Finishing a Kitchen with an Arch Doorway

Eric Stromer: Hey, I'm Eric Stromer. Today is wage homeowner is a dedicated do-it-yourselfer which family is out growing his house. Meet firefighter and surfer dude Tom May and his wife Laura.

Tom: Hi, I Tom. I live here and I live with my wife, four kids, two dogs, two turtles and six chickens.

Eric Stromer: So Tom did what many space challenge home owners do he had it on.

Laura: This is our family room, dining room, room addition that my husband Thomas has been working on very hard for at least the last six months. He's basically had everything in his entire room with then help of a fellow fireman.

Eric Stromer: It looks like a great start so why didn’t you keep going?

Tom: I use to get friends in the pass it and we do things there we didn’t know how to do but I think those stairs are kind of use up.

Eric Stromer: I hear you, you'll favor well is run dry.

Laura: What I'm hoping to see here is to have an arch put in to mimic the arches that we have throughout the house.

Eric Stromer: And I see that kitchen floor can use a little love. To finish off Tom and Laura addition we've got to shear panel that former exterior wall. Then create an archway to match the architecture of the rest of the house. Well, paint the wall then stay in the concrete flour in the family room and lay eco friendly Marmoleum on the kitchen floor.

This former exterior wall happens to be holding up the house so before we do anything we’re going to show it up with half inch plywood. I work the tape while Tom takes down the digits then we take it outside.

How are you with the circular saw?

Tom: I can do that.

Eric Stromer: Yeah? We’ll chalk out our first cut and then let her rip. By day two we’ve already helped Tom rough out the arch doorway and now we’re ready for the next step.

Drywall day Tom and it looks beautiful still. Drywall must be cut measured like plywood but drywall is cut with utility knifes instead of saws and the guys nudge out the electrical holes with the rotary saw instead of a hole saw.

Now Jim uses the rotary saw like a router to cut a smooth edge for the archway.

Jim: Isn't that incredible?

Eric Stromer: To accommodate the arch Jim shows Tom how to make drywall actually bend.

Jim: Score the back like this. I'm going to do it again, again, again, again. Just keep pushing it in. How is it going for you, okay?

Tom: Yeah.

Jim: Get something flat and straight and we’ll make it bend to out will.

Eric Stromer: The next step is mud. A drywall compound to cover the seams then it’s under the concrete floor.

Jim: What we’re going to use is this formula four offer with this flat scrapping pattern on the bottom and what we want to do is we just kind of like go over the whole thing in a blossom paint or blue or anything like that that might be on the top of surface to get a nice and smooth ready to go, okay, all right?

Eric Stromer: The May family now is a functional family dinning room but just a few days ago it was a pretty disfunctional.

Laura: I'm very excited to see what the final outcome is.

Eric Stromer: One, two, three open your eyes.

Laura: Oh my god!

Eric Stromer: Yes, that’s Marmoleum.

Laura: Thank you, you guys, the pattern, and the randomness everything is brilliant and gorgeous.

Eric Stromer: It really sets out the whole room and the counter top I think it match really well with that.

Laura: Oh, it does. It just looks complete. Oh lord. It’s a beautiful. It’s amazing.

Eric Stromer: Yeah, well it arches - one of this.

Laura: It is indeed. Oh my gosh the floor! I didn’t even notice anything.

Tom: And she's overwhelmed. She's having a hard time even taking at all that I think.

Laura: Oh, it is beyond.

Eric Stromer: Check it out is really?

Laura: Beautiful.