Bare Stairs

Typical staircase, but after determining that the walls were not load-bearing, I saw a relatively easy way to open up the floor plan a little.

Before and afters from the living room and top of stairs.

During demolition. This was the bedroom wall which also formed a makeshift closet above the staircase cieling.

The new loft-like floor plan begins to emerge.

Immediately after tearing out the staircase walls, I removed a lot of the old drywall and plaster, which is why the loft area (which is going to be an office/work space) looks like a barn here. You can see how it looks in a more finished state in the drywall post.

A set of old wires is all that remained of the non-load-bearing bedroom wall and doorway. These went away eventually, after my attic adventure when I rewired the second story.
The back wall of the hall closet is going to move to the front, turning it into a walk-in closet for the bedroom. More on that soon.