Kitchen/Living Space Remodel – Phase 2

Well we did it.  We took on the biggest project to date; opening up the load bearing wall that divides our kitchen and living room.  Nathaniel and I did this all ourselves.  We planned it for months, meticulously drew out plans, researched how-to’s and products, and executed it all without a hiccup.  It may have taken about 6 months to complete, but it was worth it in the end I think.  This is something we can take pride in for many, many years.

Here’s what the wall looked like before (kitchen and living room views):

Nathaniel first had to reinforce/add some footings to the foundation because there was going to be more weight distributed at the two ends of the opening.

Then he built temporary walls that would hold the ceiling in place while he removed the posts to create the opening.

 

Once those were in place, the demo got started and an opening was created!!  Let there be light and a view!

Nathaniel calculated just how big of a beam (actually 2) that he needed and placed it at the top to hold the weight of the house.  Once that was complete, he worked on electrical and fine tuning the opening.

The next steps were to start patching it all up, adding some trim and crown molding, and the bar top that will seat 6+.

We also built and added in all the cabinets, drawers, and installed the butcher block countertops on the kitchen side.  This created so much storage and a beautiful counter space for cooking and baking cookies!

On the living room side, we added some wainscoting to give it a nice craftsman feel.

The only thing that was not done by us was the install of the quartz countertop for the bar top and the back splash.  We decided since we were going to be using the bar top for everything from eating dinners, hosting parties and eventually a place for our kids to do homework and crafts we wanted a surface that would be beautiful and hold up through the years.

We finally finished it all at about midnight the night before our Christmas cookie party and though it was exhausting at times, we are so happy with how it turned out and ready create more memories in this home that we call ours.

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