Cutting a door frame

We got the door frame for the bathroom entrance cut!! You see, right now the door for the half-bath opened into the kitchen. However, we are covering up that door and having it open into the master bedroom. Eventually we will break down the wall the sink is on and open it up longer to create a full bath. But for now, we just need to close up the wall into the kitchen and open another door frame into the master bedroom.

 

We had a family friend who is really handy come over to help us with this. The first thing that he had to do was make sure that when we cut through the wall, we weren't going to run into any electrical problems. This ended up being a little difficult, because he had to go through a very small hole to get to the crawlspace under the bedroom to try to figure out what the wiring was doing.

 

After he figured that part out, he started going into the wall on the inside of the half-bath with a sawzall very carefully. It was uber dusty too! Whew- wear a mask over your eyes and mouth if you do this at home! We had measured out and found where the studs were so that we would only have to cut through one stud. That stud was in the middle of the new door frame, and we will have to put a brace across the top when we frame it in. The electrical wiring will need to be rerouted either under the door or over the top- that's for another day though.

 

Justin stood on the other side of the wall as our friend cut the the section of wall for the door to come out. It was pretty heavy too! It took both of them to lift and move it once they had it out, but thank goodness it was all in once piece. (That side of the wall has unique texturing, and we are hoping to be able to use it when we patch another area). Having the door frame cut out now is such a huge piece of progress, because we can now put new drywall up  on the kitchen wall and paint before the new cabinets are put in. Below you can see the process.

 

      Before any cutting  -------------------> First cuts on the inside of the bathroom

Outline cut in the inside of the bath ----->Justin holding the wall piece steady as it comes out

 The new cut door frame... but NO PRIVACY!!

 I'll have to put up a curtain or something until we get it finished.

This is our only working bathroom right now! LOL....

Now we need to frame it up and get that drywall up. It never ends!! But we are glad to be working on our own home! God is good.