Archway or Wide Open?

[Account Closed]

I just purchased a HUD home that I have to house hack for a year or two .I am in the process of gutting the home and I have a partitionwall between the living room and dining room/ den area.

 I have a choice of removing the wall completely or creating an archway entrance.

 The engineer calls for a steel monument frame, which is like an upside down U I am estimating the total cost ,engineer $750 plus steel and installation $1500 = $2200 total or create a archway walk thru for about $500. I bought the property right and have  equity. I am wondering if the added cost of the steel frame would be worth it?