Our renovation plans originally called for leaving the guest bedroom at the front of the house intact, and simply having new window and door casings installed and having it painted. As seen in the the “Apex of Destruction” post, keeping the room intact was not feasible because a glulam needed to be installed slightly north of the room’s south wall. We then learned during second floor interior framing that “having it painted” was more complicated than we thought, as well.

Here’s the guest room before:

When the radiator was removed (to be chemically stripped, repainted, and reinstalled in the same place), we learned that the north wall was not as it seemed:

Instead of plaster-on-brick, some time in the past, someone added furring to the brick wall and installed dry wall. Because the radiator wasn’t removed the drywall under the left window was just dropped back there; it wasn’t actually attached to anything.

We’ll definitely be removing all of the existing drywall and furring. We’re now debating whether to replaster the room, or simply install drywall correctly. Since drywalling and plastering won’t occur for a while, we’re putting off this decision and focusing on other, emerging issues, like, “why not remove the entire linen closet and open up the stairwell space?”

The photo below shows the east side of the guest room; the linen closet (or, what’s left of it) is to the right:

The south wall of the closet forms the stairwell ceiling:

In reviewing interior framing last weekend, Natalie, our new architect, considered this space with a fresh perspective. If the linen closet was not critical, why not remove this entire structure and install a big-ass skylight over the stairwell to open up the space and allow more light to flow into the first floor?

This would also change the second floor hallway. Previously, it looked like this, facing the guest room door:

If we act on the suggestion, the little hallway here would be opened up, and a railing would run from the old newel post location to the guest room wall; the linen closet structure would be eliminated altogether.

The only problem? We’d lose the narrowest 5-panel door in the world . . .