Would you tear down this wall?

[Drama Llama]

 

I am still trying to figure out what to do with my house.  

I have a small room that is supposed to be a dining room and a small kitchen.  It used to be an eat in kitchen, but we lost the eating space when we installed a bathroom. 

I really liked having an eating space in the kitchen, so the kids could do their HW or build their robots or whatever in the same space where someone is cooking.  I have that now in my temporary house, and we had it before we put the bathroom in and I love it.  

So, I am thinking of knocking down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, and making one bigger room.  If I do this, you'll basically walk in the front door and have the living room on it on the right, and the dining area/kitchen on the left.  There is also a small office type space off the living room, and a bathroom on the first floor.  

Do you think this would be OK for resale?  Or are people going to want a separate dining room?

This would solve the fridge in front of the door problem, which I need to solve.

[Ottakee]

Is the wall a load bearing wall?

[Drama Llama]

1 minute ago, Ottakee said:

Is the wall a load bearing wall?

 No.

I should add, when I say "Would you tear down this wall?",   I actually mean "Would you have professionals who know what they're doing tear down this wall?" 

[SKL]

I think I'd lean toward tearing down the wall.

If a future owner dislikes it, they can rather easily install a new wall.

[Katy]

I probably would. 

[kathyl]

Yes, I would.  Especially if the rooms are small to begin with.  It's nice to be able to keep an eye on the kids while cooking.  🙂

[ktgrok]

Yes, I would. Separate, formal dining rooms are meh. 

Or you could split the difference and put in a half wall..but I'd just tear it down unless I anticipated needing a space easy to gate off for a puppy or something. Then I'd want the wall or a half wall to make containment easier. 

[Drama Llama]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

Yes, I would. Separate, formal dining rooms are meh. 

Or you could split the difference and put in a half wall..but I'd just tear it down unless I anticipated needing a space easy to gate off for a puppy or something. Then I'd want the wall or a half wall to make containment easier. 

How much did my oldest child pay you to drop that in there? 

[ktgrok]

5 minutes ago, BandH said:

How much did my oldest child pay you to drop that in there? 

LOL! nothing. But when we were remodeling my kitchen at the old house my mom kept pushing me to tear out one of the walls. I told her no, because I needed to be able to get the toddler in with me while I was cooking. So ability to gate off a room is something I've thought through with kitchen walls, lol. 

[Arcadia]

I would knock down that wall based based on your description of your floor plan.

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

Separate, formal dining rooms are meh.

For my floor plan, the separate dining room is so enclosed that some neighbors installed a door and make it into a spare bedroom or home office. 

[Jaybee]

I probably would take it out as well, especially since it solves the refrigerator problem. I don't care for hugely open floor plans, but I do like some openness, and it sounds like it would make the rooms more pleasant to have it a bit more open on that side.

[Corraleno]

I'd remove the wall. I watch a lot of HGTV type shows, and knocking down walls to enlarge a small kitchen seems to be the #1 remodeling request. Very few people really use a formal dining room anymore; they mostly seem to get turned into home offices, and you already have an office area, so enlarging the kitchen will not only make the space more useful for you, it's likely to increase resale value as well.

[EKS]

I hate separate dining rooms, so if you end up selling your house to me, it won't be a problem!

[Drama Llama]

I guess my concern is that I feel like many houses have more than 2 rooms on the main floor.  So, while most families might not want a formal dining room they'll want a playroom or a family room or something.  We used it as a playroom when we had a table in the kitchen.  

It can't be an office because it's the only path between the front door, living room, and stairs to the second floor; and the kitchen, back door, and the stairs to the basement.  So, there is traffic back and forth all day.  

[katilac]

What rooms are upstairs? Is the basement finished or partially finished? 

It's not crazy expensive to add a wall back in, usually one to three thousand, so I'd probably tear it down unless I planned to sell within a couple of years. Even then, I'd ask a realtor. 

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

LOL! nothing. But when we were remodeling my kitchen at the old house my mom kept pushing me to tear out one of the walls. I told her no, because I needed to be able to get the toddler in with me while I was cooking. So ability to gate off a room is something I've thought through with kitchen walls, lol. 

Our living area is open floor plan - dining room, kitchen, and living room more or less in a circle. I lived the gateless toddler life, lol.

[Drama Llama]

4 minutes ago, katilac said:

What rooms are upstairs? Is the basement finished or partially finished? 

It's not crazy expensive to add a wall back in, usually one to three thousand, so I'd probably tear it down unless I planned to sell within a couple of years. Even then, I'd ask a realtor. 

Our living area is open floor plan - dining room, kitchen, and living room more or less in a circle. I lived the gateless toddler life, lol.

