Getting A Brick Doorway Widened By A Mason: a house log

“Not funny.” That is what I said when a tree branch across the street fell and took out our power yesterday, a mere two minutes before Richard-the-mason and his crew arrived. Luckily, widening a brick wall is mostly manual work – and chipping out bricks and cinder blocks is not contingent upon electricity. When the power hummed back on about an hour later, the crew hardly noticed (picture me jumping for joy in the background while they continued to chip and hammer away).

By the end of the day, the brick doorway was at last widened to a glorious 5 foot opening…and the house did not fall down in the process! Check out the end result of a project that had some contractors running in fear (as viewed from the kitchen looking into the den):

Now the crew’s here framing out the opening and it is simply remarkable to see how LARGE the living room, kitchen, and den feel now that they are all so open to each other. Here is a photo taken from the living room that demonstrates how the new, wider openings into the kitchen and den make all the rooms feel a lot more 2007 (as opposed to 1956).

You used to see only a compact doorway leading into the kitchen from the front door of the house. Now you can see through the kitchen into the den and even beyond the den into the hallway that leads to the sunroom. Totally worth all the dust and demolition.