Sunday, January 31, 2010

The walls are down! And the House is still standing!

So as it turned out, Cody and myself have been sick over this week-end starting Friday.  So I had a choice, use this downtime to potter or to demolish the kitchen walls!  If you know me at all, you know that there really wasn't a choice as I really wanted the wall to come down!!!

Cody has asthma so demolishing would cause too much dust and caios which in turn would cause breathing problems, so it is really was a week-end of deconstruction.

Pierre worked from home on Friday.  No, really, he actually works - in the middle of our household happenings, he actually gets a lot done.  He successfully ignores us, and visa versa!  So here's how my Friday went ... I woke up to this - the kitchen wall inquestion ...



I first had to get all the screws out. I was definately in a quandry as to the best way to find them through the plaster and paint.  Without giving it a thought Cody pipes up and says - I know mum, that's easy!  Just use a magnet to find them ... out of the mouths of babes!  Sure enough ...


The magnet worked!  And I was able to clear the sheetrock of the screws that held it to the wall.  Next out with the tools .... hahahahhhaaaaa



There's me after clearing all the tiles off the wall, taking the screws out, and now cutting the sheetrock into manageable pieces.  Here's the wall looking from the other side.


After some time, alot of work, and a nice hot cup of tea ...



By this time my husband was finding it very difficult not to try to 'supervise' me and was getting slowly drawn in to the project.  I kept sending him away!  It was all me baby!!  I felt very invigarated doing this part of the project by myself - it really gave us a headstart into the week-end!

Next was dealing with the electrical and deconstructing the frame.  Seemed like I ended up using manual tools alot!!!  This time a haxesaw to cut through the nails at the top of the studs then I was able to pull them out with my hands ...


There's hubby hard at work - his work day drawing to a close!  To make a long, but very exciting day short ... here's what it looked like!


Then began the clean up.  PJ had finished work by now and was taking care of the electrical and was snooping in the ceiling which lead to another finding!  The smaller wall was NOT load bearing!  So do we keep the wall, or do we get rid of it????  I was 100% out of here ... but Pierre was aprehensive ... so we slept on it.   But in the mean time, I had cleaned all around it in preparation for deconstructing in the morning!!!!!!


There's the wall in question ... and here's a picture of Saturday's deconstruction!!!!


TA DA ...


So there you have it - you can see where the wall was by the outline of the hardwood floor to the right.  On the subfloor was additional plywood to lift the tile to the left.  I must say I just absolutely love it.  It's turned our level into one big humungus room with a fireplace in the middle ... It is wicked cool and I'm just loving it ... we have a long ways to go yet ...



The white columns are both load bearing and suit the architecture.

So today, Sunday we thought would be a piece of cake - that was our first mistake!!!  As we are going to hardwood the kitchen, we have to take the plywood off the floor ... what a day it has proved to be!!!!!!



Really not alot to show for it - but it involved a lot of work ... and I did end up with a nail in my hand ... tut, tut!



Boring stuff!  But it's the boring, teadious stuff that makes the job great!  And well worth the doing ... so here's where we left it tonight ...


There's scuba washing the floors, getting all the nasty fine dust off so that Cody can play tomorrow!

We freecycled the cabinets - they were in good shape and a family will be using them to replace their kitchen cabinets.  So next I need to pack the other cupbords, set up the other shelves, and then we're ready to take the remaining cabinets down ... so that's next weekend folks!

Tomorrow will be back to school, plant some vege seeds, and trying to get my to-do list caught up ... and hopefully to fit in a nice hot cup of tea!  Hopefully I'll get my voice back!


2 comments:

  1. wow, Kiwi, you guys are amazing! Truly amazing! Looks gorgeous.

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  2. Thank you ... amazing or crazy ... I'm thinking crazy, the loco kind!!! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete