Green remodel - day 34

So, it turns out that removing a wall takes longer than I thought. (Don't those sound like famous last words???)

I sized up the wall and estimated it would take about 3 days to get it out and the new schtuff framed in..


HA! ..what was I thinking?


Well here I am 3 weeks later on day 35 of the remodel, and the new wall is taking shape. There is still more work before it is declared done, but we're close now. And we're only into it $680. At the end of the post is a list of our expenses.

At the end of my last kitchen post, I showed these two pictures to give you an idea of what was next:





Well, here is a photo-rama that shows our progress as it took place. And when I say "our", I mean Camila helped too. Turns out she enjoys demolition work, and she did all the bullnose corners on the new sheetrock!


First we demo'd out the wall, removing the sheetrock, and rerouting the electrical that was in the wall.







I then strung new headers, supported by the two pillars that will come up out of the island. This wall was load-bearing so I had to make sure the headers were both strong enough for the load, and met code. I made the headers out of 2 2x8's separated by 1/2-inch plywood, all glued together with liquid nails, and then secured with 3 1/2-inch nails.

Believe it or not, all the 2x4s that came out of this wall were re-used in the construction of the new one. I didn't have to buy a single piece of lumber except for the header and arches, and I don't have a single left-over 2x4.




Here I hired two professional models to pose as if they were actually doing work, so that I could take some construction-in-action shots.




Next I cut out the arches from plywood. I was really impressed that I was actually able to use my Google Sketchup design to figure out the radius of the curves, to within 3/4ths of an inch. Pretty impressive. After I got the radius, I created a makeshift compass using a chewing gum wrapper. Okay, maybe not that McGuiver-ish, but close..











After we got everything framed in, we tackled my least favorite part: SHEETROCK!! Those bullnose corners are all the work of my very-handy wife.





Even worse than sheetrock, is mudding sheetrock. The upside is that you can hide all your horrible mistakes that you made hanging the sheetrock.





Of course the best part of sheetrocking is being done with it all!! Which we almost are. Next is finishing the island, countertops, and flooring.

To wrap it up, here are two images to compare. How do you think it's coming?






This is a current list of expenses that is up-to-date as of today.