Bye Bye Bar

The bar between the kitchen and dining room sticks out like a sore thumb. I can't figure out why it's even there, or why it's shaped like that. I'm convinced that there's a fireplace or something underneath it. No matter what, that thing is going. It's got the old fake brick paneling on it, and a beautiful peel and stick tile countertop. It's a showstopper for sure!

Last night we peaked under the linoleum in the dining room hoping to find hardwood in there too. No such luck. It's just plywood. I was bummed because I was sure there was hardwood and now we're going to have to buy flooring to put in there.

If these walls could talk...

Hubby and I couldn't wait to pull that bar out! It was a nightmare. Whoever built that thing had a passion for nails. I was totally disappointed to find that there was nothing under it except for a chipmunk skeleton and couple of old cans. We did find part of the original wall from 1890. My husband took those out and we are going to repurpose them as picture frames. There was tongue and groove wainscoting on one side of the original wall and I'm going to try repurposing that as shelving. We will have to see how that turns out.


After we got the bar our (OK, after my husband got the bar out!) I noticed a little square of wood on the floor. We investigated and sure enough, under the plywood is the original hardwood floors! Yay! The plywood was just nailed down (no glue) so we are going to try to pull it up and see if we can refinish the hardwood. I'm so excited about it! This looks to be maple, which leads me to believe that this was the old kitchen. Back in those days maple was put in kitchens because it has a tight grain and held up better to water. (There's your little lesson for the day!).

 So now the bar is out. It didn't cost us anything but it did make a big difference in that room. Opened the whole thing up.

Total Spent

$0