Hello,
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
Curly schrieb:
How do you handle the smell in the kitchen when you want to eat at the dining table in the living room, or do you always eat in the kitchen?
Best regards
Sabine Door open, door closed. How else?
My husband doesn’t cook enough courses for us to not manage with just two trips back and forth.
C
Caspar202017 Jul 2017 12:32kaho674 schrieb:
Door open, door closed. How else? Unfortunately, my husband doesn’t cook that many dishes, so we manage fine with going back and forth twice. The issue is that the smell doesn’t go away after cooking. In other words, if you’re concerned about odors, you should try to eat in the kitchen as well.
If you take the food to another room, the smells will follow.
Caspar2020 schrieb:
The issue is that the smell doesn’t go away immediately after cooking. In other words, if you’re worried about odors, you should ideally also eat in the kitchen.
If you take the food to another room, the smells will follow.Oh, I can’t confirm that, though. The smells in the dining/living room are minimal and disappear quickly if you open the window wide. But in the kitchen, the odors often linger for about half an hour. Even with the range hood on and the door open, the air can get quite stuffy in the kitchen. But not in the living room. I don’t know why. Probably something to do with my husband—I’ve always suspected that.C
Caspar202017 Jul 2017 13:24kaho674 schrieb:
Despite the extractor hood and opening the door, the kitchen sometimes has poor air qualityAnd you’re worried about microwaves and cancer?
If you cook like that or don’t have a working range hood, your husband is sitting in a thick fine dust cloud. Since the room is small, the concentration is higher than in an open kitchen with a properly functioning range hood.
I’m curious to see if getting the Bärbel will be worth it in terms of odor control. And what additional ventilation will bring here. Otherwise, it always depends on what’s available. For example, meatballs aren’t something we do in the kitchen here. They’re better made on the gas grill [emoji28]
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