Good-bye Yellow Brick Wall

When we first announced the renovation of the kitchen many of our friends were horrified to think that we were going to get rid of the brick features in the kitchen. Although we understand their appreciation of the brick - we didn't share it. This week saw the end of the yellow brick wall. So, sorry to our friends who liked that feature of the kitchen. You'll have to take our word for it that what we have planned for that space in the kitchen will be brighter and better than the formerly glorious yellow brick wall. Here are some photos of what was accomplished this week.

Much of the yellow brick wall is gone at this point. Matt is preparing to take down the arch.

Here is an action shot of Matt delivering the final blow that sent the familiar arch to the floor.

This is all that's left of the wall where the cupboards used to be. As soon as we have the new steel support beam in place, these wall studs will come down as well.

Here is the chimney and old laundry shoot that were both behind the bricks. Although the laundry shoot hasn't been used as one for years, we'll keep it in place behind the new wall as all of our electrical and plumbing for upstairs runs up through it. When the new stove is in place, we may also need to run the range hood ventilation up through this same opening.

Looking through the demolished walls you can see the side of marble shower through the bathroom door.

This is the wall where the old sink and counter were located. The windows will be replaced with new ones and another one will be added to really brighten up the kitchen.

Here are all the bricks salvaged from the kitchen. Our plan is to work with Aaron (our garden guy) and maybe come up with a pathway or some sort of installation that he can create with the salvaged bricks.

I decided all the demolition pictures were getting too depressing so I thought I'd add some pictures of parts of the project that are already done (or close to done). Here is an interior shot of the laundry room. This is the picture window with the brand new trim all in place and painted. Over it is a new pendant light that is a match to the pendant light that will be over the sink in the kitchen. Although you can't see the kitchen window from this window, anyone parking on the parking pad in the evening will be able to see the matching lights through the windows.

Here is the door to the TV room with the newly installed trim all painted. The outside trim is white to match everything in the hallway. The inside of the door shows the extra depth of the double think walls. The sliding barn door will go on the outside of the door frame with the track being bolted to the extra long piece of trim you see at the top.  We painted the inside door trim the same colour as the interior of the room. This way, when we're watching TV, with the door closed, we won't be looking at glaring white door trim inside the darkened room. The plastic barrier with the zipper is our entrance to the rest of the house.

Here are the rollers and track after I cleaned them up.  We salvaged them from the original carriage house doors so we thought it would make sense that they stay in the carriage house in whatever form it may be in. Matt is going to construct a door that will attach to these rollers which still work as well as they did when they were new - 100 years ago.