Because this house has arches.  Four, actually.  Which is four too many for our taste.  One separating the family room from the breakfast nook and kitchen.

An arched door in the family room near the top of the stairs.

One in the living room directly above the railing.  And one more from the dining room to the kitchen.

With the family room as our focus, it was time to tear three out.  All three are too close to the ceiling to have added our new crown molding above, have poorly patched sheet rock, and don’t fit our style.  I really detested the proportions of the corbels turned stopping point in the living room.  And the placement.  I understand wanting to visually separate a large expanse, but above the railing seems redundant.  It also makes the window and door look off centered.  Although, we did like the placement of the one between the family room and kitchen.  Ben started by taking out the oak columns on either side of the arch.

Followed by scoring of the sheet rock corners to reduce damage to the ceiling and walls.  Then pulled out the arch supports.

Leaving us with a two by four across the ceiling.

On to the next arch at the stairs.  Ben and Handy Sammy followed the same steps.

And left us with a beat up top door frame.

Now, we could have stopped there, as we had done the work for the family room side.  But, the arch above the stair railing would have been in the way of the new door trim (and we already had a big, dusty mess to clean) so we yanked out the last arch, too.

Ben’s favorite part of any home project is the demo.

And we’re already working on patching and rebuilding.  Stay tuned for the next episode of Arch Adventures.