This is what we woke up to yesterday morning. Our dining room is well on its way to having the paneling removed. 
Lots of messes were everywhere it seemed. Yesterday was spent cleaning up some of the mess and studying about removing the wall that separates the living room from the kitchen. Michael spent quite a bit of time consulting some experts about removing load bearing walls. If we can accomplish this, we will have a great room instead of two rooms. We will worry about the details of the great room later, but for now we just want to make sure our house doesn't cave in if we remove the wall! Michael will be going to Lowe's today and picking up the material to make false walls to hold the ceiling in place while he is installing a specialty manufactured beam that will help distribute the weight of the ceiling. There will have to be a column in the middle of the great room to support the weight. (I have learned so much about building the last several days)! Our older kids were lamenting the state of the kitchen. I heard each one of them expressing that they wish the younger kids would hurry up and come back from Kentucky so we wouldn't keep tearing up the house! I really am attracted to houses that have great rooms. I like the big open feeling, but I am a bit worried that I will miss some of the privacy that the wall brings. If my kitchen is a mess, then I can go into the living room and pretend that there aren't any problems in the next room. After all, if I can't see it then it doesn't usually bother me. If we remove the wall, everybody will be able to see the kitchen all the time. I just think that I will love the feeling of openness that a great room provides. Any thoughts concerning great room verses separated rooms? At this point, before the wall comes down, all thoughts, ideas, and views will be taken with much consideration and appreciation!!!! I am afraid if Michael takes the wall down that he won't be inclined to have a redo and put it back just because I don't like it!!!
grace and peace,
julie
4 comments:
WOW, things are moving along rather quickly, lol! My mother's house has an open floor plan with kitchen, dining room, and sitting room where she has a pool table, all open and I love it! You can be in the kitchen preparing a meal but still talk to everyone. My house, the rooms are separate and you don't have that interaction, which makes for more walking around to talk to others in the Livingroom. I say GO FOR IT! I think It would look great:)
I like great rooms because it is easier to have a bunch of people over for family get togethers. The traffic flow is much easier and people feel less cramped. However, I'm like you, I don't want my kitchen out in the open. If there was some way to tuck the kitchen around a corner but still have it mostly open, that would be perfect. Really, if just the sink area was obscured, that would work.
A friend of mine has a house that is arranged in such a way that when you come through the front door you are starring right at the sink in her kitchen. I shudder at the notion that my sink full of dirty dishes be on display for every guest that walks through the front door. Fortunately, she is a MUCH better housekeeper than I and her sink never looks like that and her kitchen is always in order. Just like the rest of her house.
I have lived in both styles. I do like the extra room and openness of the great rooms, but I prefer to have the kitchen separate. It made a nice place for the ladies to have tea or coffee while the guys talked in the other room, or like you said to get up from the meal and entertain without the mess staring at you, etc. Just my opinion.
Thanks for the input everyone!!!
grace and peace,
julie
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