Hidden Archway

While surveying our house for renovation ideas we came across something strange. The wall between our office and the living room had a closet, which wasn't strange. The strange part was the inside back wall of the closet had a vertical indent coming from the floor and then just above the top shelf it arched over. We traced that line to the rest of the wall and realized we had a hidden archway–someone had walled up an amazing architectural feature and we had discovered it. I felt like the house had just whispered to us a wonderful secret. Unlike secrets though we wanted to share it with the world and Sam wanted to bust it down instantly upon discovery.

After weeks of him knocking on the wall to feel it was hollow and sharing the excitement of the idea with our friends and family I finally agreed "ok, let's knock it down." That was the starting gun and Sam was off to find his new Dremel Multi Max he got for Christmas. Without hesitation he cut into the wall and so began a long day of demo. Slowly but surely our archway came to life and we could feel the anticipation building, anxious to see the results of our decision.

Sam was of course barefoot through the entire process which resulted in the image of his foot below. Thanks to an incident in the past year he was fully up to date on his tetanus shot so no trip to the doctor to interrupt our fun. We did stop to eat lunch and ponder what to do with our big hole in the wall. A door, yup a door; we are going to create a lovely set of bifold doors that will allow the room to be open as well as private when necessary. Who knows perhaps we will one day move on from having dogs to children and they will need a room of their own. At present there is no door which means everyone gets to look directly into our messy office but I guess that is the price we must pay. The whole project is making the house feel more open and usable, which is a blessing for such a small house.

There is still a lot of work to be done; tear down the remaining wall, move a light switch, fix the flooring, patch and paint, etc. Oh yeah and we have to make those fabulous doors. Hopefully we can get back to this arch soon and then I can show off the finish product. Stay posted for "The End."