A solid cube has side length 3 inches. A 2-inch by 2-inch square hole is cut into the center of each face. The edges of each cut are parallel to the edges of the cube, and each hole goes all the way through the cube. What is the volume, in cubic inches, of the remaining solid?
Imagine making the cuts one at a time. The first cut removes a box $2\times 2\times 3$. The second cut removes two boxes, each of dimensions $2\times 2\times 0.5$, and the third cut does the same as the second cut, on the last two faces. Hence the total volume of all cuts is $12 + 4 + 4 = 20$. Therefore the volume of the rest of the cube is $3^3 - 20 = 27 - 20 = \fbox{7}$.