It had to happen.  On one of my site visits to Cape Town I looked at the wall separating the small tv room from the lovely, light living room  and thought ‘that needs to come down.’

This wall needs to come down.

 

Other side of the wall. TV room.

 

Showing uncharacteristic restraint, I bounced the idea off Bernard before introducing it to the family and as I expected, he jumped right on board.  With his professional opinion on my side, It didn’t take too much effort to persuade everyone else that this was a good idea, because with just a little imagination it was easy to see that removing the dividing wall would open up a beautiful, light space.

It did of course add all sorts of additional complications, not least of all being the necessity of bringing in a structural engineer and accepting that the existing (laminate) flooring would have to be replaced.  It also meant that most of the kitchen would need redoing but that will be another story.

View from kitchen. Steel beam in place.

 

View from Living Room

 

From this…

…to this. This small pillar will be thicker when complete.

 

View from Living Room.

It can feel a little overwhelming at times and there is no doubt that I am thought by some to be just a bit crazy, but last week I felt absolutely vindicated.  I asked a decorating friend to meet me at the house to discuss curtaining.  It was her first-ever visit to the house and it was a relief to show her how things were and how they will be and to get an enthusiastic response from someone who just ‘gets it.’ In an earlier post I mentioned how the single window in the middle of the main bedroom wall had irritated me for years.

Main Bedroom with additional window.

I pointed out the additional window to Susie who expressed amazement that there had ever been only one.  “It must have looked like the Eye of the Cyclops” she said. I rest my case.