I’ve been pretty prolific lately, if I don’t say so myself :) One of my current projects is removing as much of my kitchen wall as possible.  This takes me back to my construction days … oh, the simpler times, when my tools were a skilsaw, a FatMax ruler, a carpenter’s square, a hammer and a nail pouch, a sawzall, and a sandwich for lunch.  As opposed to now — a laptop, a messenger-style bag, a CAT5 cable, and a generic Starbucks Americano … ew.

It’s a rewarding experience for me to be creating something useful and meaningful from base components.  Even in my current job, my team actually creates software products or processes that benefit all, very much like building a structure.  I never understood people who spend their careers creating nothing, or just moving things around — like the brokers who made a killing infinitely repackaging mortgage derivatives.

Before:

After:

It’s going to be pretty awesome when I finish — we’ll extend the bar, hide all little overhangs, put up recessed lights, and install a Red Bull + Vodka fountain.

The approach was pretty common sense — I suspected the wall was non-load-bearing, but I needed to be absolutely sure.  I invited a friend who runs a stuctural engineering business … we had some beers, busted out the skilsaw set to the depth of 5/8 in, and a sawzall with my trusty demolition blade, and went to town.  Turned out, all the studs that needed to come out were cosmetic.  I guess, the builders were going for that 50′s windowed look, when Grandmother would bake an apple pie and set it on the window sill to cool, and then smack anyone who’d try to steal a bite prematurely … or whatever.

I like the bar idea much better — fuck the apple pie on the window sill — I’ll take my mixed vodka drinks.  By the way, I had a guy come in and estimate what it would cost to do it professionally.  Looks like I am going to save about $1,300.