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Old 11-02-2014, 08:43 AM
 
Location: Pikesville, MD
5,228 posts, read 15,244,189 times
Reputation: 4846

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Wow, you really need some help if your scared of all those people seeing your house. So what if they see anything? Or maybe, just clean it up occasionally. As I said, most smaller houses from the '30s to the '60s had front doors that opened directly into the living space with the dining room and kitchen exposed simply because they were small, not because HGTV was telling them they needed an "open concept." How DID all those people survive having others see their stuff?
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Old 11-02-2014, 11:41 AM
 
3,158 posts, read 4,577,806 times
Reputation: 4883
Quote:
Originally Posted by TN2HSV View Post
being able to see all "my business" from the front door? I'm all for open layout between kitchen/casual dining/family room. But more & more I see (around here anyway) the the newer houses have absolutely NO privacy. I don't want someone walking up to my front door to see our cups & remotes & magazines (& kids toys) all over the family room! And I certainly don't want them to see my kitchen & the mess that might be in there. But a lot of homes are designed precisely like that.

I don't want totally separate, closed-off spaces at all. But I think we do all need a "buffer" between the front door/foyer of a home and the "guts" of a home where you do your day-to-day living.

What do y'all think about it?
Empty-nest here these days but we've had both over the years and agree, I like the privacy especially when our children became teenagers and between their friends, TV, music just way to much nose no real privacy while trying to cook or if we had sleep overs... When the kids were little the open concept was nice for keeping an eye on them while I cooked.. .. Plus I'm getting older so these days I don't like a lot traffic or company in the kitchen while cooking / baking because I do tend to forget did I add that or this ?? LOL

Last edited by WildCard~; 11-02-2014 at 12:23 PM..
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Old 11-02-2014, 06:57 PM
 
Location: Niceville, FL
13,258 posts, read 22,752,433 times
Reputation: 16414
Our house was built in 1982 and is 1701 square feet, which is almost exactly the average size for homes built in that year-1710. And yeah, it's the 'no waster space floor plan with a foyer that bleeds into the sunken living room and the master bedroom that's right off the living room. (Fortunately the builder was big into insulation and ifyou shut the door, you do not indeed hear the tv in the living room, even when the volume is quite loud.)

We have some walls between living room, kitchen, and dining room-turned-library. They're a standard door width (no door) between kitchen and library, about seven feet from library to living room/foyer area and 8-9 feet between living room and dining area of the kitchen. I neither have to feel self-conscious if I leave dishes in the sink nor exiled if I want to wash them while others are in the living room.

I like that you could pull the coffee table back and hold a small aerobics class in the living room. I spent too many years in apartments with cramped living rooms to go 'hey, living room seems a little too big; wish they would have had more hallway instead. I like that our master bedroom can more than comfortably hold a king bed and have lots of room for other furniture as well. I've seen a lot of homes that are 2,000 SF+ that live smaller than our house does.

And I love what we paid for so much useful living space in a smaller footprint and I will love it even more in 42 months when the mortgage is paid off and we're still in our forties.
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Old 11-02-2014, 08:51 PM
 
5,697 posts, read 19,108,689 times
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Not a fan of a complete open concept either. I like rooms. I wanted an open concept in regards to the kitchen and family room being open to each other but not the whole house. We have a formal living room that guests see when they come in. The family room and kitchen are in the back of the house. I like the layout and it took some looking! It wouldn't surprise me over time when people start putting up walls again.
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Old 11-03-2014, 04:04 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,572,966 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fallingwater View Post
Not a fan of a complete open concept either. I like rooms. I wanted an open concept in regards to the kitchen and family room being open to each other but not the whole house. We have a formal living room that guests see when they come in. The family room and kitchen are in the back of the house. I like the layout and it took some looking! It wouldn't surprise me over time when people start putting up walls again.

I agree! We were so determined to get away from the big, open cavern in the middle of the house that we ended up buying a house that was 17 years old, with formals at the front of the house.

I don't think that your arrangement (that sounds like mine) will ever be obsolete. While an open concept plan is popular, there are too many people out there who want some separation.
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Old 11-03-2014, 04:07 AM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,103,864 times
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eh, we want all open spaces with walls only for the bedrooms and bathrooms and either pocket doors or bi fold doors but more than likely pocket doors because I hate lots of closed off spaces, walls and doors.
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Old 11-03-2014, 04:27 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,572,966 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CSD610 View Post
eh, we want all open spaces with walls only for the bedrooms and bathrooms and either pocket doors or bi fold doors but more than likely pocket doors because I hate lots of closed off spaces, walls and doors.
Have you lived in a completely open concept home before?

I'm asking because in our former home, we walked in and were like "WOW!" It was open concept - it had a wide foyer but it was wide open to the living room, kitchen and dining - with windows all along the back wall, tall ceilings, exposed beams, big fireplace, etc - it was truly beautiful. We were smitten by it...and then we lived in it for four years and our infatuation definitely wore off.

Actually I saw an immediate negative - it was difficult to "float" furniture in the cavernous space, and also, I had no walls to put things like cabinets and art on.

