Walls Fall Down

 See all that lovely tile? 

We could have kept it in the kitchen, especially on this side where there won't be any cabinets needing the extra wall space. 

But we're crazy and can't leave well enough alone (and it was cracked and broken in places) so we decided that while we're tearing down the rest of the walls, these had to go too. 

So, a few hours later, here we are in the rubble. 

Unfortunately, that last little bit of wall was a...well, a word that rhymes with Witch to get down, if you catch my drift.

 At some point in the house's history there was water damage to the bay window in the kitchen, which caused pretty much all of the clay insulating tile (the layer between the tile cement and the exterior brick) to crack from freezing. Because of this damage, Michael had a rough time pulling the tile off without the wall crumbling behind him. In fact, it was impossible so a couple of brick masons are currently here to sure up the wall and fill in the voids where the insulating tile used to be.

The joys of home-ownership and DIY-ing

 (fun fact: they use DIY-ing as a verb in the UK, according to our British French teacher from Metz; in french the word is bricolage)

 Here is the other wall in the kitchen (the bay window is just to the left).

 Wall no more!
This one was significantly easier to demo since the tile and concrete wasn't fused to hollow clay bricks.

Sigh

We're getting closer to a functional kitchen but the list of things to do before the cabinets and appliances go in seems to get longer and longer. 

To Do:

• Have brick masons fix wall (at least we don't have to do that one)
• Run electrical outlets for 3 GCFIs and light switched for the sink light and garbage disposal
• Run plumbing line off of sink line for dishwasher
• Run electrical line to hard-wire dishwasher
• Run new grounded wire to the outlet where the fridge will reside
• DRYWALL!
• Pull up multiple layers of laminate flooring to expose original hardwood and refinish if possible (paint if not salvageable)

I think that's all...eek!