Building Walls ( a house update )

I'm bucking the system here - going rogue lol - because although I know every one is tearing down walls - I'm actually busy building them!

When we bought this house - there was a very narrow hallway from the front door to the kitchen -
These are the original MLS photos ( that most of you have already seen )

I knew the moment I walked in that the wall on the left hand side ( with those glass panels ) had to go
( as well as that weird contraption off the floor on the right side - which was actually a heating duct believe it or not )

Here's what what was one other side of that glassed wall

it was a long - and very narrow room -here's the other side - they had an office space allocated

which could only be accessed through a small door off the hallway - or the doorway you see above from the back of the dining room - didn't work for me at all - and although this room is bright, because of the wall - it left the rest of the downstairs quite dark -

so......................... we opened up the space and what a difference it's made -

we now have this ( Mr. Gorbachev - TEAR DOWN THAT WALL ) I also had that indentation put in to make the entrance way larger.................

Now if I could have had my way I would have opened up the entire main floor - but it's just not possible with the way this house was configured - it would have meant restructuring the entire place and far far too much work was involved - so this had to do.

Plans change as you go - original ideas turn out to be not so great - and other ideas creep up as the process goes along -

I wasn't so crazy about having such a long narrow space - decorating wise it didn't make much sense to me - so after tearing down walls - I decided to actually build one as well :) separating the spaces

leaving us space for a small dining room on the opposite side of the living room - open to each other
across the hallway................

and a small office on the main floor.

The dining room off the kitchen will now become a family room - for me - in this house - it makes more sense.  It opens up the front of the house - and allows us to entertain a little easier ( if I can ever finish the place and actually entertain that is.............)

I haven't had anyone over for dinner in 3 months - NO one !!!

Before  ( Ok Bliss this one's for you )

NOW - ( the carpet's there to protect the floor lol - I'm not decorating while building is going on )

 at the very least when you walk in the house now it feels a little more open !
And all that gorgeous fake orange panelling is almost completely gone :)

John says - I hope you're not putting those photos on your blog
Suzan says - Of course I am
John says - I'm begging you to stop this - why can't you wait until it's all finished and decorated before showing people this?
Suzan says - Because I'm documenting the process - don't you want to be able to look back and see how far we've come ?
John says - Yeah I do - I just don't want everyone else to be able to ........


I think the kitchen window may be going in this afternoon -

I have never - ever - in my life - been this exhausted - even when I came home from the hospital with 2 beautiful twin girls - even when I had my son 18 months later - THAT was a walk in the park next to this house :)

Have a great Thursday all !
Much love,