Kitchen Demolition Day 2 - Supporting the Ceiling

Over the Anzac Day 4 day weekend Mr P and I got stuck into the Kitchen Demolition. We spread it over 3 days - I've shown you Day 1 removing the old kitchen and this is Day 2 - supporting the ceiling beams so the old brick pantry can be removed.

So many kitchens have walk in pantrys but the trouble with the humble ole pantry is that it uses up a lot of space and in our little kitchen design space is not a luxury we have so the pantry wall had to go. Our new pantry will be a slim but wide cupboard fitted against the back wall where the oven use to be. The reason it's slim is it sits between a doorway and a window and we didn't want it to protrude in front of the window.

 

Weeks ago Mr P got into the roof to see if the pantry wall was supported by anything and sure enough there was a support beam resting on top of the pantry wall. So on Demo Day 2 Mr P made up some new wooden supports and installed them near the pantry wall so the old support beam could be removed. At first we were going to use a big steel beam but it was just too big and awkward to get into the ceiling so we used an LVL wooden beam which was much easier and lighter to work with.

Lexi has become the Site Supervisor she likes to have a front row view to anything we are working on!

 

Using one of the beams made for the recent Garage/Roof extension as a template Mr P cut out a new support beam

  

The old jarrah beam was removed from the ceiling where it was attached to the top of the pantry wall
and the new beam was installed out of the way of the pantry near the laundry area

Lexi the Site Supervisor approves of the new beam so lets get it into the roof

The yellow wood is the LVL beams that Mr P installed in the ceiling

Putting a man hole in the garage was such a good idea Mr P has used it heaps to work in the ceiling
this brick area you can see is actually the kitchen and the pantry

While Mr P and Lexi were busy making support beams and working in the roof I had the urge to cook so I whipped up a big hearty bowl of Chorizo and Vegetable Soup.

Prepping the meat and vegetables in the makeshift kitchen
I have to be very well organised and clean as I go as I have a tiny work space - my chopping station is
an outdoor table for 2 so a little on the small side!

The soup cooked away for hours ... the smell went straight up into the roof where Mr P was working and he said it was absolute torture smelling that delicious warming soup on a rainy day!

So that was another first time teach yourself how to do this kind of job! We paid $35 for the LVL wood and a few hours of work compared to a roof carpenter who probably would've charged a couple hundred dollars to do the job. If it seems like it's going to be too hard then we'll call in the professionals but being first time renovators we aren't afraid to try - that is part of the challenge and fun of renovating to do as much of the work as we can ourselves.

So you've seen Demo Day 1 and now Day 2 - stay tuned for Day 3 it's about to get really dusty around these here parts!

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[All images my own]