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In our home, there is no dining room. Instead, the kitchen is split between the food preparation area (the oven, counter, sink, microwave, etc.) and the "dining" area.
However, many houses, both old and new, have separate dining rooms and kitchens. Some particularly grand homes even have separate informal and formal dining rooms. For older (say, pre-WWII) houses, the purpose of the dining room / kitchen separation was so that servants would cook in the kitchen and the inhabitants of the house would be served in the dining room (or as a relic of that practice). And many people, even though they have a dining room at their disposal, still take most of their meals at home in the kitchen, reserving the dining room for entertainment (I can only imagine what those with separate informal and formal dining rooms do).
What's the practice at your home? Do you have a dining room, a table in the kitchen, or do you just admit to eating all your meals in front of Judge Judy or city-data.com forums?
We have an eat in kitchen so our meals are eaten there. Sometimes we will eat our meals in the family room if a good tv show is on or a movie. I am kind of a stickler though when it comes to the TV. I prefer dinner time to be family time where we talk about our day and so forth.
I live by myself, so I can eat:
- in the kitchen ( I have a counter space between two bottom cabinets ) and use it to sit and eat, read or play with the computer. I eat there most often.
- in the living room ( I have lift top coffee table ). I eat sometimes there and watch Food Channel
- in the sun room ( I have game table with two chairs ). I eat there sometimes when the weather is beautiful and cool outside. Mostly on the weekends, or when I have company.
My dining room is converted to an office with desk, bookshelves etc.
I live by myself, so I can eat:
- in the kitchen ( I have a counter space between two bottom cabinets ) and use it to sit and eat, read or play with the computer. I eat there most often.
- in the living room ( I have lift top coffee table ). I eat sometimes there and watch The Food Channel
- in the sun room ( I have game table with two chairs ). I eat there sometimes when the weather is beautiful and cool outside. Mostly on the weekends, or when I have company.
My dining room is converted to an office with desk, bookshelves etc.
We do it the way I grew up. Even though my parents had a breakfast bar, an informal dining room, and a formal dining room, we ate every dinner in the dining room. Other meals were eaten in the kitchen or the informal dining room.
In our house, we have dinner in the dining room or the outside patio (our informal dining room LOL). Other meals are eaten in the kitchen. But if we have guests for breakfast or lunch, we'll use the dining room or patio.
Dinner is important to us because it's often the only time we are all together at once. Just because we eat in the dining room doesn't mean that we aren't casual and comfortable. It's not like we use the fine china and "dress" for dinner. We simply prefer to have a special place to gather for an evening meal.
We have a huge dining room that we use for parties, volunteer service meetings and formal holiday dinners....the majority of our meals take place at our breakfast table that sits in our bay window above our garage and looks down into our large garden with a beautiful meadow beyond - there is no fencing allowed....we never tire of the view. The variety of birds is profuse and of course all the critters - deer, fox, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks - it is a spectacular view and makes even a simple meal enjoyable.
In our home, there is no dining room. Instead, the kitchen is split between the food preparation area (the oven, counter, sink, microwave, etc.) and the "dining" area.....What's the practice at your home? Do you have a dining room, a table in the kitchen, or do you just admit to eating all your meals in front of Judge Judy or city-data.com forums?
I live in a condo with a largish kitchen that one could certainly eat in....if I had ever fixed it up that way instead of using the large table as a loading and unloading dock, and a place to pile laundry.
There is a dinining el in the livingroom, but I have a total revulsion to the idea of a dining table and chairs wasting the space and have put it to much better use.
Thus, I have totally justified the fact that I go out and eat dinner each day and sit at a table on the esplanada of a cafe overlooking the sea. It has one of the finest views in the country.
Occasionally, when one of the piles of laundry falls off the large table in the kitchen, I am reminded that perhpas it might be nice to go out to a cafe again for coffee and a slice of melon, and relax from the stress of household chores.
We have a very large dining room but only use it for parties, formal dinners and volunteer meetings...it is nice to have that room when we need it.
Most of our meals are eaten at our kitchen table in the bay window looking down on the gardens and meadow beyond....we never tire of it - it is a gorgeous view. During breakfast we use our binoculars and bird-idenitifcation books and spy on the birds taking baths and at the feeders....a ritual we enjoy.
On nice warm evenings we turn on the ceiling fans outside on the screened-in porch where we barbecue and eat there....a nice summery thing to do.
When we are working in the yard, I often make lunch and we eat outside in the garden at a small table by the fountain...we can only do this in the spring and fall....too hot in the summer.
I live in a condo with a largish kitchen that one could certainly eat in....if I had ever fixed it up that way instead of using the large table as a loading and unloading dock, and a place to pile laundry.
There is a dinining el in the livingroom, but I have a total revulsion to the idea of a dining table and chairs wasting the space and have put it to much better use.
Thus, I have totally justified the fact that I go out and eat dinner each day and sit at a table on the esplanada of a cafe overlooking the sea. It has one of the finest views in the country.
Occasionally, when one of the piles of laundry falls off the large table in the kitchen, I am reminded that perhpas it might be nice to go out to a cafe again for coffee and a slice of melon, and relax from the stress of household chores.
Sounds lovely....well, all except the piles of laundry falling off the table
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