And the wall came tumbling down!

One of the many mysteries of our house was a wall we presume to have been built along with a permanent staircase up to the attic. The stairs take up less than 1/2 the length of the room yet the wall continues along the entire room cutting off much needed space and a window from the master bedroom. This weekend it was time for that wall to go!!

Here's a few before pics:

Our handy friend Sean came over to help us with the demolition and he quickly discovered another old house mystery. Not only was there a lathe & plaster wall but there was sheet rock over the lathe & plaster...double the strength, double the fun?
David having a manly power tool moment.
Here's where we crossed our fingers. While we knew the wall wasn't structural, we didn't know if any pipes or electrical were housed in it. Lucky for us, it wasn't hiding anything unexpected in that department!
We saved the trim and door from this wall to use between the master bathroom and bedroom which the house was missing when we bought it. I'm so ready to get this door reinstalled in its new home so we don't have to use a blanket as a bathroom door anymore.
I haven't seen David this happy in photos since our trip to Panama. He is REALLY happy to be removing this wall!

And here's the wall all gone:

We ended up with around 36sq ft of additional space but it feels like twice that! The next phase will be to patch the ceiling and walls, and trim it all in. When we have the floors downstairs resurfaced, we'll have the gaps in the floor left by this project filled in.

Thanks again to Sean and to Paul who also came over to help us with this project. You guys are the best. :)