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
KingSong schrieb:
... then there is probably nothing worse than a host who constantly walks around trying to clean up everything, THAT is a real mood killer for me! In our case, it’s more that the guests all want to clean the kitchen afterwards. The times when I could call the whole thing a “party” are over. Back then, not only the kitchen looked like that and no one really minded. Nowadays, it’s more about family gatherings. It’s not common, for example, to feed each other pudding blindfolded, which regularly ended in pudding fights. But maybe I should bring that back on the agenda...
Joedreck schrieb:
Apart from the discussion, I realized once again that the walking routes and so on only really become clear after moving in.
Some routines you imagine nicely, but they turn out differently.
Yes, especially the path from the sofa to the fridge is often underestimated.
So, this is how parties go at our place: In the kitchen, there’s either a pot of mashed turnips with boiled sausage for the winter version, or a tray of pizza for the summer version, or the grill is fired up outside for fair weather. Everyone helps themselves. People just eat somehow. Then the plates go away, the drinks come out, music starts—and the rest you just have to let develop naturally. It works best if we get a bit wild with songs like Radar Love or something like that. The location of the kitchen doesn’t matter at all for a successful party... Karsten
C
chand198620 Oct 2017 10:12Climbee schrieb:
Basically: I have a dishwasher. Great appliance, I can only recommend it! And before I pile the plates on the countertop, they go straight into this cool thing and are out of the way. Why should I handle them twice?That made me laugh. I honestly don’t understand where the so-called "piles of dishes" that people claim to see sitting around the kitchen afterward are supposed to come from.
The first load runs during meal prep, quick cycle, and is done before eating. Unloading takes 3 minutes.
The second load handles most of the dishes after the meal. Baking trays can stay in the oven, pots on the stove remain. A quick wipe of the surfaces and the kitchen looks really presentable.
Where is the problem?
And honestly, if I have 20 or more guests, I set up a buffet with disposable plates and cutlery—there’s no need to make life harder for yourself.
I believe the issue usually isn’t the open-plan kitchen, but rather the organization before and during cooking.
A classic example from friends: the dishwasher finishes and is clean, but they start cooking again without unloading it first. It just doesn’t work; she knows that but has been doing it for as long as I can remember. And she’s been upset about the kitchen after cooking for just as long. What do I do? I unload it for her beforehand, "look, you can clear everything while cooking". Yeah, no chance. "I can’t, I’ve never done it that way and I won’t learn now." Honestly, she used the word "learn". Loading a dishwasher while things are in the oven.
She also only wants a closed kitchen.
I can imagine some others are similar. Anyone recognize themselves?
Similar topics