Kitchen design rethink

Our electrician, Quentin, has pointed out the obvious solution to our dilemma over the layout of our kitchen. The kitchen is a terrible lay out:

• 5 doors, one on each wall, and an additional one on one of the longer walls.
• The staircase going up into bedroom 4
• The water heater next to the cooker

One of the doors leads into an office space at the front of the house. The office only has one other door, which leads to the front of the house and the outside world. The office is an addition to the house, and there are two windows leading into the space, one from the dining room and the other from the hallway. We'd always intended to take the window out of the hallway and put a door in its place, but the plan was to do that further down the line. However, Quentin pointed out that if we did it now we'd be able to fill in the door in the kitchen creating an entire wall to put counter top and cupboards on. It also means we'll now have space to put a sink in. It will also simplify moving the water heater, as it means we'll be able to run the pipes round the wall behind the cupboards rather than under the floor.

Before we could change our plans permanently, we had to check out the space around the window. The wall in the hall used to be an exterior wall, and therefore is load bearing. We were warned to look for a plinth in the wall cavity that shouldn't be removed. Luckily, when we opened the wall below the window, it appears the plinth is at the level of the floor in the hall.

So we've removed the doorway in the kitchen and made a start on removing the window. Removing the window was very hard work, clearly very well built. The original wooden shingles were still attached to the wall and in very good condition, which made them difficult to remove and we had to break most of the to get them off the wall. We're hoping we can use the old window sill at the bottom of the door as a step as it's a good solid piece of wood.