McBerkoBlog

Our kitchen ceiling was 8 ft, unlike the rest of the first floor (minus drop acoustic panels). When we took it down, we discovered why. The entire room had a false ceiling built below the real one. Not supporting anything, not needed for any reason, just a lower ceiling. ??? Here's a pic looking up from the kitchen, at the fake ceiling, real joists, and bottom of the 2nd floor: Here's what it looks like now. Removing the 2nd floor really brightens up the 1st! Can't say I recommend it though. I will feel much more comfortable navigating from our bedroom to our closet once the subfloor is complete and actually attached. Creeping gingerly over the few pieces of plywood resting on joists, carefully avoiding the big holes in the floor - not an adventure I need each morning.

Bill, Dad, and Eric finished framing the wider openings today. The wall is gone between the main kitchen and where the fridge used to be, so it's now just one large (~10.5' x ~18') space. Before and after pics of that wall: Side note: The reason the new header looks slanted above is because it is. This entire room was originally a porch, so both the floor and ceiling are sloped as would be appropriate for a porch. Sadly, that is not appropriate for a kitchen, so the next project is leveling. Between the kitchen and dining room, we widened the small doorway to just over 5', to match the opening between the living and dining rooms. Before and after of that wall, looking into the kitchen: Props to Eric, who ripped one of these studs out with his bare hands (no joke!).

When we removed the wall in the pantry behind the row of cabinets, we found siding. Dirty, filthy siding covered with bird poop. Gross, perhaps, but I like to think of it as free architectural interest. It took a lot of bleach and several hours of scrubbing, but it finally looks OK. Here's a mid-cleaning pic: The walls around the fridge were also covered with siding, but we removed everything except this wall in the new laundry room.

Pre-demo, Ruth really liked to sit on this window ledge. Really liked it. While we cooked dinner, she'd hang out here. While we'd get her breakfast or our coffee ready, she'd sit here. She'd even eat snacks here. Perfect size for her, with a great view of neighbors' dogs playing in their backyards. Then, we did this to her seat: The next day, Ruth really wanted to sit in her special seat to eat her breakfast. Result:

Three wasp nests Four socks A few termite-ravaged studs Many, many bird nests An old tube of caulk One pair of yellowed, decades old boxers (or bloomers?) Scary wiring surrounded by scorched insulation Outdoor siding (on the inside) Boards spattered with bird poop (also on the inside!) One petrified rat

Pre-demo, pre-tornado, we started with this. Cabinets that are soft from years of moisture. Stove with 2 working burners. Three layers of kitchen floor (parquet over tile over wood). Several layers of wall. Windows that don't quite separate the inside from the outside. More on the interesting things we found in the walls soon. For now, let's focus on the starting point: Back wall: Sink will move under this window, dishwasher to the right. Ceilings throughout will go up a foot (pending structural engineer and plumbers signing off on that plan). Wall to the right: Stove will move between these two existing windows, with a wall-mounted hood over the stove. The windows themselves will be closed off - the weird placing otherwise blocks off a lot of upper cabinet storage space. Looking toward the dining room, this doorway will be widened quite a bit, to about 5 feet. No more wall cabinets here. On the other side of the room, the fridge will move to the space where the sink and dishwa