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I like open floor plans and always have. I like being able to have 50-100 guests in my house in large entertaining spaces. I have no use of a rabbit warren of numerous tiny rooms. I do like the caterer's kitchen to be well cordoned off from public spaces.
Most of us have just one kitchen, not a second caterer's kitchen, so all of the mess and activities you like to hide in your caterer's kitchen are all out there on display in our one kitchen with an open floor plan.
Most of us have just one kitchen, not a second caterer's kitchen, so all of the mess and activities you like to hide in your caterer's kitchen are all out there on display in our one kitchen with an open floor plan.
I don't like an open floor plan in an office and I hate it in a home. I think as humans we enjoy our privacy in the office and at home, too. It is stressful and hard to concentrate in a open floor planned office and at home you want to sometimes be by yourself for a time.
I hope not. I've had three homes, and would never buy one that wasn't open floorplan, or that could easily be converted to open floorplans.
I HATE the old-style separated look. Terrible for get-togethers, terrible for interacting with family members, and makes the house feel small, outdated, dark and cramped.
As I pointed out in one of the other threads on open floor plans, they are not efficient in northern areas. Having lived in an open floor plan in VT for several years, it was terrible. All the heat would get drawn from the first floor to the second floor through the stairs. No way to close the rooms off from the stairs to stop it. With an open floor plan you also can't simply turn off or turn down the heat to a room not being used. You have to heat the whole place.
Obviously you can have two climate zones. Problem solved.
My house in not an open floor plan while its being rebuilt we live in a rental that is. The dishwasher to me is loud when I try to watch TV if your talking in the living room you can hear it in the bedroom,. If I got to bed early I hear the TV. I hate the fact if things are out (crafts etc)the rooms look messy. I can hear the washer because its off the kitchen, so i have to turn the TV up, the house is over 2000 sq ft. Open floor plans are great when you have children so you can watch them while cooking. Although our house isn't open floor plan we have wide open doorways to the kitchen from the living room and dining room so you can see whats going on but it gives it a cozier feel. I like that 2 of the bedrooms downstairs are on their own hallway with 2 bathrooms. The Master bedroom is quiet can't hear TV from the living room.
Obviously if we had better appliances in rental noise wouldn't be as bad.
As I said at the outset, builders just build open floor plans without even thinking these days. It's pretty much a knee-jerk reaction. It seems to be the hip and fashionable thing for builders to do, because they don't even seem to question it.
Designers must push this concept also. Years ago, friends did a major remodel during which they removed all adjoining doors between their kitchen, breakfast area, dining room and living room. When it was finished, it was one LARGE room. Beautiful, and they were thrilled with it. I was astounded. And there was nowhere to go except the bedrooms if you wanted privacy. If you were cooking, you heard whoever was watching television, if reading a book in the former living room, the teenage kid running in from the pool...
Having lived in both types of homes, I prefer the walls between the rooms. I don't care how "dated" it looks.
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