And the Stairs are Gone!

Upon entering the house you used to immediately walk into a very narrow and steep staircase... one that "klutzy" me was sure to trip on:

But now it looks like this:

What do you think?

It is amazing how much more open the house is... removing the original staircase was one thing that when we walked through the house before even having plans, we talked about doing. It is a great feeling to see something that was in our "vision" becoming a reality!

Once removed, we also realized that the opening from upstairs was actually pretty cool and gives a very open feeling to the house and lets in more natural light. We had never talked about keeping this opening and it was not in the design - but now we think we may make some changes and keep it:

It is cool to see how much is going on over there!