Opening up... it's good for the soul

Since the day we signed a lease to rent this house, I envisioned an open kitchen.

After we bought it, I longed for, prayed for, begged for an open kitchen!!!

All it took was a large beam...

The expertise of our neighbor, friend and contractor, Jim...

And LOTS of load-distributing wooden structure in the attic, before we could hack that kitchen wall into pieces and drag it out of the house.

Before:

The blue line is my best effort and demonstrating the shape I would like the new kitchen island to be.

During:

This is harder than it looks!

After:

Aside from some minor inconveniences - ducts, electrical outlets, old TV antenna wire and our programmable thermostat, the deconstruction was a piece of cake!

The dust and debris that was akin to a bomb going off in the house was not super ideal, but I still maintain it was worth it, just to get this far.

Let the good times roll

It's a love-hate relationship... Home improvement.

I love the anticipation. Watching something grow out of nothing, evolving into what could only be an improvement - given what we are starting with!

I hate the mess and of course the expense. There is nothing like a front living room full of "stored items" from the garage to encourage feelings of chaos and filth.

Ah-hmmm, that is bicycles, the cat's transporter box, a watering can, storm windows and plenty of extra t.p that you see :-(

It was this exact time last year that our back room was remodeled. And as I write, we are embarking on our biggest project yet....

Our 1955 kitchen, complete with aging washing machine behind a green curtain, dysfunctional in every other way, needs much more than a face lift! Someone (a man?), in their infinite wisdom, designed it with no dishwasher, few usable cabinets, lighting that comes from another room and little counter space.

We are redesigning it and it WILL be good!

But before I put the cart before the horse, we needed to work on a couple of pre-kitchen remodel projects.

That washing machine deserved a laundry room... somewhere to hang with the dryer and where its chattering vibrations could be closed off.

Enter Josh and Eric... To the rescue again. :-)

Once the back end of the garage... as if by magic, almost overnight we have a floor joists for the raised floor, framing in place for the laundry room and half bath (new addition, decided on the fly!) waste and other plumbing lines in.

Today was actually Day 3 of the project. We now have an insulated floor and walls in the new laundry room and a fire-stop door from the laundry room into the remaining garage. (Building code has changed since 1955, when things like stopping the spread of fire into the house or insulation in the walls of a house were considered unnecessary luxuries. Don't even get me started on grounding outlets, I KNOW they had appliances and lightning in the 50's!!!)

So far so good! It certainly looks like a room now.
They will be back to help finish the install in a little bit... stay tuned.