When we moved into our new home, my very first stipulation was if we buy this house, this wall can’t stay. Aaron agreed with me and so we began to save our pennies. So many times my budget had to be dipped into to pay for unexpected expenses that would pop up, but we finally had enough to get it down!
So not only does this allow us to see Parker if we are in the kitchen and cooking dinner while he is playing, but it gives us more flexibility with our floor plan. Our kitchen table now straddles the two rooms, with plenty of space to move around, as compared to the tight quarters before.
So this is the before. The cut out window served no purpose, but it did allow me to keep my sanity for the year I had to look at it. I’m telling you, sometimes my OCD tendencies get the best of me, and this was something that was driving me nuts.
Such a pointless wall. The fantastic part about it was that this was not structural. The wall in between the kitchen and dining room is what supports the second story so we were able to knock the whole thing down without a column. We did install a header, just as added support, but it wasn’t truly necessary.
The wiring had to be rerouted for the ceiling fan in the living room. Eventually I want to rip out all the first floor lighting (It’s all a bit odd) and replace it with recessed lighting throughout, and a nice light fixture in the foyer and above the sink. But that’s another blog post.
The mudding was what took so many days. Apparently dry wall mudding has to be done a little bit each day and sanded in between. So the whole process took about a week.
No amount of towels, dusting, or cleaning could keep this space clean. As hard as I tried. There was actually so much dust buildup from the removal of the wall and the sanding that it clogged our AC filter and everything froze over. The house got up to 82 degrees. So that was a fun discovery. Easy fix though, but word to the wise. If you’re doing a project like this, buy at least two spare air filters.
This is our makeshift floor. Long term we will replace the carpet for hardwood, and we had a temporary piece of hardwood installed to bridge the gap between the two spaces. But for the week in between, I covered the hole with boxes :)
Whatever works right?
We got it all trimmed, cleaned, painted, and I could not be more thrilled. It’s kind of one of those if you give a mouse a cookie situations though. By doing the wall, we had to paint the ceilings. Which after getting rid of the sky and clouds with my office, I don’t do ceilings anymore. Luckily our family friend does, so this week our ceilings will all match and be white. The wall down also has us itching for our floors. But all in good time. I just can’t stand how good it looks with the wall down. I was literally giddy with excitement. Adulthood, huh?
