Sawzall Hero

Yes, it's the latest game sensation for the Wii and Playstation, Sawzall Hero! Be sure to pick up the less exciting sequel, Shopvac Hero, due out in spring 2009.

This is a slightly Photoshopped image of me preparing to take out part of the wall between the old front hall and the kitchen. Not because it was the next logical step, or it was a particularly good time to (I should be busy finishing up the the media for the Christmas Eve services at RLC), but because I felt a need to do something. So do something I did.

I hung plastic to try to control the dust (fail), and went to town on the section of wall. I cut through the lovely 4x4 header they'd put over the 1' wide broom closet, and preserved the even lovelier 4x6 header they'd put over the doorway to the kitchen (this is a non-bearing wall, remember). A sawzall cuts drywall like a hot knife through butter, so it was just the few nails in the framing that took a bit of time.

Now there's less wall

And then K and I got our first look at what a beautiful space the kitchen and dining room are going to be. The rest of the wall I took out will come out once I remove the old kitchen cabinets, and much more of the far end of the kitchen will be open to the dining room, but even this amount is pretty trippy. Rosie is clearly unimpressed.

But I got my hero points without the sawzall, by rearranging the drywall in the dining room, moving tools into the basement, and then moving the kitty's litterbox and a table into the dining room. That gives us an actually usable dining room space in the living room, with Uncle Al's old table. There's even enough room for a table leaf or two. I think K was worrying about our house become like the house up the road that burned, packed with so much stuff we couldn't get through it easily. Besides which we plan to have a few friends and family over after Christmas (so we'll need those table leaves), and prospect of trying to cram into the existing space around the table was pretty grim.