Because we planned to move the fridge to the far right of the kitchen, we needed to create space. Getting rid of the dish washer and upper cabinets were a start, but the real room would come from eliminating the pantry.
One thing we learned immediately after taking off the trim around the door was how questionable the construction was. Fortunately, it was a pantry and not required to do much. The walls also weren't load-bearing otherwise we would be having a different conversation. But you shouldn't see this kind of gap between the inner frame and rest of the wall. Attached at the top and bottom, it was otherwise free floating with a couple finishing nails through the trim holding it in place.
The only really tricky part was taking down the wall without ruining everything else around it. So it came down piece-by-piece with hammers, chisels, and prybars.
We'll say this for the builders, when they wanted to overdo something, they overdid it! The 2.5-foot piece of wood at the top did little more than hold drywall but was littered with 3+ inch nails. Two for each 2x4. Several more holding it to the studs in the house wall. And more just because.
But it all worked out. We created the space we needed, leaving up one side to act as a boundary before the patio doors.
Until next time.
Oh, such fun to tear stuff out
ReplyDeleteIt seems like when you're doing something a little weird, you pound in extra nails to reassure yourself that what you're doing isn't so bad. Applies to a lot of things, I guess.
ReplyDelete