The kitchen was the one challenge that felt the most overwhelming when I purchased the house. (Little did I know what I would face in the following months.) It had obviously been updated at some point, maybe in the 50's and had passed it's prime many years ago. It was a narrow galley kitchen, shut off from the rest of the house with a wall and doorway between the dining room and living room. Fixing that was the easy part...just blow the wall out between the two rooms. It was the square footage and narrowness that concerned me most. Since it's a masonry home, the placement of exterior doors and windows is permanently determined, so I needed to work within the footprint of the house. Moving the kitchen to a different location wasn't really an option.
As I pondered my dilemma, I had an epiphany one night, as many solutions to my problems arrive. I could move the stairwell going to the basement to the space under the current entry stairway going to the upper level and confiscate that space. It would add an additional 27 square foot and widen the kitchen enough to add a pantry, built-in refrigerator and additional counter space! The back door would be useable and grant easy access to the kitchen from the alley parking once the stairs and deck are replaced.
Here is the original kitchen. I think the refrigerator was supposed to be next to the stove, but there was a microwave stand in that corner and the refrigerator was strategically placed in front of the back door so there was just enough room for the door to open, although I don't think it was ever used because the stairs were rotted out. The door in the side wall of the room is the stairway to the basement.
Here's the kitchen once all the cabinets, soffits, and appliances were removed. We were probably on dumpster #2 at this point. Nothing was salvageable and we were just uncovering the extent of how much knob and tube electrical ran through the house. The realization that the whole house would need to be rewired was slowly dawning on me.
Original 1920's wallpaper, covered up during the mid-century remodel with a layer of sheetrock. As you can see, there is no insulation in the exterior walls.
Look at how much additional space was added by removing the stairwell! Once the wall and stairs were removed, new support and a subfloor was added in the additional space to make it level with the existing kitchen floor.
You can see how much debris comes off of one lathe and plaster wall and we still have the ceiling to do. We're getting close to needing dumpster #3.
Right about the time lumber hit it's highest price this spring we started the process of furring in all of the exterior walls. I cringed every time another load of 2x4s was needed. Furring in the exterior walls gave us the ability to run all of the new electrical and plumbing up to code and finally insulate this house in preparation for our Idaho winters.
The Kitchen - Part 2 will be posted on Sunday!