24" thick, empty walls, old house. Can I recess storage into the wall?
csummersall
4 years ago
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csummersall
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoRelated Discussions
Help with empty wall in kitchen (long but lots of pics)
Comments (18)mamagoose - The traffic through that space is only ever to the laundry room for washing/drying clothes or accessing food/drink in the second refrigerator. We homeschool so there are no book bags to hang up daily. The door that is used the most is the side door (between dining area and sitting room area). We live on a farm so the kids usually take their shoes off at that door. We do not yet have a buffet for the dining room area, but hope to later this year. Right now we serve from around the island or take everything to the table. My original goal for that wall was a small sink and second dishwasher so that all plates/glasses/flatware use for meals was washed there, then stored in cabinets somewhere in that wall. I'd like for my big sink and dishwasher to only be for prep and clean up. While I've really enjoyed the idea of a second sink and dishwasher, I can let go of it if a better solution for the wall is discovered....See MoreOld House, Weird Walls: what to do?
Comments (17)What others are saying is correct--the breaker panel MUST be easily accessible. I advise against putting them in a closet--a lot of builders like to do that to hide the "ugly" box, but home inspectors and fire marshals hate it. It looks like the panel cover is one designed for boxes that stand out in the open, not recessed in the wall. If you look up the brand and model, you may be able to get a new cover, one designed for recessed installation (Instead of looking like a box lid, the edges go straight out to sit flush with the wall surface and cover the gap in the wall around the sides of the box.) If that's a fuse box, not a breaker panel, I highly recommend replacing it. If your jurisdiction permits it, and you can shut off power to it, you can replace it yourself easily for less than $200, including new breakers and a new panel. If you feel up to it ;) You can find numerous sources on the Internet to walk you through replacing a panel and making sure it's safe and up to code (which most older panels are not) As for the hump in the wall, I agree that you should try drilling into it to see what's behind it. It may be raceway for your electrical wiring--it's possible that your wall is cinder block or brick about halfway up, with wood framing on top....See MoreThe storage containers are empty!
Comments (28)We are very fortunate that no black mold had been seen. It has all been the regular gray green mold and a few spots of white mold on the wood. Lots of mildew. I sprayed lysol everywhere yesterday which helped the smell of the mildew. It's so ironic how one box I opened was fanny packs it was prefect the next was expensive purses and they were ruined! Who cares if fanny packs are destroyed I didn't even know we had them lol. Julian our worker came out with this huge boom box on his shoulder dancing. I vaguely remember it from the 70s probably but had no idea we still had it packed away. I said do you want it he was ecstatic said his mother would get a kick out of it. It will take a while to go through all the boxes but I want to try to do it. On our last couple of moves boxes got put away in closets and never got opened. I doubt I need it if I have lived with out knowing I have it! Thank you all for your sweet words and congratulations. I don't know if we will make it in for Thanksgiving but we will be there for Christmas God willing! I can cook for Thanksgiving though!...See MorePlaster walls in old bungalow—can large holes be patched?
Comments (26)If it were me, I would go low impact. You're not crazy. The charm of an old house is that it doesn't look like a new house. You just have to make your own call as to where the line is between "old house charm" and jankiness. A good floor guy can do magic to patch a floor. We have a large patched area which is invisible in our kitchen. Can you buy reclaimed flooring to match what you have from anywhere locally to use for patching, or can you salvage any flooring from any of the other work you're doing on the house? You might need to do some legwork but in most areas with a lot of old homes, there is someone. Another note...you absolutely do not need to tear out the old plaster to rewire if that is a concern. We just had our entire 1914 bungalow rewired, and in many places brought up to code, as part of a larger project. Basically the only holes to patch are where the old outlets and switches used to be, if we are not reusing them. They dropped in the new wires and left the old ones disconnected but still inside the walls. There are other reasons you might want to open up the walls, like if you want to add insulation inside the wall cavities (because of the need to install a vapor barrier, not bc of the wires), but a good electrician would not suggest it just for wiring. The vast majority of the plastering we had done was from reconfiguring the floor plan and moving our upstairs ceiling up 7". You can see the latter below. The texture of our old horsehair plaster (rough surface) does not quite match the new, but we don't expect that to be an issue once it's prepped and painted. I'm sure the availability and cost of doing blueboard and plaster varies by location, but here in Boston it is fairly standard....See MoreJeff Smith
4 years agoSeabornman
4 years agosuezbell
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agocsummersall
4 years agoSeabornman
4 years ago
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