Sunday, June 19, 2011

Breaking Through


What a satisfying thing it is to break down walls that were never meant to be there. Matt spent a couple hours today taking out the left hallway wall that a previous owner tacked up to make a quick buck by renting out each room separately to different tenants. We have some neighbors who lived in one of these rooms for a time. They report horrible and unsafe conditions, and fortunately didn't have to stay for long.


Above: The view from the doorway between the living room and dining room, looking toward the front door. You can see how great it will be to have a sidelight next to the door, and how much grander and brighter of a room this is now. Here it is cleaned up a bit:

 

I came over as Matt was getting to work on the second section of wall, which blocked the future dining room. Bye-bye, cheap, crappy trim!

  

Note: um, we usually work with masks and gloves. We were temporarily out of dust masks today, and I think Matt left his gloves at home... but I don't recommend working without either. What can I say? He was excited to get the walls down!

  

I took a few swings with the sledgehammer, but mostly for the camera's sake; I have a sore shoulder and Matt is responsible for all the great progress today.  


I popped over next door to chat with Shannon (who lives there, with her mom and kids) and Lisa, who lives around the block on Oakwood. These days were made for porch-sitting.


But back inside, Matt was getting things done martial-arts style.



A couple details we noticed, which we snapped photos of for documentation's sake just in case anyone ever questions whether that wall was really original: first, the original plaster wall hiding inside all the dry wall, with baseboard inside as well, which wouldn't have been there if the hallway had existed. 


And in the living room, the same baseboard clue: someone built the wall right over it, leaving proof of the original (and far superior) floor plan!


Coming up next: our first professional floor plan draft, along with details about working with the lovely and talented Sara Lachenman of Four Over One Design.

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