It’s finished, on time and on budget, I finally have completed and installed “that big thing for my kitchen.”

I really am delighted with it, as is my spouse. This is what I have been working on for hours and hours and hours, filling in time when I needed to be at home in case my spouse needed me during the worst of his prolonged illness.

I have had a shop full of “man tools,” like a professional router, band saw, table saw, and much more. I finally put these tools plus a large dose of patience to work.

I built…

…a huge custom hutch!

It has 11 cabinets, four self-closing drawers, plus a countertop on which I place our big stand-alone microwave and large mixer. It also has an open cabinet for a small TV.

This hutch matches the existing cabinetry in our kitchen. I physically duplicated our existing cabinets by building the same style, shape, and sized cabinetry from raw materials for this hutch.

Why build custom? Why not just buy more cabinets and have them installed? As hard as we looked, we could not find the same type of cabinets, size, or frames that would match what we already have. We did not want to tear out the rest of the kitchen cabinets and replace everything just to have a few more… so I found a way to duplicate the pattern to make raised doors and 45-degree angle mitered corners of the cabinet doors.

While I was at it, I took care of everything else that I wanted: a place for a little kitchen TV where I watch the news while cooking; a countertop for the microwave, rather than on a rinky-dink cart; and drawers — one can’t have too many drawers in a kitchen. I also bought and installed a small under-counter fridge where my spouse can keep his tall jars of special juice that he requires on his special diet, as well as other drinks that then won’t take up so much room in our regular fridge.

My spouse is thrilled with it, and I am too! Here are some photos:Life is short: apply skills and enjoy being creative as well as practical!