Today, Mike took down the rest of the hallway wall and put in the LVL beam. The kitchen already looks soooo much bigger! New kitchen here we come!
He also framed out the old/new closet. The new closet will be about 16" deep. Not sure what we'll put in there but thinking trash/recycling and maybe some fun stripes painted in there or a stencil? For the closet door we're thinking of painting the outside of the door with chalkboard and magnetic paint
This is looking towards the old "hallway". The beam is the LVL that Mike put in since that wall was a load bearing wall. On the right is the framing of the new closet. On the left you can see the new door opening to the pantry.
Here is the new closet. You can see it's not terribly deep but we're thankful for any storage space we can squeeze out. You can see a close up of the chimney here. These are 8" bricks which apparently aren't made anymore so you can tell the chimney is original to this old house of ours. #iloveoldhousesjimdoesnot
This is a close up of the new pantry entrance. To the left will be the peninsula. Turns out we will have to get a new pantry door due to the LVL beam that was installed. We were hoping to salvage the one we had (and save some $) but the doorway has to be narrower than the old opening. So we are thinking of making it look like a barn door. We also decided to switch the direction the back door will open. Currently it opens to the left but Mike suggested switching it so it opens to the right. He also suggested getting a new door. So we're in the process of finding a new one. I want a dutch door but Jim isn't sold on the idea. Either way we know we want a door with glass in it so we can capture the light coming in from the mudroom.
And one more just for fun! Ahhhhh it's such a big difference already!
