A 1973 ranch, opened to the back yard.

A family of four in a 1973 Sherman Oaks ranch with a galley kitchen. The wall between the kitchen and the living room was load‑bearing. They wanted one room, a Wolf 36‑inch dual fuel range, and a 48‑inch Sub‑Zero. They wanted the all‑in number under $118K. They did not want to leave the house through the build.

The wall held the second floor. A 14‑foot W12x26 steel header had to span the new opening without dropping the ceiling below 8 feet. The original main electrical panel sat behind that wall, and the 1973 service was 100A, undersized for the new 80A range circuit. Title 24 ventilation upgrades on a 1973 home are not cheap. And on the third day of demo we found a knob‑and‑tube run in the soffit that was not on the as‑built drawings, $2,400 of unbudgeted electrical we covered out of contingency.

A flush‑set W12x26 beam, ceiling stayed flat at 8 feet exactly. The panel was relocated to the laundry room as a parallel sub‑permit so the main plan check did not stall, and we upsized to a 200A service in the same trip. We phased the demo around the master bath and ran a working fridge from a 20A circuit in the garage. The family lived in the house for nine of the eleven weeks, with a sealed plastic divider at the kitchen entry. The contract opened at $117,400. They paid $117,400.