Kitchen - What have we got ourselves into?

[lbd301]

So DH decided he wanted to make a hole in the wall over our cabinets to see if anything was behind there. He didn't see anything, so he (OK, we) pulled all the sheetrock down. His thinking is that we can move the cabinets up, and have more room under the cabinets, on the countertop. I personally would rather have the space up top for storing big things, like crockpots, etc.

Anyway, here's what we found...










I didn't think we'd have to remove more than what we did, but looking at it (see last pic), it looks like we'll have to remove the rest of the wall all the way across to the fridge anyway. So I'm not sure what's next.

Right now, DH is cutting out the bottom piece of wood and the inbetween pieces. He's leaving the top one, because it's the "floor board" in the attic, and I assume stuctural?

If we take the rest of the wall out, over to the fridge, would we just remove the wood, like he's doing, and sheetrock?

Obviously we're amatuers.

[coops28]

Stooooooop!!!!! Put it back the way it was. You wont be able to remove the soffit completely because there is plumbing in way. And I bet there is electrical in the other soffit above the fridge.

[lbd301]

Coops, there's no plumbing or electrical up there. The house is built in 1956. I think that's just the way they did it back then - people were shorter.

So, since i posted the first time, the whole wall is down, and DH is trying to add an outlet. He's running into electrical problems though. There is one 4-outlet in the right corner of that wall (the only outlets in the kitchen on that side!). So he's putting one 2-outlet in the left corner. The said something about there's a wire that comes up from the basement, into one outlet, out, into the other outlet, back down, and up again to the fridge! So he can't get them to work. By the way, he is replacing the existing outlets with a GFCI, and the new one will also be GFCI.

He has not removed all the soffit from the over the fridge/oven area, but it is coming down. I'll post updated pics later.

[marksr]

" there's no plumbing or electrical up there"

That black 'pipe' is either plumbing or HVAC duct and unless it can be relocated between the floor joist, you won't be able to go higher. Soffits aren't normally load bearing but they do make a nice place to hide mechanicals [wire,plumbing,etc]

It isn't a good idea to have a GFI on a refrigerator - if it kicks and you don't notice it right away, food might spoil. A fridge should always be on it's own seperate circuit. Generally you don't need multiple GFI's on the same circuit. If wired correctly, the 1st GFI will protect the remainder of that circuit down the line.

I'd suggest posting in the electrical section for any wiring issues - they have real electricians that hang out there

[lbd301]

Mark, the black that you see in there is insulation that was starting to fall down. The pipe that you see in the pic with the window is actually in the wall that the window is on, so it's not an issue.

I"ll go check out the electrical forum and see if they have any insight, thanks!

So as of this AM, DH said 2 of the 3 outlets are working. The new single one, and one of the double ones. The fridge has it's own outlet, behind it. I'm not sure how all the electrical is connected, would that really effect it?

Here's some updated pics...

This was last night, before he started working on the electrical. We found out there is no insulation in that wall! That's the bathtub/shower wall you see behind the sheetrock! (No wonder it's soo darn noisy!)


A peek into the other part of the soffit, that hasn't come down yet.


Some more pics of what it looked like last night, after the cabinets and stuff were down.





Why are the two surfaces different here? This is the back of the bathtub/shower wall. The shower is tiled from the bathtub up to maybe within a foot of the ceiling. What the heck is that gray stuff??


This is what he did last night:

[thinman]

What is the distance from the center of the single gang receptacle to the double gang receptacle closest to the single gang receptacle?

Countertop receptacles must be no more than 48" apart CtoC.

[lbd301]

Thinman, just under 46" from center to center.

[brian44]

you should keep in mind that in the current setup, the round junction box will need to remain permanently accessible, through the drywall. This would mean having a blank double gang face over that box (might not look so great with an extra empty face right next to the other when done.)

The round box installed is a ceiling type box with the two screws opposite eachother. You might want to go with a regular double gang box that will have four screw holes for a blank double face.

The alternative is to rewire this setup in one large enough double box and make the required junctions there, behind the receptacles. (just be sure to do the box fill calculations to be sure you're not too crowded in there)

[lbd301]

Brian, I think they were originally all in one double box, and that's why DH changed it. I remember he said something like, "I can't believe they used this as a junction box."

[marksr]

The "gray stuff" is a masonary wall which was the preffered surface to install tile over. Basically they nailed up metal lath and applied mortar/thin set over it. That way if any moisture made it thru the tile grout, it wouldn't destroy a drywall or plaster backer. Today's cement board has taken it's place.

[lbd301]

Ahh! Thanks Mark! At least I don't have to worry about that project for awhile!