My husband and I bought our house about two years ago. The people who owned the house before us remodeled the kitchen and family room, turning it into one big space. Unfortunately, they also took some shortcuts or didn’t hire professionals or something along those lines, because when you look closely there are a lot of little errors. The crown molding isn’t flush with the ceiling all the way around. The drawers didn’t have handles. There is no vent hood over the stove (but there are wires).
The biggest issue, though, had to be the wiring. The two rooms were still kind of treated as such when it came to the wiring. If you left the lights on in the kitchen end of the room, you had to walk down to that end to reach the switches to turn them off. Ditto on the family room area. My husband started the project to fix all of this, and add a couple of new fixtures, a couple of months ago. We’ve had to use a plug-in work lamp for months! See the yellow object on the counter? Yeah, that’s the work lamp.
I guess I should consider myself lucky that none of this wiring mess affected the stove or refrigerator!
Here’s another taste of what life at our house has been like:
That’s my father-in-law patching holes in the walls. For some reason there is insulation in the interior walls of the house, which makes fishing wires nearly impossible. My husband tried going under the wall, but it’s also a load bearing wall so the steel I-beam blocked that path. No choice but to drill holes in the walls and ceiling to get the wires where they needed to go.
I think the previous owners intended the family room to become a “hearth room” as they’re called these days. We did have a love seat in here when we first moved in, but that was quickly replaced by a kitchen table. However, there was no light fixture over the table, so you couldn’t see what you were eating very well! Here’s the junction box the hubby added:
And as of last night, there is now a gorgeous fixture hanging there! The holes are patched and sanded, and the whole room is ready to paint. Finally! We’re going on a remodel hiatus for the holidays, but I hope to have “After” pictures for you soon!
