Extending the Kitchen

We have now finally made a start on extending the little kitchen add-on, which I had hoped would happen last week. Unfortunately when I had that hope, I was underestimating all of the other house-raising-related jobs that needed doing - boring but important things like pulling out the old concrete house stumps to clear the area under the house (much easier to do before the new steel posts go in and we risk damaging them by rolling big concrete stumps around), and organising the shed into some semblance of order, so we can actually find tools when we need them.

The giant pile of concrete stumps Tom has accumulated, with still more to come out.

The back wall of the shed. Some of the cabinets from the recently removed kitchen have been repurposed, as you can see in the left corner and the overhead shelves. Tom would like it to be noted that the TV is temporary (and not plugged in). This place is definitely not for recreation!

Close-up of the overhead cabinets

These tasks happened very slowly (as uninteresting tasks tend to do), so I was thrilled when we finally decided to start the kitchen extension today. First step, once again, is demolition (or removal), and quite a lot of it!

The demolition monster!

Tom's parents posted up an extremely fancy leather toolbelt for Christmas, so he's proudly wearing it here.

This photo shows the dining room ceiling, and the lounge room ceiling in the distance, with an archway of sorts. In addition to extending the kitchen add-on, we're intending to replicate this 'archway' in the wall between the dining room and kitchen. Currently it's a solid wall with a doorway, so this will make it much more open plan.

This is the wall in question (kitchen doorway on the right), with Tom's hand saw pushing through the wall at the required height.

Tom up the ladder on the other side power-sawing the same wall.

Daniel loaded up Tom's tool belt with every tool he could find.

Daniel removing the downpipe from the external wall we needed to remove for the add-on.

Reckon we have enough ladders?

Daniel in the kitchen add-on pushing out weatherboards

Me collecting the falling boards

Tom and Daniel on the job prying off more boards

 

Making more progress...

Tom employing a complicated hammer and screwdriver manoeuver to remove the door frame.

It looks like someone's been knife-throwing with screwdrivers! Daniel just looks scary.

Wielding a crowbar

The new open-plan kitchen, taken from what used to be the kitchen doorway.

A wider view from the dining room. The door on the left is the back door.

Allie supervising closely from our bedroom doorway (at the opposite end of the house)

The kitchen again. It makes such a big difference, having that wall gone!

And the kitchen yet again.

Once all the boards were off the area to be extended into, we had to attach extra joists to support what will be the new floor.

Daniel perched on a ladder attaching clamps to hold the new joists to the old joists

Two out of three joists in place, being bolted in

The bolting process

The view of the kitchen extension from below, with the back doorway on the right

It feels wonderful to finally be on the way towards finishing the renovation, one little project at a time!

Stay tuned for the construction of the remainder of the add-on!

Love Bec