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Day Two Is for Knocking Down a Wall

Renovations· The Living Room

3 Mar

After scraping the ceilings of the entire first floor of the new house (which took an excruciatingly-long amount of time) we moved on to knocking down a wall. Side note, if you missed our post about the ceiling scraping event, check it out here.

This is the wall. In all its glory.

This is the wall. In all its glory.

The anticipation of this knock-down has been months in the making. Being able to knock down this wall was one of the (main) reasons we got the house. You see, the house was divided into two parts: the regular house and a mother-in-law apartment. All our visions and plans about the house revolved around being able to knock down this wall. Our realtor (shoutout to Ted Larson at Bjorklund Realty!), my parents and the inspector all thought, with as much certainty as they could muster without actually opening up the wall, that it was NOT a load-bearing wall. However, we’ve all seen enough HGTV shows to know that things go wrong and both Brett and I figured it was our luck to get the wall that was load bearing. Our history is usually, if it could go wrong, it would.

the knockdown 2

The same wall, from the mother-in-law apartment.

So it’s Tuesday morning and we’re ready to go. The outlet covers have been removed. The doors and door frames have been taken down. The cabinets from the kitchenette in the apartment have been torn out. Everything is prepped and ready to go; all we had to do was start breaking through walls and seeing what happened.

the knockdown 3

Cabinets = OUT.

If you have never had the pleasure of experiencing ‘demo day,’ then I assure you, it is FUN. There is no feeling like being able to expel any pent up frustrations or anger or excitement by taking a hammer to a wall and not caring about ‘hurting’ anything. So, we swung, sweated and tore down all the sheetrock and as luck would have it, it was in fact not a load-bearing wall. Thank goodness we didn’t have that headache to worry about – I am sure there will be plenty more down the road.

All that mess.... But such a great feeling to have done!

Look at that mess… Almost done!

All in all, it took about three hours to remove all the sheetrock. After that, Brett worked on the electricity, which ended up being a bigger headache than we anticipated. Apparently the electrical box was quite the cluster and he had to re-route a few wires and take out the ones that weren’t being used.

While he played electrician, I attempted the first step to cleaning. Although demo-day is a lot of fun, it is also messy. Add the sheetrock and dust to the already dirty house from scraping the ceilings and one can only imagine the dirt, dust and crap lying everywhere. I guess we better get used to that part – welcome to living in a renovation home, right?

The finished product? Even better than we imagined! It really opens up the entire space and provides limitless possibilities for design and décor. See below 🙂

It's done!

Being able to knock this off the list is such a big win; we’re even more excited about the possibilities than before The Knockdown. We’ve got a long road ahead of us and we aren’t even close to being halfway done, but we were able to check off two very taxing projects in only two days! Here’s to many, many more projects being checked off the list.

All our best,

 

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Related posts:

Default ThumbnailThe Knockdown Part Two Installing the Stairs & Framing in the Office Let There be Light Lighting and Walls in the Living Room

10 Comments

Previous Post: « Popcorn Belongs in a Bowl, Not on a Ceiling
Next Post: 2016: Planning Ahead »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melissa Wittman says

    March 3, 2016 at 8:30 pm

    Wow! That really opened that up. Congratulations on a successful demo. 🙂

    Reply
    • Kelly says

      March 6, 2016 at 7:35 pm

      Thanks Melissa! It definitely opened up the entire room and we are so happy that we were able to knock it down with too many problems.

      Reply
  2. Michele says

    March 3, 2016 at 8:30 pm

    I am so inspired by you two!!!!! I cannot wait to come and see this beauty you two are creating!! 🙂 XOXO

    Reply
    • Kelly says

      March 6, 2016 at 7:36 pm

      Thank you Chele! We can’t wait for you and Pat to visit!! Kins too, of course!

      Reply
  3. Ray Larsen says

    March 4, 2016 at 12:34 pm

    Hard to get the proper angles in my head but the idea works. Great job!!

    Reply
    • Kelly says

      March 6, 2016 at 8:07 pm

      Thank you Ray! We’d like to put up a floor plan, just to give a better idea of the layout so it is a little better to visualize.

      Reply
  4. Linda Wittman says

    March 4, 2016 at 2:39 pm

    Excellent work. If I haven’t told you before I am very proud of both of you and the huge, huge project you are taking on. Just think when you are done you can say “This is just what we wanted!”

    Reply
    • Kelly says

      March 6, 2016 at 7:38 pm

      Thank you! That moment of being done and being able to take it all in might be a few years off, but at least it is something to shoot for 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Our First Home Renovation: Thirty-Five Day Check-In says:
    March 28, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    […] Day Two is For Knocking Down a Wall […]

    Reply
  2. How to Make a Mason Jar Planter from an Old Frame – Craftivity Designs says:
    July 24, 2017 at 5:00 am

    […] August 26!} and I are renovating our first house and sharing our experiences along the way. From knocking down walls to overhauling a bathroom and building it up from scratch, we’re tackling it […]

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We’re Brett and Kelly! A husband and wife team tackling our first complete home renovation. We love all things DIY, our two furbabes and lazy summer days out on the lake. Our mission? To share the journey of turning a house into a home.

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This year? We've been able to get out on some body of water at least once per week - how cool is that?!

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We finished it wayyyy back in 2017 but there was a small frustration: the washer and dryer cover the window.

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