0 Opening the Living Room

Maybe you remember we had this less than stellar divider from the living room to the kitchen that desperately needed to go.

1. It was an eye sore.

2. We could always use more light in the kitchen (since there's only one window).

3. A wider door way for moving appliances in, is an added bonus (since it's a straight shot from the front door- the primary door for moving).

So what’s a girl to do? Karate kick the banisters down. No photo proof this time, sorry my friends.

The boyfriend blindly cut down the wall with his Sawzall.

Sawzall

Just kidding, he checked under the ceiling tiles first to ensure the floor joists were going in the right direction. Tip: the wall isn’t load bearing if the joists are going the same direction as the wall. If you don’t have this convenience, you can try the basement/crawl space or attic.

Update: Safety first, consult a professional if you're unsure, cuz no one likes a house falling down. You could always make friends with a carpenter, it never hurts to repay them with say- clean dishes for two weeks, or an awesome dinner- or both! They love being spoiled.

Then he used said sawzall and hacked away at the wall keeping as straight of a line as he could.After opening the wall, we found it was originally resting on a regular piece of wood. 

So he cut a line with the sawzall where the wall ended, used a pry bar to remove the stubborn piece of wood. He fitted the new boards and since they weren’t level he used some more scrap wood for a few shims.

No peaking at the kitchen color. 

Next, we filled in the gap with hardwood scraps we found in our garage rafters left over from the previous owners. We then used three 1x6 scrap pieces- which we had laying around and nailed it into the studs. 

 I may have left a secret message on one of the shims.

Then, he used his nail gun and nailed the trim into place. 

We actually left the middle section unfinished close to a month or so until it stuck out like a sore thumb.

We painted two coats of primer (left over from priming the whole house), we were lazy and didn’t put a top coat with regular white paint but it’s barely noticeable right?! Sure you can also still see the nail holes but the house is always a work in progress. Plus those walls are not permanent either.

Looks much better huh?

  

Have you had some free projects using what you had?

P.S. I was not paid or perked from any of these vendors, we just happily picked up the supplies necessary for the job.

Want to follow along with the Living Room and Office progression? Here's Prepping and Painting.