The have been some big, big changes around here. In fact – they are huge! We’ve already dropped a few hints and if you follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, we couldn’t help already sharing a few sneaky previews.
Remember our kitchen?
Remember our dining room?
Notice a difference?
Yep, the big wall that supports half of the house has gone! We still can’t quite believe it.
Every time we enter the room we’re not expecting it to be any different and then jump and realise that the wall has gone. It feels so much bigger! Yep, I know it IS bigger, but it still feels so much bigger than the sum of the two previous rooms.
We first shared our plans for removing the wall with you in March, but we’d been planning to do ever since moving in, so it’s still a really surreal feeling for it to have been finally removed.
The new steel beam is humongous! At around 300 kg I couldn’t help feeling really sorry for the poor guys (including Jan) lifting it into place, but let’s face it – I would have been absolutely useless!
There’s obviously still a lot of finishing off to do, but we’re already so happy with the result. We really didn’t use the dining room as much as we should, but we’ve already noticed that we’re spending much more time at the back of the house.
We’ll be sharing more details on the process as well as a cost breakdown and some of the nitty-gritty details and plans for the room next week.
For now though, there is a lot more cleaning to do. I have never seen so much dust in my life – it’s everywhere! Even the upstairs bedrooms are covered in it.
Have you knocked down any walls in your home? Do you prefer open plan living like us, or would you prefer to keep your rooms separate?
Julia says
this brings back memories, fantastic work .
Christine says
Thanks Julia! Knocking down the wall was the best thing we could have done! Compared to most home improvements, it was actually really quick and relatively cheap to do!
Cx
caitlin says
YOWZA! Now that is awesome. I hope that you have some pics of the process that you can share.
Christine says
Yay, so unbelievably glad that it’s down. We’ll be sharing more on knocking down the wall tomorrow. Still busy cleaning up brick dust…
Cx
Kerryn Hewson says
Honestly CANNOT WAIT until we visit next weekend and can experience the open plan rooms ourselves! xx
Christine says
Yay! If you’re lucky, we may have managed to remove a few other things, too!
Cx
Sarah says
We recently knocked out the load-bearing wall between our kitchen and dining room, and it was the best thing we could have done. You’re right about the dust though. Luckily we haven’t had to deal with brick dust, but we’ve been through plaster dust, and more recently drywall dust, and I’m thinking if we ever do something like this again, it would be worth it to hire a house-cleaning service afterwards!
Nice work so far! Can’t wait to see how it all turns out. :)
Christine says
Thanks Sarah, we can’t wait to see how it turns out either! ;-) Ahhh, the dust…I’ve just wiped the floors for the third time today and they still look like they’ve not been cleaned in months!
Just checked out your blog and am loving your kitchen renovation project! I wish we were anywhere near as far as you are. You must be sooooo pleased!
Cx
Sarah says
I am pleased! It’s been 8 long months without a kitchen, and every day gets us a little bit closer. Thanks for visiting my blog! It won’t be long before you get to where we are. And then all the dust and the work will be worth it!
-Sarah
MarieRoxanne says
What a difference that makes! I am planning (in a few years) on getting rid the spare room, in my condo, making it a one bedroom apartment so the “livingroom” can be bigger. Don’t know where the main supports beams are, if there are any, I will have to send a proposal to the Building Association to see if I can do it. The joys of renovations…
Christine says
The work and wait were so worth it! We had a structural engineer check everything out and do all of the necessary calculations. It was such a pain and quite pricey, but I guess there’s just now way around some things.
Cx
Magali@TheLittleWhiteHouse says
It’s already looking great! As you know, I had a iny kitchen and tiny dining-room as well and had the wall between them knocked down and now I use the dining-room space a lot more!
Christine says
Thanks. You’re kitchen already looks fantastic! It’ll take a long while yet until ours looks anywhere near as good as yours!
Cx
Kerrie says
I have twice now removed walls – love open plan over smaller rooms.
The dust is awful, no doubt. I found brick dust was even worse than plaster dust and I didn’t think anything could be worse than plaster dust :\
Some years ago I cut out part of a wall but ended up with a small difference in the floor levels which really meant the furniture still had to fit as if the wall was still in place (either above the dip or below it). I have recently extended the wall removal and got all the floors on the same level and the difference it’s made to the feel of the rooms is incredible. I had to buy a much bigger rug as the previous one was suddenly way too small. I am so very glad I spent the money because its really broadened the use of the rooms remarkably. Looking forward to see how you work your rooms – I’m positive it will be fantastic. Cheers
Christine says
Thanks Kerrie! You’re definitely right about the brick dust. When we sanded our floors there was dust everywhere, but that was nothing compared to the brick dust. It just seems to stick to everything!
So glad your room turned out like you’d imagined!
Cx