Open Door Surgery

Our dining room before felt a bit cramped at times. There was a big honking radiator under the window and the opening to the living room was off center, small, and had double doors. They were nice doors however, gumwood with leaded glass inserts. We sold them.

So with the radiator and window gone we felt that we needed to do something to open up the room and get some light in there. Rob’s mom had suggested before the reno started to open up the dining room to the living room and that was a really good idea. The changes give us substantially more dining room area and when we have large gatherings we can spill out into the living room, if we have to.

Since we lost the window, the dining room is darker, however we will be painting out the wainscotting, which I think will make it alot brighter. That coupled with the wider opening should do it.

Leaving Radiator Springs

Besides the addition, there is significant work to be done on the old house. New wiring to replace the original knob and tube, new windows, and new heating and air conditioning amongst others. Our house was heated by hot water and radiators. Those are being replaced with a forced air gas heating system. Step one in this process is removing the old equipment. We located a fellow who specializes in this type of work and in about a day he removed all of our cast iron radiators, piping, and the old boiler system. It’s a dirty job and very labor intensive. Those radiators weigh a ton!