A Room without Walls.

This is what walls can do for you:
They keep dust and dirt out of your house. They keep heat in your house. They look good (better than a chicken coop). If you have walls in you kitchen, for instance, you might feel it is appropriate to spend time there, even prepare food and eat it. Depending on how well and recently you had cleaned, you might go so far as to invite guests over.

Needless to say, removing the walls from your kitchen alters its feel.

We took down some walls in the kitchen and took off all the plaster. The plaster was in bad shape, especially where we had taken down the dropped ceiling, so we just took it all off the lath. Good opportunity to do some insulating, especially since we have a giant duct (left over from the exhaust fan) bringing cold air into the room.

Also, we took out the walls of the tiny room by the side door. We changed our minds about the layout and decided that we wanted the refrigerator there. Plus, we had done such great structural reinforcement that we knew the wall was unnecessary. It makes a HUGE difference in how open the room feels now! Check it out:

Yep, looks good. Won't you be our dinner guest?

The door to the basement is now out in the open. She's a beauty.

Note the duct above the beautifully decorated door. It now has a plastic bag over it. ALSO, that square thing in the wall to the right with the concrete circle in it? The old exhaust vent from the original stove. Pretty cool.