Since all the work has been done to strip everything out of the house and the floorboards have been put back down and made "true" it is possible to walk around the house and take more of it in. If you excuse the body in the following photograph you can see through from the rear reception room to the front room and out of the front door (across the road etc .....). This had led to the suggestion that we should consider not replacing the doors between the rooms as it helps to open out the space. This makes sense but it has made me wonder about whether we should open it out further.
The pictures above and below show both sides of the same wall. You can see in the picture below, the wooden lintel although as the wall is solid and non load bearing there is some doubt about what it is doing there. I have come up with the idea of removing much of this wall and opening out the staircase to the rear reception room. I would like to remove the wall completely but this cannot be done without an RSJ and by the time that was installed and clad with fire retardant material it isn't worth the extra cost.
A cheaper and easier option is to take the wall down to just below the ceiling and but in a 4x4 lintel to say half way (or maybe just over) the wall by the stairs. This will open up over half the stairs into the main room and create a much bigger space as well as making a feature out of the stairs. APD Observer and MeatOnTheBone will probably remember doing something similar in a house in Cobham over 20 years ago. Any memories they have of this would be appreciated.
The picture below shows the wall above the door from the reception room side. The lintel would just about be at the top row of bricks and would need to be boxed in or painted black and made to look like a beam to match those in the front room.
If we did decide to do this I think it would make sense to replace the door from the front refeption room to the stairs.
I have the day off work tomorrow (mainly for Christmas shopping but Mrs APD has done most of it) so we will be have a chat with the builder about this in more detail.
5 comments:
Can't remember the exposing of any stairs at Cobham - the stairs started as winders away from the door between the downstairs rooms. Maybe we opened the rear wall to borrow light from the kitchen? Pity no blog was done at the time. Alternatively, maybe we just left the door off between the 2 rooms?
Either way, for your project, my feeling would be to just leave the door off and work with the existing opening. Having said that, if your kitchen doesn't have a door, the BCO may notice that your only exit from the bedrooms to outside is via a "room" (albeit a room that is 3 rooms without doors) that contains the kitchen. This could be a fire issue.
I would definitely have a door between the kitchen and the rear room. It is nice to be able to shut away kitchen noise and mess and cooking smells sometimes. Also, if you have no door between the stairs and the kitchen it will be impossible to have a lie in if someone else is making a cup of tea!
A staircase between two walls will definitely be dark, so if you can take one of the out, so much the better. But I think a single through room with a staircase in the middle visible from both sides would look odd. It would also be a bit out of keeping with a Victorian House. So my preference would be to have two rooms, one with an exposed staircase, if that is possible. I admit to not quite following your description of exactly what bits of wall would come out. We need you to draw it!
Thanks for the comments.
A door between the kitchen and the rear room is a non starter. There is limited light into the rear room as it is.
I think on balance we will leave things as they are with the proviso that we will add a door if the building inspector insists on one as suggested by "Hole observer".
I would prefer not to increase the budget if I can help it.
If the BI insists, consider fitting parliament hinges, with the door opening into the rear room rather than the kitchen. Then it can open 180 degrees and sit flat against the wall.
Nice idea (on the hinges) but there isn't room. There really is no alternative but for the door to open outwards.
It isn't that unusual for a small cloakroom. We did it in our last house with no trouble from the inspectors.
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