And The Wall Came A Tumbling Down

We decided to embark on yet another house project last month.  It all started when we decided to get a new TV.  We had always thought about doing this little project but we didn't know it was going to happen so soon! :)  Anyways, we had been saving some money, and had been wanting to get a new HD TV, and Erik found a really good deal for one online that was the right size and had all the right numbers on what he was looking for etc., so we decided to go for it.  Well the problem with this TV was that it didn't fit in our current TV stand (pictured below on the left side of the picture), so that meant we had to get rid of it.  Then since we were getting rid of the TV stand (which was a concern that we would be able to sell it), we decided that we should then take down the wall separating our living room from the dining room.  We knew it wasn't a support wall because you could tell that it had been added later and it wasn't there when the house was built.  See, the upstairs in our house wasn't part of the original house, it was added later and we think this wall was added when they did that.  You could also see that the moulding by the ceiling went through the wall and the woodwork didn't match the rest of the house either.  The last thing you could see is that the hardwood flooring when right under the wall and didn't stop at the wall.  I was a little nervous about this at first, because I kind of like the idea of defined spaces and I thought taking down the wall would mean we wouldn't have a dining room, but we were going to do it.  So the last weekend of spring break, Erik started taking down the sheet rock off the wall.  The slight problem with us doing this project is that it would require some re-wiring of light switches.  The dining room light switch was on the right side of the wall and the living room light switch was on the left side of the wall.  This is where we called my wonderful Uncle Nick once again to come and help us! :)  So, Erik and Uncle Nick spent the following Saturday re-wiring the two light switches.  It took a little work, as they had to go up in the attic and put a couple holes in the wall, but it was worth it!  The other stipulation with this project was that it had to be done by Kyler's family birthday party (which was on April 9th) and....we made it!  Everything was painted and put back together by that day-and it was great to have everything so open for the party because we had 25 people over! :)  More to come on Kyler's bday in the next post! :)  We also were able to get rid of the entertainment center because my Aunt bought it from us-that worked out great too!  Here are some pictures from the project!    

The "Before" (just ignore all of the toys scattered throughout the house) :)

The sheet rock off of the left side...

Kyler helping out :)

A view from the dining room

Norah helping out :)

Sheet rock all gone, and some studs gone too!

All the studs and sheet rock gone!  Erik and Nick working on re-wiring the switches!

All finished!!  With a new ceiling fan too! :)  And, I do really like the finished product, it makes our living room/dining room area seem SO much bigger!