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Originally Posted by villagetinker
Call Sumter County Building department for a set of house plans, they should be able to email these to you. With these you can determine if any of the walls you want to remove are load bearing. Also these will give you good talking points for the several contractors you will be talking to. As you noted there will be floor concerns, IMHO I would check for matching tile NOW, or make alternative plans for the floor. I agree moving electrical should be easy. Take a look around to see if any water (or gas?) lines may be in the walls. If a sink is in the area, there may be a vent line in the wall, these may be difficult to eliminate, plumbing codes. If your ultimate rearrangement includes moving sink or other devices using water remember these water lines are in the foundation.
Good luck with your project.
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Load bearing walls can be replaced with a steel column or two and an i-beam or wooden beam, as specified by a structural engineer, but it isn’t cheap. Will you be removing cabinets? A lot of buyers would be unhappy about not having enough cabinets. If you do have to put in posts and a beam, it’s easy to attach cabinets to them, or even open-backed shelves, leaving an area two feet high and the width between the columns for conversation. It’s just harder to see people or watch television from the kitchen. While you are at it, have your contractor install and large but ultra quiet exhaust fan to the outside, whether through the side wall or the roof. My kitchen has a microwave oven above the stove, and while it has an “exhaust fan”, that just blows the air in the cook’s face. It doesn’t exhaust it outside at all. So the smell of cooking broccoli or asparagus is blown all over.