A tree destroyed my house and many things that were built back by the insurance companies workers were wrong, didn't work or just totally different than the original. My house was built in 1910 (which is why it was not demolished by a 250 year old tree crashing through it - just injured for about 2 years). The kitchen has giant windows 82.5 inches high. The previous owner had built in bookcases on either side of the windows with a little seated/storage area. The kitchen is a long rectangle with the refrigerator at one end and looking forward 3 x 87.5 inch windows along the left wall leading to the mistake at the other end of the room- a built-in 80's looking bookcase, complete with a space to hang a TV in the middle which stops 14 inches from the ceiling.
So here is are the specs to the best of my ability.
Room - 155 inches wide (the short end of the rectangle).
Ceiling - approximately 110 inches high
Built in book case cabinet thing -
25.5 inches deep
108 inches long w/ 4 sets of cabinet doors which jut out 3.5 inches from the bottom of the "bookcase" and 5 inches above the floor.
The actual book case part starts 12.5 inches back on the 25.5 inch deep top of the cabinet.
The top of the cabinet part (that the bookshelf rises out of and the cabinets are below) is made of two boards - front board is 12.5 inches and the back board is 12.75 inches deep.
The lower cabinet part of this built in juts out in front of the window and has odd awkward empty space at either end. I would love to just have bookcases that go from the floor to the ceiling. Is it hard to take out this bottom cabinet part? Or would it be possible to at least take out the front board section (12.5 inches wide) so that it is more harmonious with the room - not in front of the window at one end and the door frame at the other. I hate it.
Aesthetically, I hate it. Practically, I hate. Anything that goes into those cabinets just disappears and I don't even have a TV for the big gap in the middle - my TV is in another room.
Single Mom here trying to figure out if this is something that I could try to "fix" without just ripping it out and starting over? Limited funds - like maybe a couple hundred dollars. If I could rip it all out then I could probably buy cheap bookcases from Ikea that would be the right width and would go to the ceiling. What do you recommend?