Can I remove this partial wall?

My family is buying a house in another state (CA) and have had little access to the interior. It's an old house, and at some point there was a small addition to extend the kitchen. The addition left behind a partial wall that appears to have originally been an exterior wall perpendicular to the roof ridge line. In order to make the kitchen less horrible, we are planning to remove this stupid partial wall and put in some counters.

Can anyone advise on whether or not it seems "possible" to remove it without major construction to the frame? I figure since it's perpendicular to the ridge line, it can't be holding up any rafters and should be removable without causing problems. Right? We could do it ourselves if we thought we knew what we were doing, but it's also likely that we'll pay a professional to do it.


Thanks,

Mike
EDIT: Apparently my photobucket images didn't show up for anyone in my original post. I can only get one of the images to work using another image hosting service (and all my cloud hosting has failed), so here's one photo. I'll try to add the others later.

 

Welcome to the forums!

I guess you know Photobucket no longer allows you to repost your pics unless you pay a fee http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html

Can you get up in the attic and see how it's constructed? which way the ceiling joists run, if they are trusses or site built.

 

Nope, didn't know that about photobucket. Thanks.
We cannot access the property again before the end of the contingency period. I do have some photos of the attic in the inspection report, but I don't know how to tell if it is site-built. The ceiling joists (almost certainly) run parallel to the wall in question.
Thanks.
Mike

 

Pictures would be good, a sketch of the floor plan would help also. There are a few reasons why they would leave a partial wall.
#1 to me would be that the partial wall is supporting a beam above.
#2 would be that the short section is a shear wall.
An example of a shear wall is a 16' garage door opening. The left and right side walls are narrow but very strong. Those strong walls keep the opening from falling like dominos.

 

Given that it was originally an outside wall, I would think the chances of it being weight bearing are high.

 

Thanks for your replies, everyone.<br />

I guess the best I can do is give a link to the images:<br />


Right side of the wall (the wall continues on the other side of the wall to the right, where it is an exterior wall outside of a bedroom).
Left side of the wall and top (on the left side of the frame in this image is an exterior wall).
Overhead view.
Thanks.
Mike
P.S. If anyone knows of a way to embed images in a post, feel free to share. I've tried two image hosting services and three cloud services.

 

To embed an image click on Go Advanced button in the Quick Reply. At the top of Advanced Reply click on the paper clip of the editor and follow instructions.

 

Just to provide closure on this thread: We've decided not to buy this property due to excessive deferred maintenance and foundation issues. This just means that I will never be able to provide more details or definitive answers about the space in question.
Thanks, everyone. I am new to this site, and I grateful for the quick and smart responses I got. I'll certainly come back in the future.
Thanks.
Mike