if walls could talk

We have been doing some serious structural work lately. Last weekend, we finished the demolition of the old wall that stood between the kitchen and dining room, completely separating them. The last few studs, and another one on the ladder, are pictured at left.

On Sunday, Kyle, Jeff, and Justin worked on moving a supporting beam to line up better with the floor joyce, or something like that. I tend to zone out when words like that come into play. All I know is that the house did not collapse, so each of their levels of intelligence has increased greatly in my book.

On Monday evening, Kyle and I did some more tearing out of old ceiling plaster, and I had my first serious case of dust boogers- it was lovely. Here is an action shot of Kyle swinging from a nail that was lodged in the ceiling. Also note: no wall!

We also worked on framing a new wall, that will be placed resulting in the kitchen being a foot wider and the dining room being a foot narrower. It will also be open- there will be a bar top on the dining room side, and an arch built into the top to mirror the other arched doorways in the house. We're trying to make the kitchen and dining room feel more like one big room.

I got to use the power saw and nail gun, and now I understand a little more guys' desire for power tools at every holiday. Oh yeah, we also managed to get the power saw cord stuck in the blade. Glad that wasn't either of our fingers.

And finally, last night, Jeff and Brian came over to help stand the new wall up. And Jen and Brian provided the third pizza dinner consumed at the house so far- thanks, guys!