We made a lot of progress on what was essentially Day 2 in the kitchen. We had help from two generous and handy friends today–thanks Nick and Jason!–and it was good because we ran into our first building code dilemma. Taking out the wall that lines the basement stairs, where the bulk of cabinets and counter space originally were, we found the 2×4s to be turned sideways (to save space) so they had to rebuild that. My favorite moment was when Nick and I were taking down the wall while Matt and Jason were at Menards and suddenly everything shifted. Oops! That’s not good. In the end, we think it was just the electrical box situated right there that shifted but it sure gave us a scare. Thankfully, Nick was there to think quick on his feet to makeshift a temporary support. The new wall will take the load for now anyway.

In addition, there was a lot of math and logic trying to fudge a 29″ door into a 32″ space that also required 4″ of framing and doorjamb. We decided to trim the door.

We also took out most of the lathe and plaster surrounding the basement stairs. It was in sad shape so it will be nice to have it new. In doing that, we realized we can make use of the space below the stairs (on the back wall) to the second story to create a storage area as you go down the basement stairs.

Before:

While the guys are working hard: