Rearranging Walls

Once in awhile, I get this bug. I look at walls and imagine knocking them down with a sledgehammer. Not because I have aggression issues, but because I want to change things up in my house. At our old house, I actually convinced Chris to take down a wall once, and I think we'd both agree that it was a great decision. The wall separated our dining room from our living room, and it was really refreshing to have a big open space.

Our current house was majorly renovated long before we moved in. Originally a three-bedroom ranch, it was converted into a four-bedroom colonial. Two of the original bedrooms were combined and turned into a family room, and the third bedroom was left untouched for the most part. An upstairs addition added three bedrooms and a bathroom. I suspect the kitchen also had a major overhaul, albeit sometime in the 80's or early 90's. While I'm no architect or designer, I can't help myself from looking around my house and thinking to myself, "Why the heck did they do it that way? What a waste of space!"

I think Chris secretly wants to run away from home when he hears me muttering about remodeling our house. Okay, so maybe it's not such a big secret. I can go months just going with the flow, and then suddenly I can barely stand to look at that half wall that annoys the heck out of me as it stands there innocently separating my tiny foyer from my dining area. I want to take the wall down that separates my kitchen from my dining area, and totally re-configure the kitchen cabinets. I'd like to take down at least part of one of the family room walls too, and switch our stair case around so that it opens into our living room instead of our family room. Of course I really don't know what I'm doing, or what is aesthetically proper. Maybe I just crave change, and sometimes rearranging the furniture just doesn't cut it. Eventually, though, one of these walls is coming down. Mark my word.

Have you ever given into the urge to take down a wall? How did it go? Did you make the right decision, or do you wish you could back in time and undo it?