The Dining Room Takes Shape

It was so much fun to rip the old kitchen apart. We really hated the cabinets, the layout, the look, just about everything there was to do with the old kitchen was unplesent. Ripping it out was a lot of work but a real kick at the same time. There are some good images of the destruction on the demolition page.

Keep in mind that before this remodel that the new diningroom was actually our old kitchen. And the new kitchen was our old diningroom. That is some serious remodeling no matter how you look at it. To completely move the plumbing and all was quite a job. But now that it is done we feel so much better. The traffic pattern is better, it makes more sence to have the diningroom near the livingroom instead of having to walk through the kitchen to get to the diningroom.

Creating the new wall was more than just a cosmetic change by the way. The old arch that was where the openings are now was over 7 feet long. The wall is a major support wall. Apperently the people that remodeled the home before us didn't know much about what they were doing. Orifinally the opening between the livingroom and diningroom (the old kitchen actually) was only 24" wide and near the middle of the wall. When the opening was enlarged to nearly 7 feet, no additional support was added to the header. When we opened up the wall we found seriously stressed lumber some had cracked almost all the way through. The slats and plaster was actually acting as a structural member of the house. As soon as that was removed the lumber that was stressed and cracked started to shif even more. We rushed to get supports in place. The new wall even with the large openings has a lot of support. There are four studs at the north end of the wall and 3 at the south end of the wall butted right against each other. There are two studs between each window opening and the new walk way between the livingroom and diningroom has double studs on each side. There is a set of double studs right in the middle of the wall between the walk way and the first opening. This wasn't needed for structure but it helped to secure the sheet rock. But since the studs go floor to ceiling they do add a good deal of support. This house is in much better structural condition than it was when we moved in.

You can see that the sheet rock went up rather easily. We took the time to insulate as we did with all the exterior walls we pulled down. The house is much more comfortable now. We replaced the large arch at the north end of the wall with a set of openings between the livingroom and diningroom. This shifted the traffic pattern to the south end of the room and made it possible to place the couch against the wall.

The openings make the house feel larger and help with the air flow. If you notice there are lights installed in each opening. This turns them in to more than just openings but nice show places for our nick-nacks. The lights are on a dimmer so at night this adds a great deal of mood to the house. This once cramped and chopped up house is now quite comfortable to live in with a lot more usable room even though the actual floor space hasn't increased except where we removed the chimney and reclaimed a small bit of space in the new kitchen.