Kitchen Pass Through Project – Part I

When we moved into our house over 2 years ago, we knew that at some point we wanted to remove the half wall that separated our living room from our dining room.

The problem was, we were pretty sure that its a load bearing wall and we really didn’t want to find out the hard way. So for two years it has sat there looking like it does. Being used as a bench, a road for hot wheels, and a shelf for storage. 
Now the time has come to finally do something with it. After searching through our favorite project site (Pinterest) we decided to move our Island into the space occupied by the wall, add a bench and new table, and have a new seating area!
Here is our inspiration for the space. 
http://www.decorpad.com/designers/Oxford-Development
We started out by tearing off the drywall. This to me was the scariest part because you never really know what you are dealing with until the drywall comes off. 
Case in point, I was assuming the electrical cable was going to be running along the wall and could then easily move the outlet into the island. But nope! It was run up through the floor. 🙁
I also managed to flip the breaker when knocking the sheetrock off. Apparently the sheetrock loosened the outlet and allowed it to come undone. That caused a short in the line and the breaker to flip. Oops!

In order to the the wire over to the far side of the island, I proceeded to drill some small holes near the wall and got the electrical wire to come up through that.

We also removed the carpet and laminate flooring where the island would eventually sit.

After some dry fitting, we moved the island into its permanent home and ran the electrical line up into it.  The guy at Lowes that helped me find the fittings I needed thought I was crazy going with the setup that I wanted. But with four kids, I always prefer to overdue the safety a bit to ensure that everyone is not exposed to anything that they should not be.

I had just enough wire to get to the outlet and even had to flip it upside down in order to make it work. But work it does!

For some ideas on space, we proceeded to move our dining room table and bench into the kitchen and it has stayed there since. We already love the functionality that this has brought into our home.  For the longest time, if we wanted to eat in the kitchen, we had to do it at the island which in turn would only seat 2 people. The rest would have to stand. And even though the dining room is close enough, sometimes you just dont feel like making the move to such a formal space. 
The pics below depict the island in its new home (without the top).  Part II will showcase the building out of the side columns. Now things are going to get exciting!

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