Let the Walls Come Down

The first wall has been tackled.  The latest project is turning the old dining room into the laundry room. John removed the sheet rock from one wall, and revealed the original framing.  We weren't surprised to see that there isn't any insulation in the walls.  Our first electric bill reflected that too!  This room used to be at the end of the house and there were two windows on this wall.  My mom remembered that there was one window bud didn't remember the other one.  She said they used to have a fan in the window fan in the one on the right to pull air down the hall to keep it cool, especially at night.  I can't even begin to imagine living in Louisiana in the summer with no air conditioning.  Mom said that it wasn't too bad when they had never experienced AC, but when the stores began getting it and they had to come home to window fans and all that mugginess, they really knew what they were missing.  We did get an estimate to install central air conditioning in the house, the bid wasn't too bad, but it really doesn't make since to cool the house without insulation, so once that is done, we will tackle the central AC issue, that thankfully will include heat.  I am thankful that Louisiana winters aren't as cold as Colorado's.

The wall on the right of the room that will continue the hall through the house. 

Original framing of the wall, you see clearly that there were two windows originally on this way.

There is a bathroom on the other side of this room so our original thought was to put the washer and dryer on this wall, but because of the way that the doors open on the appliances, it is necessary to put them on the other wall so that the dryer vent will be able to be on the outside wall.  This move will also keep the dryer vent from being the first thing our guests notice upon their visit since we are moving the front door to the opposite side of this wall.  If the kitchen cabinets survive being removed from the kitchen, we plan to repurpose them in the laundry room.  We also plan to build a closet for my vacuum cleaner and steam mop, and will be using this room as a pantry as well.  

One big surprise was that the hallway that we wanted to continue through the house will be a little more of a challenge since the hallway doesn't meet up.  The hallway in the "old" part of the house is right behind the photographer, (me), in the picture below.The hallway in the "new" part of the house is about a foot over to the left so now we will need to reevaluate how we lay out that area.  I might get a new closet or we will have a little more space for the entry way/bathroom that we will be building on the other side of the new laundry room.  I lost a great storage space that had several shelves my granny always used for linen storage when we removed the wall so anywhere I can find storage space will be a bonus.

The shelves were on the opposite side of the wall above.  You can see a light in the bedroom down the hall, that room will become the dining room in the future.  On the other side of this wall to the left is a bathroom and closet.  We plan to reconfigure this bathroom/closet combination and somehow get the front door to the house in there too. 

The wiring in the house is very old and needs to be replaced.  To do that one must go into the attic.  The current attic access is in the top of a closet in the hallway (in the old part of the house).  We will loose this closet when we expand the kitchen.  So, the plan is to install a ladder access to the attic in the hallway to the bedrooms.  This will make it easier to see what is in the attic and what is not, like insulation.  It will also give access so that wiring can be run and we can determine whether or not some of the walls can be moved or removed.

Attic access in the top of the closet.  I looked in the attic tonight and I was thrilled at how nice it looks.  The wood is in excellent shape and done very well.  It isn't very tall up there so it wouldn't be usable space, but it was well crafted.   And, by the way, not a bit of insulation in the "old" part of the house.  It looks like the "new" part was insulated.  

We had a contractor come to the house today.  The $99 attic door will cost about 5 x's that much by the time it is installed, that wasn't in the budget. We hope to put the access door right inside the hallway before the light on this side of the picture.  Sorry it is so dark.  This is the hallway in the "old" part of the house.

So let the walls come down and new ones go up.  When the laundry room is ready we will move the washer and dryer in there and demo the kitchen.  Our new cabinets arrive September 20.  We paid the additional fee to have the kitchen installed.  I think it will be money well spent.  We had Lowe's design the kitchen.  The renderings aren't perfect by any means, but they are what we have.  We are going with an up down look for the upper cabinets and we will have a small pantry in the kitchen.  We haven't picked out appliance yet, I was hoping to go with the same ones as my kitchen in Colorado, but I am keeping my options open since Labor Day is approaching and I am praying for a great sale.

Until we meet again.

Sneak peak of our future kitchen.  The window will be moved and a wall removed to widen the room. 

I hope you get the idea, there are a few items in the rendering that aren't quite right, but we are excited.    We plan to have a gas cooktop and a pot filler faucet on the wall above the cooktop.  Stay tuned for more photos as we get things completed.