On Crazy Ideas & Not Picking Up The Hammer

Obviously I’ve spent a lot more time in the Pink Parlor in the last few days than I have in the last few months, and usually when I spend a lot of time in one space, I start getting ideas.

You probably know me well enough to know that these ideas are rarely in the vein of, “Oh, maybe I’ll rearrange the furniture in here…” because a.) I don’t even have furniture in most of my rooms, and b.) that would be a normal, sane thing to think. As opposed to what naturally comes into my head, which is, “Oh, maybe I’ll knock part of that wall down.”

For example…

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(Note: That wainscoting and trim is going to be white come Tuesday evening, and the walls– which I painted BMoore’s November Rain some time ago–are actually going to go a few shades lighter I think.)

I’ve been pondering the layout in this room. The small bedroom (#4) through that door will eventually be my home office. And it occurred to me that the setup is very similar to the way the living room, fireplace, and study were laid out at Memorial..

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I could open the spaces up to each other a bit more in my current layout, if I do this…

mockup

Okay, wait a minute. Before we talk about hammers and drywall and smashing things, can we please talk about why the shit–out of 3000 square feet–the cat chooses to vomit on my unsealed hardwood floors? Ask me what I’m going to be doing tomorrow night. Oh, you know, sanding cat vomit off of my unsealed hardwood floors, which apparently act like a sponge when exposed to unsavory feline substances.

Ugh.

So anyway, here’s what the future office looks like…

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That’s the view from the doorway, and then you can see from the other direction where the fireplace is located…

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The door to the right goes to the downstairs bathroom (which you can enter here or off the mudroom/hallway) and having that more accessible doesn’t hurt my feelings.

On one hand, I think it makes a lot of sense to open the space up, but I’ve already got about 8 months of work piled on my other hand, so that part of me is saying that I should leave well enough alone.

The job itself would require:

  1. Knocking out the existing wall
  2. Moving any electric located in that wall  (3 switches and an outlet)
  3. Putting a supporting beam overhead because it is a load-bearing wall
  4. Patching up the drywall
  5. Rethinking the current fireplace mantel (which I’m doing anyway)

It’s probably about a weekend’s worth of work, but not something that needs to be done immediately. Don’t worry, I haven’t picked up the hammer (yet.) But as I plan out and finish up this space, I would like to make a final decision on if the wall stays or goes. Here is the list of internal arguments that keep running through my head whenever I look at the wall.

[On the fact that it will officially turn my 4 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom house.]

Me (pro hammer): I will never use this room as a bedroom, and I already have more bedrooms than I could possibly need with the three upstairs.

Me (pro sanity): The value of the house will be higher with four bedrooms.

Me (pro hammer): Why is this relevant?

Me (pro sanity): Good point. But it would make a good downstairs guest room with the adjoining bathroom…

Me (pro hammer): Once the master is done, there will be an entire unused full bath upstairs that guests can use. Plus I’m not turning this into a guest room, so it’s a moot point. Plus I’m planning on building an actual guest house on the property eventually.

Me (pro sanity): You could have three kids one day.

Me (pro hammer): Never.

Me (pro sanity): You could get knocked up with triplets.

Me (pro hammer): Then I would go live in the guest house, obviously.

[On the fact that there will be no door on the office.]

Me (pro sanity): You will not be able to just close the door on your office mess when people come over.

Me (pro hammer): This mistakenly assumes the rest of my house is not a complete effing disaster. You walk into my house, you see a mess. You don’t want to see a mess, walk into someone elses house.

Me (pro sanity): You may want to shut the door to your office for privacy.

Me (pro hammer): I live alone. In the middle of nowhere. More privacy is a little redundant at this point.

Me (pro sanity): Humor me, for the sake of versatility.

Me (pro hammer): Okay, fine, it would be nice to have the option to close the room off, but I could build custom doors for a wider space if necessary.

[On adding another project to the list]

Me (pro sanity): This is not necessary, may not add that much to the space, and just adds one more thing to the list.

Me (pro hammer):

Me (pro sanity): Plus it could make the room look a little unbalanced.

Me (pro sanity): Plus you know these things always escalate into bigger projects. You’re going to find an issue with rewiring or the subfloor or something and this is going to be a fiasco.

Me (pro hammer): Since when has the potential for a fiasco ever stopped me?

So, yeah. I really am undecided, but as you can see, I have the ability to talk myself into pretty much anything. What do you think about this room? Would you take out the door and open the space up, or leave it as is?

90 Responses

  1. Compromise? Buy a few inches either side of the opening without having to move wiring. Take more from the right than the left, make the opening wife enough to put in double French doors. They don’t have to be full size, I’m thinking about 2 24 inch doors on one wall here.

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