This is a work in progress, much like the rest of my home, but that is how I like it. The picture on the right is my dream home which I found on pinterest. Until I find a wooded lot to build my own home, I will maintain as much of a nordic cottage feel as I possibly can with my choice of finishings.
As you will see I have no backsplash yet or doors on half of my wall of storage. Nor have I tackled the pendant that I would like to cast in concrete and put over my sink, but I thought I would document the process here to help others with their own home renovation project.
Our house is a 1920's bungalow that had a tiny kitchen and a breakfast nook. While I am sure there was a wonderful purpose for this kind of layout in the 20's; it had no place in our 21st century life. This was not our first time to contemplate taking out a wall and putting up beams. We did this in our last ranch style house and loved it.
As you will see I have no backsplash yet or doors on half of my wall of storage. Nor have I tackled the pendant that I would like to cast in concrete and put over my sink, but I thought I would document the process here to help others with their own home renovation project.
Our house is a 1920's bungalow that had a tiny kitchen and a breakfast nook. While I am sure there was a wonderful purpose for this kind of layout in the 20's; it had no place in our 21st century life. This was not our first time to contemplate taking out a wall and putting up beams. We did this in our last ranch style house and loved it.
This is the same view as the one above before we took out the walls.
We had plaster walls, and knob and tube in the kitchen before renovation, and per code once you open the walls you have to update the wiring. We also wanted to put in recessed lighting in the kitchen so all the walls and ceiling had to go.
This is the demo of the walls. It's a messy job, but you see where we took out two walls. The beams will go where these walls once stood.
This is the demo of the walls. It's a messy job, but you see where we took out two walls. The beams will go where these walls once stood.
Our structural engineer gave us all the requirements for load bearing weights and the size LDL beams that we would need. After a little internet searching, I figured out that we would need to nail and glue some of them together to meet the requirements. Here they are as they arrived.
We ended up using our circular saw to trim each beam to size then gluing and nailing three together for one of the supports and two together for the other. This process was not for the weak. Also, it took four people to carry these beams inside to the area where we would literally shove these beams into position while holding them over our heads! Yes, we are crazy! I love getting things done, but this was extreme. It took many hours to get them in place because they weren't trimmed enough. ugh