One Less Door: Making Space and Making the House Make Sense

Let’s talk about the door we took off the living room. Or more accurately, the one we closed up completely.

If you’ve been following along, you already know we removed one of the original front windows to make space for Mike’s Indiana Jones wall. This was another one of those changes that might make some preservation purists clutch their pearls. But just like that window, this door was more of a problem than a feature.

Fun fact: when we first bought Pauline Manor, there was also an exterior door off the primary bedroom. Needless to say, I wasn’t about to sleep three feet away from an exterior door. I’ve seen way too many crime shows for that. So that one was the first to go.

This door off the living room was similar. It opened out onto the side porch but didn’t really serve a purpose. The previous owners had thrown up a makeshift storage closet over it, but we tore that down in the first month we lived here. The space needed to be reclaimed, not patched over.

So we removed the door, framed it in, and finished it with drywall to match the rest of the room. And suddenly, we had a full, usable wall again.

That one change opened up so many options. We were able to add a beautiful electric fireplace, and it became the perfect spot for our Christmas tree—something we never really had a good place for before. And on a practical level, it helped us seal and insulate the house better. That old door was drafty, poorly installed, and not doing the energy bill any favors.

Every little update like this moves us closer to a house that makes sense for how we actually live. And even though the porch might miss having a door, the living room sure doesn’t.