The Battle of Jericho (December 10, 2011)

This hideous paneled partition inexplicably ran three-quarters of the way up the wall across the middle of our future kitchen. We’ve dearly wanted it down from the moment we clapped eyes on it. So Day 1 inside the jobsite—the day after we’d paid $2,869 for six months’ worth of construction insurance—we pushed, kicked, and pried for more than an hour, bending our crowbar in the process, til this stubborn eyesore from the 1970s came crumbling down.