It’s probably difficult for you to “see” exactly how the walls and floor plan of the house look. Pictures can only do so much, it seems. I’m trying to take “before” and “after” photos to help you visualize the radical changes we are implementing here. Here’s one:
This is a view of part of the kitchen before we removed all the cabinets. Note the laundry room wall to the right of The Hubs. I have hated that room ever since we bought the house. It’s a long, narrow little hallway with a washer crammed in one on side, and a dryer crammed in on the other, and two doors in between them. Very awkward.
My daughter is standing where the laundry room door once stood. It was quite an adventure to get that wall down. You can read a fanciful rendition about it at Chuckella Norris Strikes Again. Actually, the entire demolition scenario was like effective hair growth shampoo– hair-raising and hair-pulling all at the same time. :S Ah, but now it is over. I’m praying for smooth sailing.
Opening up this area makes a world of difference. And we also removed a small partition on the other end of the kitchen, leading to the dining room. The original entry into the dining room was a very narrow, cobbed-up doorway. It was knuckle-scraping to carry a laundry basket through the doorway, let alone have four kids clear the dining room table after dinner! So we removed the two studs there (they were not load-bearing) and opened up the space. WOW what a difference. The kitchen is really huge (12 x 23).
Yuk.
We removed the wall where the refrigerator stood in the previous photo.
We intend on installing a half wall where the refrigerator once stood. I’ll have plants there and a base cabinet or two, for the purpose of serving dinnerware for the dining room. I think the flow of the kitchen will greatly improve.
Our rebuilding process begins this week!!
29. May 2010 at 6:12 pm
This is all well and good, but I want to know what Livvy thinks of your work. I see her wandering around in the photos and she seems to be passing some sort of judgment.
29. May 2010 at 11:51 pm
Ah yes! Priorities, Sparkle! How could I neglect to mention what the Princess thinks about all this!
She is displeased.
Of course, she doesn’t realize that this disaster is all temporary. And she does hate being away from us, such as when she is locked upstairs and such. I’m hoping the changes do not distress her too much. We will be soon running the noisy power tools…
31. May 2010 at 8:10 pm
I see you let Livvy out to check out the work! Did that help her spirits at all??