second is harder to notice and I didn't find it until I went to put the cabinet base in.  The right panel slants inward 1/2" between the front and the back.  So the hole isn't square.

I knew I needed to make a base but didn't have the materials for it.  We were at a home salvage place looking for a cabinet door and we found this free cabinet.  Free - that's just the price I wanted to pay!  I took it home and dismantled it.  Since the base top was too wide and too deep, I had to have the park's shop personnel slice off some of it.  It was when I tried sticking it in the hole that I found out that the cabinet opening narrowed as it got to the wall.  I had to take the vertical support off of one side and reattach it further inward.  Of course I had to clean it up and paint it also.

Since the dishwasher went all the way up to the bottom of the counter and a cabinet wouldn't, I had to create a back board that could support the stained and varnished finish panel.  This actually took two different strips of wood before I could put on the pretty face panel.

Here I have the base installed, the toe kick refacing panels removed and the refacing panel on the right of the hole removed.  Above you can see I have installed backing boards for the facing I created for the top of the cabinet.  I had a whole sanding, staining and varnishing process going on in the shed at this time as I prepped the parts that would show.  I special ordered the door and had to stain it to match.  I'm not saying it matches perfectly, but since I had no idea what I was doing, it's not bad.   

Finally found the correct cap.  We bought one and it was too big, so I bought a couple other ones.  They were too small so I bought the original size again.  It was too big.  This was ridiculous!  I measured the cap and it was a 5/8" instead of a 3/8"!  The package has previously been opened.  Took that one back and bought a 3/8" that had never been opened.  Bingo!! Exactly the right size.

Finally things were far enough along that I could install the trash mechanism.  These are our little trash cans not the larger ones that came with the mechanism.  You can see here that I removed more of the toe kick panels.  I had to make a pretty one to cover all this up. 

Here is the finished product.  The light really makes it look darker than the other cabinets.  It really isn't much different.  Anyway, most people wouldn't notice. Go back to the first photo and you can see the original panels to the right and left of the dishwasher look darker because of the way the shadows fall.

Here's how it operates. Just pull on the door handle.