A wall where there wasn't a wall where there was a wall

Picture it... It's 1990 and new tract homes are introducing the "Great Room".  This is a room in which a living room, family room, dining room and kitchen all exist in the same space.  If that's what you like and it works for you... great... buy a new tract home or build your own custom home and have a "great room".  Don't take a historic property from 1926 and try to turn it into a modern home... that always takes a turn for the worse and you end up ruining what was beautiful and unique about the house.

Sometime around 1992, a wall was taken out that divided the kitchen from the dining room.  The kitchen breakfast nook was no more and now you had this big open space where there once was a division that made for a more formal dining room and a less formal kitchen eat-in area.  We discovered this while looking through the original plans of the house.  Most historic homes in major cities have the plans archived in the city records office.  If at any point in time permits were pulled to remodel, original plans were included and saved.

One of the things that we most love about old homes is the fact that the rooms are all divided, but that those same rooms are all really ample in size.  I love the fact that you can go from room to room and discover another cozy corner to sit in or a window seat to lounge in etc...  There is some mystery and a sense of discovery in an old home that you just can't get in a wide open room in the newer construction.

The wall is going back up.

Our formal dining room becomes formal again and our kitchen now gets a built in breakfast nook with a window seat that you can sit at with a cup of tea while looking out into your yard.

We are matching an arch on the other side of the dining room wall because that is how it appears to have been originally and then using plaster to copy the texture of the original walls and matching the custom baseboard.

I hope the house is feeling more like it's old self again.