Upstairs is one bath, two bedrooms and a really small room without a closet, so not exactly a bedroom although it would make a decent nursery, which will probably be my office. 

Downstairs is a semi finished room that has some storage and some exercise equipment, and which we might eventually finish, and a garage that has a wood shop and bikes and sporting gear in it, and that you can't actually get to in a car.  

[katilac]

14 minutes ago, BandH said:

Upstairs is one bath, two bedrooms and a really small room without a closet, so not exactly a bedroom although it would make a decent nursery, which will probably be my office. 

Downstairs is a semi finished room that has some storage and some exercise equipment, and which we might eventually finish, and a garage that has a wood shop and bikes and sporting gear in it, and that you can't actually get to in a car.  

I have to make my obligatory statement that rooms without windows should never be used as a bedroom for children (not for anyone, really, but particularly not for children), because if there's a fire blocking the door, you have to be able to get to baby from the window. 

I know you're not going to use it that way, but that's my Pavlovian response to any mention of it. 

To me, it would come down to how long I planned to stay there (minimum), and whether I felt like tearing down the wall and then putting one back up again was feasible and affordable. Hearing the layout, I agree that the lack of 'extra' rooms might be a concern. I love my open floor plan, but we also have four bedrooms and an enclosed garage. Our kids shared a room for a long time and had a playroom, and the fourth bedroom was/kinda still is a craft room. Your setup would have been tough for us, and I think not super-popular in my area, at least not for families. 

If you're not sure you want to do it if there's a good chance you'll have to undo it, I'd ask a realtor. Things vary so much by region. 

[Drama Llama]

Just now, katilac said:

I have to make my obligatory statement that rooms without windows should never be used as a bedroom for children (not for anyone, really, but particularly not for children), because if there's a fire blocking the door, you have to be able to get to baby from the window. 

I know you're not going to use it that way, but that's my Pavlovian response to any mention of it. 

To me, it would come down to how long I planned to stay there (minimum), and whether I felt like tearing down the wall and then putting one back up again was feasible and affordable. Hearing the layout, I agree that the lack of 'extra' rooms might be a concern. I love my open floor plan, but we also have four bedrooms and an enclosed garage. Our kids shared a room for a long time and had a playroom, and the fourth bedroom was/kinda still is a craft room. Your setup would have been tough for us, and I think not super-popular in my area, at least not for families. 

If you're not sure you want to do it if there's a good chance you'll have to undo it, I'd ask a realtor. Things vary so much by region. 

It has a window, it doesn't have a closet.  But I need an office with a door that closes, because I do a lot of zoom meetings from home for work.  So, the kids will share the biggest bedroom.  

I plan to stay 9 years.

[LaughingCat]

I would tear it down 😄

However, we put a  big ‘window’ in our wall (load bearing) and that also opened it up considerably

[wintermom]

I'd vote for knocking it down to have the space the way you want it now. Enjoy your house for you and your needs. Don't fret about future design issues people you don't know may want. Chance are that if it makes really good sense for you, it will for most others, too. 

[Hannah]

Given the length that you plan to stay in the house, I'd do what is going to work best for your family.  It sounds like that will be to tear down the wall and make it into a larger eat-in kitchen.    If I was looking to buy I'd much prefer that to two smaller rooms.

[ktgrok]

maybe Florida is different, but I have seen many houses where there is just one great room, no separate living area or dining area. 

[Terabith]

Our house in San Antonio that I loved so much and am so sad we had to move out of had a huge kitchen with a doorway but no door that led to a dining room.  It was an incredibly open floor plan.  There was also a giant great room in the middle, as well as two smaller bedrooms and a bath on one side of the great room and a gigantic master bedroom that had an area that could easily be sectioned off as an office and a master bath on the other side of the kitchen area.  I LOVED the openness, and it worked so much better for interacting with kids, because I could be doing stuff in the kitchen and still supervise/ interact with the kids who might be playing in the great room or at the kitchen table.  

So I would take down the wall, assuming it isn't load bearing or otherwise necessary.

[Green Bean]

Everyone I know who had a house like yours either turned the dining room into a study (us) or blasted out the wall to have what you are wanting. Hardly anyone wants or uses a formal dining room. Tear down that wall!

Edited August 10, 2023 by Green Bean

[katilac]

On 8/9/2023 at 10:34 PM, BandH said:

 I plan to stay 9 years.

Oh gosh, yes, I would definitely do it.

[Carrie12345]

I’d ask several realtors. The market is local-specific right now, so I wouldn’t put anything into a house that will be snatched up, but I would have (seemingly) simple work done to improve in a slower area.