You really need to take the house plans (if you have any) or set a meeting with a contractor or design consultant. I'm sure that you cannot just start tearing out walls without doing some research.

I do know that yes - I am looking for design ideas. I know that there is plumbing in some of these walls that would also have to move, but because I have known this house my whole life its hard to see past what already exists..

It looks like you might be able to open up the wall in the 3rd picture. It looks the dining room - not sure. You do understand that some of the walls are load bearing and will cost to remove them...right. If you can draw up a schema of your house and post, we might be able to offer a little assistance.

HI -- I understand how you feel . It is hard to have vision on something you have always known . Can you show a floor plan .. just a sketch of the layout to see how it's divided up.

Here is the floorplan of our house a really rough sketch

Perhaps, if possible switch areas of dining and family room. See if you can remove wall between kitchen and dining. If you don't use the dining room on a daily basis, then having the family room next to the kitchen would be much more advantageous.

You could have the kids within eye sight and be visible to them and guests when in the kitchen. Of course it would depend on how the kitchen is arranged and what is now on that wall separating it from DR.

Or do a half wall so you can keep counter space and cabinet space, but have the top half open.

I'm also wondering if I could just open some of the doorways a little more to get the open feeling.

You would have to compare costs for doing just one 1/2 wall or making several doorways larger. Making doorways larger will decrease wall space also.

When you say open up a little, arches come to mind. You might need to reconfigure your kitchen. I think the arches would definetly work between your breakfast nook and living room.

Hey, what about switching out the living room and dining room. Open up the wall between the dining room and the foyer.

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I don't know what you use the den for but a low cost alternative would be to make the breakfast nook a playroom for the kids since it's open to the kitchen and make the den the breakfast nook. A more expensive option would be to move the laundry and bathroom to where the breakfast nook is now (that way the bathroom is off the living room for easy access for guests) and turn the current den/laundry/bathroom into a kitchen/playroom. If you use the den for something specific obviously this would have to move, perhaps to the family room since the new playroom would now be more of a family room.

I had the same ideas as the others, which is to repurpose the rooms you already have. Except for the rooms with plumbing (kitchen, powder room, and laundry room) it's as "easy" as re-arranging your furniture. Make yourself another floor plan, but only label the rooms that have plumbing - and mark where your appliances and windows are. Imagine how your family can use existing spaces to their best advantage. With that in mind, then consider taking down walls, or creating half walls, or making larger doorways as necessary.