The worst part of my home would be my kitchen. The original kitchen had no room for a table, no counter space, and barely enough room for more than a few people to be in at once. Having everything else new and big in the addition drove me nuts that the kitchen was still unacceptable and barely conventional part of the house.
Over the years we added more cabinets and counter space, added a small room off the kitchen room to place a table, and kept things to a minimum to ensure we had room. No matter what we did though, the kitchen still felt tiny. It was not the heart of the house I longed for it to be.
The kitchen had a closed off stairwell to the basement. The stairwell had a door at the top that opened into the kitchen. I finally talked my husband into tearing down the wall and opening up the staircase. This was a lengthy project that lead to many other small projects.
We found the entire kitchen ceiling was literally all one piece. When we tore down the stairwell the ceiling started coming down also. We quickly had to hold up the ceiling and get support added immediately. Some of the studs didn't have drywall. Our living room floors are hardwood. When we removed the closet that was at one end of the stairwell we had to find and piece in hardwood to blend the old floor with the newly exposed floor. Our kitchen ceiling and living room ceiling had to be primed and repainted to blend together. We added barnwood to the wall for a farmhouse look. The accent wall is now a.major focal point in the house. It draws eyes away from the tiny kitchen.
After several small projects were complete, we were finally at a place of putting up the posts and railings. I wanted something different and more my style. We went with posts removed from an old barn in the area and rebar.
Removing the closed off stairwell helped make the kitchen look bigger. This project took endless hours of work and research. Though we were able to repurpose the posts amd barnwood, this overall project still ending up being quiet costly. We paid a friend to tackle mudding and painting the walls and ceiling. It was a job we wanted no part of.
We work full time jobs so the project was not our main foucs. I am glad it is finally complete. Overall to finish everything took around two years. Opening up the stairwell and taking down the wall tied the kitchen into the house. Since we had previously removed a wall in the adjoining living room to open up the room and what used to be a bedroom,we needed the kitchen to also be open. I love the way it turned out. Even though it took years to complete, I would do it all again. The stairwell and now exposed basement are on the list for projects to be completed next.
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