Will you remove these walls in a classic center hall house?

Question

This is a classic center hall house. The stair faces the entrance, with the living room on the left hand side and dinning room and kitchen on the right hand side. I will try to draw a floor plan and upload later on.

My question is will you remove these walls to make it open space (shown in the pictures)? Wall 1 separates living room from the hall way, Wall 2 separates hall way from the dinning room, and Wall 3 separates the dinning from the kitchen.

If walls are removed, you will be able to see all the rooms from the main entrance, so will definitely lose privacy but enjoy much more open space.

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/62438301@N05/9456726004/[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/62438301@N05/9453943285/[/img]

Have to cover some area in the picture to protect the privacy of the current owner.

Pat L. · Answer

here are the rooms opened up

shot from the kitchen shows how we could add an island as well

Ben R. · Answer

@Michael Stole,

We did a 1960's era house that looks almost exactly like your project, the difference being the stairs on our property were on the left and the hall on the right, and there was a den behind the living room. We took out the load-bearing wall between the living room and den and installed a beam and columns which maintained two different spaces but opened them up. Took a load bearing wall out between the den and kitchen and pushed the kitchen a foot into the den. We widened openings from the hall into the living room and into the dining room and from the dining room to the kitchen. The trick to all of it is knowing in advance how much wall to take away and still have room for the sofa or the hutch or the china cabinet, etc, etc. The reverse is true as well. We did not open the doorway enough going into the kitchen to allow a side by side refrigerator to open properly, and had to reframe and refinish the thing.

Pat L. · Answer

You may get lucky with the walls.

We removed the walls bet the drm & kit then the drm & lrm

only to find huge beams already in place as supports,

(exposed in pic below).

The open concept made a significant difference to the overall layout & appeal.

Michael Stole · Answer

Yes, I will at least remove the wall between dinning and kitchen. No sure if it would be better to also remove the walls between family room and hall way and between hallway and dinning room. That will be completely open with just one big room at the main floor.

Jeff S. · Answer

The trend is to open everything up. Not sure about an older home though (what do you mean by older?). Just bought a 1980 ranch and will be removing the wall that separates the kitchen and family room from the dining and living room.

Michael Stole · Answer

Here come the floor plans that I draw. Any other suggestions on changes on the structure of the house?

Main:

Second level:

Basement:

Tony Reale · Answer

My guess is # 2 is load bearing although #3 may be and yes you can tear it out if you put a beam in. I personally wouldn't open it all up. I would open up #1 or #3, if it isn't bearing although I need more than the pics to make a decision.

Open floor plans can be overrated. In a flip I love taking away actual dining rooms, because nobody uses them anymore, if and only if, I can make the kitchen larger and/or add a FUNCTIONAL bathroom or master closet where there isn't a good one in an older home. Not a rule though. In the flip I looked at today I kept the dining room as a dining room. It had enough bedrooms for the area and there really wasn't anything I could do with the space other than a dining room.

Do not know the area but in my area looking at the limited pics here I wouldn't do it even if I could. Show me the layout of the house and for sure tell me what is load bearing and I may change my mind.

Michael Stole · Answer

Thanks. I will have an engineer come to check. Even for load bearing walls, what I learned is that I can still remove or cut them as long as I put beams above.

Stephen Masek · Answer

Those are probably load bearing walls in the corridor.