There are points in every reno where you have to make a tough decision that has no good answer. Today was one of those days.

Due to a measuring error, we either had to scale back and modify a critical part of the new kitchen and mud room, or modify the brick-serpentine wall. After some excellent suggestions and imput from all involved (which included creating a new focal point in the backyard), we decided to modify the wall rather than mess with an already great design.

This was not an easy call by any means. I wanted to keep the spirit of the backyard the same; any time you mess with area around an important tree (I harvest that plum tree every year), you risk harming the root structure.

Here’s what that portion looked like before:

the serpentine wall in question, which was supposed to be largely intact.

And here are the guys working on dismantling the wall (with a snippet of slow-mo in there, because why not):

The end result looks like Pac Man took a huge bite out of the backyard:

I’ll use Magisto occasionally to pull together video and images… here’s one montage:

In order to make this unanticipated nook marry with the whole project, we’re going to engrave a piece of original marble (found in the basement during the first reno) with the initials “CH” and inset it in the rebuilt wall. More details soon.

Enjoy. Updates to follow. — WP