Base cabinets were mentioned once. They would be good bracing! It seems the discussion went towards braces that you buy in a store. To attach base cabinets as bracing one will need angle iron, and a lot of fine tuning work in terms of the cabinet feet and height above the floor. Uh-oh. Sounds impractical now. So, the 90 degree braces at floor level now seem to be the best thing to do. mudworm, on lowes.com I entered two keywords: aluminum tube. I got positive results. Here are some of them. Item #: 215640 Item #: 216100. Go to wherever they have these in the store and you will see steel tube too. Or, web search for steel tube. I just figured that "aluminum tube" would be easier to search for. Buy aluminum tube if there is no steel. Once a metal is made into a tube it is very rigid. In home depot I have also seen steel and aluminum tube. So, tube IS available if you know where to get it. Tube is stronger than thin flat metal. If you add tube on top of the braces you will have both the benefits of what advertguy proposes and the benefits of the 90 degree bracing, and no deleterious secondary impact. advertguy in your latest post "Remove those braces from the bottom" is not clear. Hth

My first thought on looking at the wall was that it is probably load bearing, especially since it does not seem to have any aesthetic or significant practical function. If it weren't load bearing, it would be a couple of hundred bucks, plus figuring out how to handle moving that light switch I see. If it is load-bearing, you're talking thousands because you have to put in temporary supports for the ceiling joists and whatever is above, then remove not only the wall but whatever beam is there, and replace it with a beefier wooden one, or a steel one, which means tearing into any supporting walls at the endpoints (one of which I see in your picture). That seems like a big expense and a lot of trouble for only a modest gain.

Alysa, Whenever you're ready, just bend the pup downward with the side of a pencil. Make an indentation in the soil with the same pencil. Gently pick up pup with a tweezer & place in indentation. Arrange & tap down the soil around it with the pencil eraser. Don't water ... It'll take root after a few weeks. Yes, they're very cute & fuzzy looking BUT ... Be very careful handling this plant. I constantly brush against it inadvertently with the side of my hand while attempting to pick up another cactus beside it. I always whisper, "You're not gonna get me!" But it does, every single time. I swear it leans over and insists on touching me! The glochids are soooooo freaking annoying. Just when you think you've gotten them all out, there's another one ... or two ... or ... Yes, glue works, but you have to let it dry thoroughly. Then, sometimes it doesn't work and I move on to packing tape. I have a love / hate relationship with this one. Maria Elena

Of course, it is possible to remove the paint from those benches, given enough time, elbow grease and money. I would test with a heat gun and scraper and try to get off the majority of paint with that approach. Next I would move on to chemical stripper before sanding. This is a major effort project but won't pay off with a commensurate amount of curb appeal. There are lots of potential projects and many of them will have a better return on your investment. DIY labor has a value and you need to spend some time thinking about which projects are a good use of your time and effort. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I would approach projects at my house differently so I am encouraging you to read the prior comments representing many years spent on numerous projects. It is your house so do what you want but I would certainly suggest a small test patch before total commitment