Today’s report is about another of our more interesting discoveries.

Some things left us scratching our head while looking at the various rooms prior to any deconstruction. Take the bedroom in the back, next to the kitchen, for example. It has a more or less a square footprint with that odd closet sticking out in one corner (just ignore the salvaged casings in trims in the picture below…).

Looking at the overall floor plan composition and architectural style of this house, this bedroom layout with the closet did not seem right. And it wasn’t! While taking the adjacent kitchen apart, we discovered a walled over doorway, leading into that bedroom.

Looking at it from the other side, the bedroom side, we did not only find that same door, but also plenty of evidence of a wall that must have been removed some time ago. The hardwood floor, for instance, stopped at either side of that former wall, and so did the wood lath in the ceiling, where the studs would have been.

Putting one and one together, we concluded that we found the former pantry that connected to the kitchen. Question is now: what are we going to do with it?

Leaving the bedroom floor plan as is, is out of the question. The wall that once was, has to come back. We could, in other words, restore the pantry, although the kitchen is already very large and offers a lot of storage possibilities. May be we can turn this into a half bathroom?

Yep, there was more to discover. Look at the door to the very left in the picture below. That is a very odd proportion for an entry into such a grand living room, now that we know about the archway (see also 06/13/2009 post).

The corridor leading to that door also didn’t make any sense at all. What’s the point of stepping through the front door into a small vestibule, and then into a dark, 12 foot long corridor with a small door to the side at the end?

I had difficulty to believe that an architect a hundred years ago would have included a space in a house that basically served no function.

It turns out that the oddly proportioned door was not original but added sometime later. And here’s the kicker. Look carefully at the living room wall below, and you may detect an interesting outline.

Behind that outline, we found a glorious double door entry way that once led from the corridor into the living space. Much better proportioned, wouldn’t you agree?

The functionality conundrum of the corridor is resolved too! In the corridor, to the left of the double door entry way, was once and walk-in closet for coats etc. Or – if you look at the picture below, the closet would have been at the very end of the corridor.

That closet had been removed once the new, oddly proportioned door was added. And why would someone remove that closet, add an odd door, close up the double door entry way and wall off the grand archway (see also 06/13/2009 post)? Well, to split the very large living room into two spaces, adding a front bedroom to the unit. Apparently not that uncommon in Chicago’s graystone and brownstone buildings.

It’s a real thrill and treat to discover the original architecture and layout and dream up plans about bringing it all back.

Gutting an old building can be pretty messy and hard work, but also a lot of fun. The building has been remodeled or ‘upgraded’ a number of times in its 100 year-plus history. Removing everything down to the outside shell and interior studs reveals all past alterations.

Take the basement for instance. It was easy to identify any original interior walls. They all had old growth studs (true two by fours), while all new walls had the nominal studs (1-1/2 by 3-1/2).

Just looking around the living room prior to any deconstruction, we got the feeling that the layout was something else once upon a time. Take a look at the wall below that separates the two living room sections.  Nothing too remarkable, but did you notice the baseboard that is short on the left side?

Look at the same wall from the other side, and you notice that the doorway was once about twice the size. Also look again at the baseboard and the upper trim. The patching and change in materials suggests a different layout from way back when.

Our suspense grew over the weeks, as did the theories on what the original living room layout may have been. We are now finally at the point where we can open up the walls to find out. It turns out that this very big living room was once sectioned off into two spaces by a very big archway, as hinted in the image below.

Look at the same ‘wall’ one hour later, add a little creative imagination into the mix, and you can envision the glory of this old archway that added a beautiful balance to the living room.