Stripped to the structure

I still don't have the "before" pictures to show what the kitchen looked like before work started - they are on the camera that David took to Calgary with him - but I got another little camera and took some pictures this morning of the kitchen after two days' demolition work.

There is nothing left.

The walls are plaster lathing, an old construction technique that I don't think is used any more.  The floorboards are crude, knotty 1x8s laid across the joists.  This is the corner where our little banquette seating area - my favorite feature of the new design - will be located.

That beam running across the top of the picture was our first unpleasant surprise.  We knew there was a structural beam there, and we had no plans to get rid of it.  But it turns out that it was very poorly constructed.  At its heart is a pair of 2x10 planks, but the carpenter who built it apparently cut the planks too short so instead of running straight across (as a load-bearing beam should) there is a break in one of them near its end.  The carpenter also used whatever was handy to cap the beams together - scraps of plywood, a piece of old molding.  Our contractor will have to rebuild the beam because it will never pass a building inspection as it is.  That means building a temporary structure to bear the load while he replaces the beam.  Ouch.

Here is the ceiling - or the underside of my upstairs neighbor's floor, depending upon how you look at things.  That white square is a bit of plaster stuck to a junction box.  What is the point of having a junction box if you are going to plaster it into the ceiling where it's inaccessible and impossible to find?  This will be fixed before the new ceiling is in place.

Here is a look at the back wall of the kitchen, where my lovely professional 6-burner stove will be - I hope.  There is a small question whether the gas line is big enough, but the contractor said reassuring things about it this morning.  There you can see the brick portion of the house.  On the right is an exterior brick wall; the back wall is not exterior but butts up against the next unit in the building - I guess the units are separated by walls that are the same as exterior walls.

Comments

[abbyjane]

Ooooh, I like it raw like this! The natural materials are so pretty and the grid of wood. I think I would be tempted to keep it this way!