The conundrum of designing any space is that you only really know what you want after you’ve already built it. This is especially true with tiny spaces which are more impacted by less than optimal design. The rule I seem to live by is if it’s not at least 90% right it needs to be rebuilt.
In this case the floor level refrigerator space was irritating and the wardrobe style cabinet that we built was pushing the main counter too far into the common area, so we hatched a plan to remove the cabinet, slide the counter sideways and then cut the cabinet in half to make under counter shelf and drawer units, so the refrigerator can go on top of the counter where the tall cabinet was.
Repurposing the cabinet was tricky because the scribed-in edges weren’t square anymore and both cabinets have to match each other perfectly. My neighbor’s Makita cordless track saw was indispensable for doing the actual surgery. I’m still on the fence (pun intended) about buying one of these. It’s soooo nice but I just don’t do much of this kind of work.
I picked up an extra large speed square at a secondhand store the other day and it’s surprisingly useful for cabinet work. I also replaced the sketchy 18v Milwaukee barrel grip jig saw with their 12v model, which isn’t nearly as powerful but works well for this kind of work. It also doesn’t randomly turn itself on, which is a feature I appreciate.
-Brian
