Home Improvement

[wahday]

Ditto what Ofos said. My brother had this same kind of furnace chimney removed from the middle of his home and converted it to a laundry chute (since it went to the basement where the W/D are). I believe it was a bit tricky removing the bricks, but it is doable. And its very cool.

The other thing I will point out is that a lot of time, these spaces in older homes get used as a chase to run wires, telephone lines or even a vent for additional bathrooms – things added over time. You would want to make sure there is none of that business is going on before removing.

[Veloise]

Rather than get into removing a chimney, would it make sense to re-think the kitchen and adjacent spaces? For many years, my favorite column in the Sunday paper was by a designer who'd re-draw people's floor plans for them. Her big things were:

--to-go space (shelf), nowadays with charging stations
--landing space for groceries
--mudroom, family entrance
--visual screen for the bathroom from adjoining rooms (who wants to sit at the kitchen table and see the toilet?)

You might want some floor plan software, or the low-tech equivalent, graph paper and post-its cut to size. You could revise the wall space to contain the chimney and use the new wall to include a built-in hutch or a pass-through or broom closet. Maybe add on to the kitchen in a different way and increase the space as well as the usability. Kitchen cab places will also do this (along with lots of upselling) but they don't have the common sense acquired through living in a space.

Rebooting my kitchen was my first big project. Previously the fridge had floated in the space with the two windows, and the stove on the far opposite corner. I moved the cold storage to the solid wall next to the sink, and brought the stove over to the window wall

It just dawned on me that I would love to share some designs for you, if you want to shoot a few photos and send via FB.

[dandy_warhol]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm nervous enough to not do any home renovations without consulting with a professional. It helps to be friends with the architect who sits on our Historic Pres. Commission.

V, our house is an American foursquare so our renovations options are somewhat limited (also due to our bank account). For the most part the flow of the house works there are just somethings that could stand some improvements. Unfortunately those somethings are big ticket items - kitchen, upstairs bathroom, basement.

[kjel]

Ditto what Ofos said. My brother had this same kind of furnace chimney removed from the middle of his home and converted it to a laundry chute (since it went to the basement where the W/D are). I believe it was a bit tricky removing the bricks, but it is doable. And its very cool.

The other thing I will point out is that a lot of time, these spaces in older homes get used as a chase to run wires, telephone lines or even a vent for additional bathrooms – things added over time. You would want to make sure there is none of that business is going on before removing.

I will ditto this as well after finding all of the above in my current rehab project at work. In a previous project we used it as a vent since we were unable to make it serviceable again.

[WSU MUP Student]

Our house was built in 1929. It does not have a fireplace but it does have an old chimney that runs through the middle of the house and was formerly connected to the furnace. We got a new HE furnace a few years ago and it just vents out the side of the house. The chimney is only about 4 sq ft. but those 4 sq ft would be useful in our small kitchen. If we were ever to redo the kitchen part of me wants to demo the chimney and better utilize that space. Does this sound feasible?

The chimney runs is next to the kitchen? Open it up a bit and turn it into a brick pizza/bread oven! We have an old chimney in our garage that connects to nothing that I've always wanted to do that to. It has an iron door at the bottom of it (maybe where they could shovel in coal or something?) so for now I just use it as a place to hide Christmas and birthday gifts.

[ofos]

The chimney runs is next to the kitchen? Open it up a bit and turn it into a brick pizza/bread oven! We have an old chimney in our garage that connects to nothing that I've always wanted to do that to. It has an iron door at the bottom of it (maybe where they could shovel in coal or something?) so for now I just use it as a place to hide Christmas and birthday gifts.

Living in the south, no pizza/bread blast furnace ovens in my house! Old chimneys are problematic, most have deteriorated to the point where they have to be re-lined to be safe. I had mine rebuilt from the roof up and then had a fireplace insert installed that uses insulated metal chimney pipe that runs up through the old brick flue. Much safer. FYI, those metal doors were typically ash clean-outs.