Thank you for your observations. I love new perspectives on our old space! Blfenton: We also have a finished basement, so we have plenty of 'living' space. The dining room is not used at all--that�s why our main goal was to add that unused space to our kitchen--it is the space that everyone gathers in. From the front door, you can enter the kitchen through the dining room, or go straight through a hallway to enter the great room on the left, kitchen/nook area on the right. Our house is also 10 years old, and the appliances are showing signs of not lasting much longer. A leak in the kitchen faucet last spring stained a cabinet that needs sanded down/replaced...The kitchen has always been cramped, but now we've decided to try to use the space we already have to improve! Gooster: At this point, I'm open to anything! I have considered combining the laundry room and mud room, and moving around the pantry, 12 feet just isn't enough space in width! Our main entrance for a family is the garage. The mudroom is where all shoes, coats, backpacks, etc live, so it must be located directly from the garage entrance. We live in a wooded area and frequently bring in mud, leaves, dirt, snow, etc. Love the pic you posted with the windows�lovely! Dilly_NY: Moving the kitchen to the front of the house has been tossed around. If it's a nice enough looking kitchen, seeing it from the front door wouldn't be a problem. Then, the dining space would be in the middle and sitting area at the back? Here's a photo of the kitchen, looking toward the door.

Your budget is about what it would cost for a consult from the structural engineer that you need to create a report for the city to get your permit. Then there is the permit cost and the contractor cost. If the wall has electrical or HVAC in it, besides being load bearing, then your cost also just went up. On a good day, with there being no hidden structural issues, what you want might cost you 2K if you DIYed it all. For a contractor to do the same job, you might be looking at 3K and up. More if the electrical and HVAC prove to be problematic. Plus permit costs. And now onto the door project. That obviously needs the HVAC for the room to be re-engineered. How complex that may be will depend on the type of baseboard heating that you have as well as the insulation and window type and a whole host of other issues. You need to have a HVAC person come in and take a look at the system as a whole because if the current system is at the end of it's normal lifespan, just doing one change to it could take it over the edge, or, it could be an extremely cost foolish decision to not address the whole home. Then, after the HVAC is addressed, you have all of the structural and cosmetic issues to deal with that you would have with any cutting a hole in the exterior envelope to your house. You want to be sure that it's done in a way as to keep your house weathertight as well as done in an aesthetically pleasing manner for the exterior and interior patches to the wall components. This is probably more than a 5K project and could cost as much as 20K if the whole home's HVAC and insulation will need to be addressed.

OK, I get it now. Real chimney to a woodburning fireplace in the basement. So the chimney has to stay. (I was thinking perhaps it was a water heater or furnace flue and could either be re-routed or decommissioned if newer heating unit has been installed.) Probably masonry but possibly prefab insulated chimney pipe. But the electric fireplace add-on is going to be demolished so you're reclaiming some floor space and are opening up part of that wall. So we're left we how to contend with what's left, which is exactly what you said from the get-go. I was over-thinking it. OP not in possession of the house until August so can't go poking & peeling off layers of stuff. Another couple of ideas after seeing some pictures. First one won't work for you but will toss it out as an idea that might work for someone else. After the fake fireplace is gone, frame it out wider and hang the TV there, with storage accessed from the side. Second idea is a tweak on the first one. Frame it out wider and make the whole shebang look like a cabinet. Part of the 'cabinet' would be chimney but the other half would be real storage. Put doors/ drawer fronts on all of it with only half serving a real purpose. Either stash sofa throws/ DVD's etc. there or turn it into pantry. (The pantry could open up to the kitchen side with dummy doors on the living room side.)

Before I did anything, I'd think long and hard about how I want to use the space and how I want to live in the space. Do you like having lots of noise and seeing everyone and everything? Do you all listen to the same music all the time? Mind someone else's TV watching? Is media viewing central to your main activities in the house? Do you want to have a quiet space? A reading area? Do you have hobbies that should be accommodated? Work from home? Do you use a formal dining room? Do you entertain a lot? If so, is it casual or more formal? Do you have/will you have children and need to keep an eye on them? Need play space? Storage? To me, regardless of how a room may have originally been designed, it needs to fit *your* lifestyle. For example, if you don't dine formally, why have space for that? Once you've thought about how much time you spend doing which activities, then it's easier to figure out how much space you want to devote to which. I view a house as a "plant" that is designed to support the activities and functions that take place in the house. It's how you use it that will determine the layout. Once you figure that out, you'll know whether the fireplace is a help or a hindrance to your lifestyle. Open concept is visually impressive but very public and noisy to live with. A la Sarah Susanka, open concept is great provided you also have an "away" space where you can be private and cozy and away from the madding crowd. We have "open concept" with our Kit, FR, Brk Nook all open to each other. There are only the 2 of us and it seems to work. But we also have away spaces which we use often as well. We've found a balance of the 2 is best for us. That may be a consideration for you.