It's amazing how one thing leads to another. I know it's taking longer than you anticipated but when it's all done, you're going to love it and trust me when I tell you, you will soon forget all the trials and tribulations and it will be so worth it. The floors look beautiful!

The new kitchen opening will be 67 inches wide. The header (?) will be dropped down 14" and rounded to match the other opening. The air exchanger will be installed in the lower part of the new wall.

I don't know why they made the small doorway rounded (back in the '70s) when all the other doorways are square.

We asked Carpenter Dude which would be easier, redo the small opening to make it square; or round off the new doorway? He said since the kitchen opening had to be enclosed and dropped down he might as well make it rounded at the same time.

Good enough. I have two Hobbit openings in my house.

In a Perfect World, I'd have a round front door, too.

I think the grey lump on the loveseat is Harry. Doesn't everyone keep an oversized loveseat snugged up against the kitchen table and hidden behind a wall of plastic? Living in a construction zone is so much fun!

The South end of living room.

This room is small; the living room area is about 11'10" wide by 14' long. The south end of the room includes the main pathway from the front door to the kitchen with possibly room for a small breakfast nook.

When the closet is built, it will hide the seam where the floor was patched. In normal lighting the patch is not as obvious as it appears here.

Imagine this south wall area, from the right side of the door to the south wall, filled in, left to right, with a 52" wide / 25" deep, reach-in closet, an 18" wide wall cabinet with doors, the 55" window, and another 18" wide cabinet with doors.

A window seat will fit under the window and the wall cabinets will go all the way down to rest on it. The window seat will be as deep as the closet; the wall cabinets will be about 14" deep.

I have a table that fits in front of the imaginary window seat and it will have two darling low-back chairs facing the window - as soon as I find them at a resale shop!

This post was edited by caroline on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 16:15

That's a really NICE space you have there! Good job on the oak floors too!

beautiful floors!

I grew up in a house build about 1900, and it had the most wonderful oak floors, doors, and built-ins. I really like those old oak floors with narrow boards. I love your floor.

Caroline, those floors are beautiful, you'll enjoy them so much. Hang in there, it's going to be worth the headaches when you are done.

You'll love the heat pump with AC too. Did you get the air cleaner with yours? I miss the whole house air cleaner that was part of our system. Not the house, just the air cleaner. This house has natural gas radiant heat imbedded in the ceilings and its cozy, inexpensive, but I'd forgotten what is was like to have to dust ;(

Hopefully before long Carpenter Dude, plumber etc will be out of your hair and your house and you can have your privacy back....

My, how I miss the decorative plastic sheeting (that never contains) the dust and starting and ending every day with a houseful of workmen.

Floor looks great. Is that the heat-exchanger front door or a new one?

Very nice! I sure would like to empty out my living room and start fresh with new refinished hardwood floors and new baseboards. I love your rounded door frame. The one going into my hallway is rounded and the one going my kitchen is square because I think at one time there was a swinging door. Love your big room.

Wow, that's a major undertaking! Love your floors and your new doorways. Beautiful.

We just bought a new couch and loveseat a couple of weeks ago. Isn't it amazing how large furniture is when it's placed in your home compared to the showroom?? :~/

We had to re-arrange the livingroom and now I'm on the hunt for a reasonably priced ottoman. The arms of the new furniture are much higher and the end tables are too low. So we'll be looking for some kind of high tables to put the lamps on etc. Yes on thing definitely leads to another!

I'm not the handy-dandy decorating type to know what I want in major undertakings. Just these few things are stressing me out a teeny bit. You've got a lot of patience!

enjoy the "new" look!

that floor is awesome...what a great job your floorman did!

Looks so great; nice & fresh! :) I might have missed it, but where does that cute little rounded door go to? I love it!

That's the Hobbit door. It opens to the north end of the short hallway where the two original bedrooms "Y" off. If you go straight through the Hobbit door and walk all of 5 feet, you're in the bathroom.

Wes wanted to close up this doorway, but I insisted we keep it. The living room area is so small that without the light and line of sight from that door I think I'd go bonkers, especially in the winter.

If you step in the front door you can see across the living room, through that doorway, through the den, and its window to the trees and sky outside.

Wes did some calculating tonight and he thinks if we put a half-circle arch in the 67" wide kitchen doorway, it would block too much of the room. I'm going to mock it up with cardboard to test it.

If the arch won't work I'll have to decide if I want one large squared door way, with a proper headed, or if I want to square off the smaller door.

This photo was taken a while back. I'm standing in the small den (former bedroom) looking through the hall, through the Hobbit door and into the living room. That big roll on the floor is the vinyl flooring we installed in the bathroom. You can also see into the corner of the lilac painted sewing room (former bedroom.)

These colors are way off from the light reflected from the snow. They are much deeper. The ceiling and soffit is a rich camel color and the walls are deep, dark, ox blood red.