We bought a foreclosure in rough shape in an awesome neighborhood about 5 months ago and have been working quite a bit over that time to get everything repaired and put back together. When I say rough shape, I mean water damage, (already remediated)half the drywall was missing, no flooring (subfloor only everywhere), stucco issues, roof, windows, plumbing, electrical, etc etc. It's been quite a project!
We had a fairly crappy fireplace and surround that came in the house. Basic, builder grade slop and the mantle was hanging out of the wall. Not surprising when we pulled it off and it was held onto the wall with about 4 nails! Somebody got lazy...
Anyway, in building out the new family room, we wanted to have some decent sound, but a small footprint so we could maximize the space in the room. Here's what the room looked like before:
In the second pic, you're looking at the back corner. There was a wall there that separated the kitchen and the family room. We knocked that down and ran a beam about 20ft across to carry the load and open up the space.
From the hall (through the missing drywall ) you can see the wall separating the rooms. It was a pantry closet.