Demolition derby

This is one of those de-renovation moves. At some point, a previous owner decided to split a bedroom that was 20 feet long by 16.5 feet wide, to make two bedrooms. Logical enough, if you have a bunch of kids.

One room on the left

And another room on the right

We weren’t thrilled with having two small rooms, though. We are aiming for quality over quantity. So we undid the previous renovation.

Notice how the little wall had gone right up around the moldings!

All this has to be carted out by the bucket

A 330-square-foot bedroom is bigger than some apartments. It’s a little Downton Abbey-ish, after all. But we want to be Downton Abbey-ish.

It goes with all those antiques we bought.

It also is more befitting of the fireplace.

Doves, a tambourine, a quiver of arrows, a flambéau…you can’t keep that in half a room

It isn’t the only demolition. We took out a walk-in closet (yes, we actually removed a closet. It’s insane, I know. You can never have too many closets). In its place will be a small kitchen.

Closet to the right

To our dismay, the inch-thick wall was actually load-bearing. Now we have to put in a support beam so the ceiling above doesn’t collapse.

That ceiling is another cut-the-space-in-half renovation, this time vertically, that occurred in the past. It must have been long ago, because the room above was called the “harnais,” or the place to store the harnesses for the horses. Back in the day….

For a Hobbit?

The harnais is like something out of “Being John Malkovich,” except that you can actually stand upright inside. There’s a funky little door and window. Maybe we’ll do something with it one day. In any case, we don’t want it to fall down now.