Let me start off by saying that I really don't like losing the back staircase.
Back in 2004, when Bill was house hunting in the Boston area, he called to tell me about what is now our house. Three things immediately grabbed my attention—the second floor fireplace, the front landing, and the back stairway. These are features I've always associated with great old houses, and I loved the idea that—despite some of the drawbacks of our place, most notably its relatively small size—this one had all three.
We planned our renovation to capitalize on the first two of these features. The upstairs fireplace will get tons of use when the renovation is complete, since Bill will certainly light it up regularly once I turn the office over to him (guess I'll have to find somewhere else to store my exercise ball). And the front landing will look even more dramatic once we expand it to create our new library area, complete with bookshelves, seating, and a large window.
Alas, we needed to sacrifice the back stairs to create space for the new kitchen. We considered re-opening the stairs to one of the upstairs bedrooms, and tucking storage underneath them in the kitchen, but finally decided that in a house this size, we really don't need two staircases.
So goodbye back stairs.You made a great "pantry" while we had you, stacked all the way to the ceiling with containers and pots and pans. But I guess there's no turning back now...