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I like an open floor plan. I am getting an open great room with open kitchen. It sounds like what you like, and I do too. In my house hunt I've seen several floor plans that have both a formal living room and a family room. It seems that some older homes have a larger living and a smaller family room. As the homes get newer, the living room shrinks or disappears and the family room becomes a great room with multiple functions.
If you want a kitchen open to the great room, then search until you find what you want. In my case I've had several "wants" and I had to settle for most of what I want. This is our retirement home as well. By this time in our lives, we should jolly well know what we want.
The great room has been around for decades though. I don't know why it is so hard to find. I see the best great rooms in the newest houses.
Pitt Chick you are right. Preparing your meals before the guests arrive is the best way to spend more time with them instead of preparing meals after they arrive. I believe having an open floor plan is also a good idea. When I visited my friend’s house, I noticed she too had an arch way leading from the kitchen to the dining room. This is a good way to catch all the gossip with guests whilst preparing your meals.Aussie Man & Van London | UK's Best Man With a Van & Moving Company - ManandVan.biz
There is no one more organized than I am in the kitchen and I clean as I cook so there is a minimum of mess but there are always last minute things to do for a meal - which requires the cook to be busy to some degree after the guests have arrived. We give large dinner parties on a regular basis and I taught cooking for several years and I love to cook.
Hot food needs to be served hot and cold food should be served cold and food needs to be presented nicely - this takes time and often quite a bit of time after the guests have arrived. If I am serving a baked dish or two, well, taking those things out of the oven has to be timed just right especially if it is a roast or other piece of meat/chicken that needs to rest before serving. Vegetables, mashed potatoes - that kind of thing - those aren't good cold - they need to be served hot and fresh from the stove or oven. This requires a lot of last minute juggling and perfect timing.
So the theory that the food should all be cooked and prepped before guests arrive is a good one but in all practicality it is very difficult to pull off. Even if you have cooked and prepped the meal and are totally organized, time in the kitchen prior to serving is required. I also find that as food is coming out of the oven, off of the stove and out of the fridge, pots and pans and baking dishes are flying and the kitchen becomes noisy and messy - this is the part I would prefer by guests not be present for but that is rarely the case - the kitchen is where everyone seems to want to be.
^^^^^Ditto. I started this thread and there have been a great number of very thought provoking posts on the pros and cons, which is what I was looking for. Ultimately we will make a decision, perhaps it will be as simple as "it just feels like home". I, too entertain like Cattknap and because I am in and out of the kitchen, I was thinking that maybe the open concept will work for me or maybe not.
Even if you have cooked and prepped the meal and are totally organized, time in the kitchen prior to serving is required. I also find that as food is coming out of the oven, off of the stove and out of the fridge, pots and pans and baking dishes are flying and the kitchen becomes noisy and messy
There you go. You're too busy in the kitchen to be chatting with people anyway. So why not have the kitchen in a separate room where no one else has to see the mess and chaos?
There you go. You're too busy in the kitchen to be chatting with people anyway. So why not have the kitchen in a separate room where no one else has to see the mess and chaos?
It's interesting - our guests love to watch me cook and we chat while I'm putting last minute things together - sometimes I'll hand someone an apron and ask them to help out - these are certainly not formal affairs at all but they are certainly fun. The last minute prep and presentation lasts no more than 20 minutes usually. Our kitchen is a separate room but it is good sized. Deciding what kind of house/kitchen works best for you is an important consideration and differs depending on your needs and desires.
I despise open floor plans. I like an eat-in kitchen where people can gather, but I don't want to have the kitchen on full display to anyone who happens to be in the living room (including myself). I don't want to hear the microwave, blender or dishwasher going while I'm trying to watch tv or be forced to look at the counters with all the appliance clutter from my couch. Yuck.
I despise open floor plans. I like an eat-in kitchen where people can gather, but I don't want to have the kitchen on full display to anyone who happens to be in the living room (including myself). I don't want to hear the microwave, blender or dishwasher going while I'm trying to watch tv or be forced to look at the counters with all the appliance clutter from my couch. Yuck.
We run our dishwasher all the time while watching TV. It's so quiet, we don't even hear it. As far as clutter, I tend to keep my kitchen clean and nice looking - not cluttered.
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Originally Posted by jamiecta
Different strokes I guess. I feel like it makes the home much more inviting
I agree. Our friends all love to cook as well, so when we have them over, we're usually gathered in the kitchen while dinner's being prepared.
We run our dishwasher all the time while watching TV. It's so quiet, we don't even hear it. As far as clutter, I tend to keep my kitchen clean and nice looking - not cluttered.
I definitely tend to keep a VERY clean house now with an open floor plan which I like. I always try to be neat, but it's funny how, when you have lots of separate rooms and doors to close, the rooms behind doors sometimes tend to stay "cluttered" because you can just shut the door when visitors come over :P. When everything is open we are even more on top of keeping stuff clean than I normally would be - but I actually kind of like that. It's an extra kick-in-the-butt to stay neat and organized
I really want a kitchen/great room open floor plan. I have seen a few homes that have the kitchen/dining room opening or arch way and the living room is on the other side of the formal dining room, with no view from the kitchen.
This is basically what we have. The kitchen is open to the family room. The living room and dining room are open to each other. There is a doorway from the kitchen to the dining room. There is an arch and an open window-like area from the living room to the family room. You can't see the kitchen from the living room. Hard to explain. Very open, but with very defined areas. I absolutely LOVE it!!! I would never want to go back to a closed up space. It's not just great for entertaining, it's great for daily living.
One think about entertaining, guests tend to stay on the other side of the counter bar when you're cooking. You can work and talk and they tend to stay out of your way, but close enough to have a conversation. Perfect!
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