Actually my husband and I both sort of kept our dislike of it to ourselves for about a year because we both were sort of embarrassed to say we didn't like such a beautiful house. But finally we brought it up and were happy that the other agreed. We sold the house within less that four years and when we were looking at other homes we intentionally walked away from open concept homes.

I like a modified open concept - maybe a kitchen and family room combined. But I want a completely separate den and I also want separate formal dining. One dining area isn't enough with our large extended family.
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Old 11-03-2014, 08:51 AM
 
Location: Madison, AL
1,614 posts, read 2,291,811 times
Reputation: 1656
Quote:
Originally Posted by Merc63 View Post
Wow, you really need some help if your scared of all those people seeing your house. So what if they see anything? Or maybe, just clean it up occasionally. As I said, most smaller houses from the '30s to the '60s had front doors that opened directly into the living space with the dining room and kitchen exposed simply because they were small, not because HGTV was telling them they needed an "open concept." How DID all those people survive having others see their stuff?
Your tagline is accurate. You ARE a big meany. I'm not scared. It's just my preference. And, my house is very neat & clean, thank you very much. You made an incorrect ASSumption on that comment.
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Old 11-03-2014, 11:13 AM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,103,864 times
Reputation: 62664
Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
Have you lived in a completely open concept home before?

I'm asking because in our former home, we walked in and were like "WOW!" It was open concept - it had a wide foyer but it was wide open to the living room, kitchen and dining - with windows all along the back wall, tall ceilings, exposed beams, big fireplace, etc - it was truly beautiful. We were smitten by it...and then we lived in it for four years and our infatuation definitely wore off.

Actually I saw an immediate negative - it was difficult to "float" furniture in the cavernous space, and also, I had no walls to put things like cabinets and art on.

Actually my husband and I both sort of kept our dislike of it to ourselves for about a year because we both were sort of embarrassed to say we didn't like such a beautiful house. But finally we brought it up and were happy that the other agreed. We sold the house within less that four years and when we were looking at other homes we intentionally walked away from open concept homes.

I like a modified open concept - maybe a kitchen and family room combined. But I want a completely separate den and I also want separate formal dining. One dining area isn't enough with our large extended family.

We have and we like it the difference being when we build our "den" will be part of our bedroom and the "den" for guests will be part of the guest bedroom and the entire home will have lots of windows without window coverings.
I like natural light, hate curtains, draperies and any type of blind at all and we currently live out in the country and will also be out when we decide where to purchase land and build.

Our home is not spotless but it isn't filthy either, it is loved, lived in and hopefully welcoming and inviting and if someone comes to visit us they are welcome anytime, if they want to inspect our home they will have to make an appointment.

We don't do "formal" anything even when we have guests most everyone is helping in the kitchen or at the grill or both then we all smush around the table, say grace and have a great time.
We are more of a tea (stained) shirt, blue jeans, beer and wine in a box family who gather to enjoy each other and we don't care about space or lack of.
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Old 11-03-2014, 02:07 PM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,572,966 times
Reputation: 101051
Quote:
Originally Posted by CSD610 View Post
We have and we like it the difference being when we build our "den" will be part of our bedroom and the "den" for guests will be part of the guest bedroom and the entire home will have lots of windows without window coverings.
I like natural light, hate curtains, draperies and any type of blind at all and we currently live out in the country and will also be out when we decide where to purchase land and build.

Our home is not spotless but it isn't filthy either, it is loved, lived in and hopefully welcoming and inviting and if someone comes to visit us they are welcome anytime, if they want to inspect our home they will have to make an appointment.

We don't do "formal" anything even when we have guests most everyone is helping in the kitchen or at the grill or both then we all smush around the table, say grace and have a great time.
We are more of a tea (stained) shirt, blue jeans, beer and wine in a box family who gather to enjoy each other and we don't care about space or lack of.
Gotcha. Though those aren't the reasons we disliked the open concept. We are informal as well, and are a pretty loud, boisterous bunch, and we love to entertain. We needed more dining space than just the one dining area - that was apparent very quickly, even though we had a large, long bar that could seat four. With six chairs in the dining area (and no room to pull the leaves out and seat more at our table that can seat twelve!) we just didn't have room to host the big get togethers we like to host. We have four grown kids and two sets of elderly parents and seven grandkids - WHEW! Oh, and three siblings and their families! So we really needed a formal dining room as well as a big eat in kitchen.

But my two biggest issues with the open concept floor plan are the lack of walls, for pieces of furniture that I LIKE, like antique armoires, china cabinets, pianos, that sort of thing, as well as our art collection, which is pretty big.

The other issue was simply the noise level. When we had company over, there weren't many corners of the house where a few people could congregate and chat comfortably - it was like one big cavern. Kitchen noise, TVs, kids playing, etc - it was just too loud. Pretty - but loud.

That's why I asked if you had lived in an open concept home before. Like I said, our former home was beautiful - full of WOW factor - and when it was just the two of us and our dogs at home, it was peaceful and lovely. But with a large family...it just didn't work for us.

But variety is the spice of life. We sold it to a family who fell in love with it and they are very happily settled in - as I'm sure you will be in your new home, which sounds lovely.
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