Beacon Hill Build Resumes

I don't recall when I last worked on the Beacon Hill. Apparently I didn't photograph the work already done. 

This is what the studio looked like this afternoon. The BH is buried under stuff on the back table. My work table (on the left) is buried with some of Lloyd's building boxes. His table is holding the skeleton of a papier maché sculpture. I spent an hour or so and managed to get surfaces cleared and push Lloyd back into his area.

Once the house was on the worktable, the question of the wall between the foyer/dining area and living room came into play. I've decided that the foyer/entrance will be just that. It's way too small for a dining room for such a fine house. The plan is to make the room to the left a dining room and pretend that the kitchen is in another building behind the main house, an arrangement that would not have been unusual at the time.

The next two photos show the walls the way they are designed. I don't like the way it blocks the view in to the living room.

Here's option No. 1: move the leading part of the wall into the foyer area. This opens up the view into the living room yet keeps the spirit of the wall-jog from the original plan. It adds an inch (one foot) to the living room. The slots in the floor need to be dealt with. Shouldn't be that big a problem. Rugs, maybe.

Option No. 2 takes out the jog and slants the near part of the wall. This really opens up the living room. In an effort to make the moved wall line up with the wall on the floor above, it creates a slanted wall which looks silly, now that I've had a chance to study it. No matter what happens to the wall, I want to move the door into the living room. I'll use the new cut-out to fill in the original doorway.

Option No. 3 occurred to me as I typed the above. Why not just straighten out the wall completely? I slid the staircase into place and realized that if the wall is straightened, it fits precisely.

The living room is now lovely and spacious. So spacious, that I'm thinking maybe to cut the new doorway but leave the original one.

Seen straight on, the new wall placement lines up with the backside of the closet on the floor above. This pleases my need for order.

Next step: Cut out the new doorway and then glue the pieces of the "new" wall together.