Tuesday, March 11, 2008

This Olde House - Archway Removal

Between our kitchen and our hallway, there used to be a door. Somebody, sometime, removed the door. However they left the hinges. To me, that archway isolates the kitchen, and constricts the hallway. It has always bothered me. So today I removed it.

Pictures: Click either to enlarge! The first one is Before. Note the white casing and the yellow sheetrock around it. Also notice how the flash from the camera doesn't go too far. The second picture is After. Note the lack of any barriers between the room and the sense of open-ness. Also notice how the flash is able to go much further down the hallway.

Time spent: From the first hammer fall until the last scrap was removed took two hours.

Tools used: FatMax Fubar. claw hammer. reciprocating saw, and an angle grinder.

Process: I used the Fubar to pull off the old casings. The saw came in handy cutting out the door jamb. The clawed end of the claw hammer was good to get in between some of the tougher studs. I'd use it to open a wide enough gap, then put the prying end of the Fubar in place and completely rip out the planks. Once I everything was removed, I had about a dozen exposed nails that couldn't be removed (because of the angle used to sink them) so I whipped out the angle grinder and cut them flush with the wood.

What's next: I have to relocate the light switch for the kitchen, patch up the holes in the sheet rock, and patch the floor tiles. Could have most of that done by the end of this weekend. w00t!

2 comments:

Fred said...

Wonderful improvement! The style definitely changed beginning in the nineties. Are house (built in 84) is still very broken up - very separated. Its nice to break down some of those walls to open up the space. V. Nice work.

Fred said...

("Are house" should have been "our house") ... hahah