We decided that we were going to open up the kitchen. It had walls and some ugly-ass bifold doors to the dining/living space.
And decided to build a half-wall / breakfast bar area that will make the space much more open and modern
The wall was not load bearing, so we didn’t really have to worry about adding any beams or columns. We did, however, decide to extend the soffit that went all the way around the kitchen across the new open space and added some can lights. Andrea thought that continuing the soffit would sort of define the kitchen area a bit more.
Of course, when you start busting up walls from a house that was built in the 1950s… you’re guaranteed to find some surprises.
They had a feed of aluminum 12 gauge wires coming up from the basement and feeding the kitchen (all of it. Every single flippin’ outlet and light). So we ran two new feeds (thank goodness we had some open slots in the breaker box from removing the electric stove, oven and clothes drier) and split up the outlets around the counter from everything else. Fun stuff.
Needless to say, special THANK YOU has to go out to the best dentist in Rockford for giving us some wonderful ideas on this…