We removed the TV from our first floor before Xmas so I could rearrange the furniture. I love not having one on the main level. Our big tv is in our family room on the third floor and there is another in H’s office. House was built 100+ years ago and we can’t hear the TVs from the bedrooms or on the first floor.
Big change from our open concept last house which had a two story great room open to the kitchen and dining room. Noise traveled everywhere.
We are currently in a home that is far too large for us and the layout really doesn’t fit our lifestyle now. It’s a split level with a small kitchen, formal dining and living room, half bath, master (w/full bath) and office upstairs. Lower level is laundry, family, three bedrooms, full bath. Our lot is around an acre. It is a lot to keep up for two people and I would love to sell - but there is nothing to buy! D recently relocated to the West Coast but she doesn’t anticipate it will be a permanent move. We want to retire near her, so are putting off big decisions. For now I think rearranging the house might be the best option.
@Colorado_mom my house is similar in that our first floor has no doors. Our house is narrow, due to lot size, so it is set up railroad style with one room leading to the next. Each room is distinct and separate but rather than doors between, there are large openings between them. Our kitchen is in the middle of the house, with our family room as an addition off the back (it was originally a large screened in porch). Fortunately, the working part of the kitchen is not totally visible from the family room but because there are no doors, the noise reaches the family room. It’s not the “great room” concept but still has the noise of one.
Stairs to our bedroom level are also off the kitchen from the table side, and the tv noise carries up to the at least one of the bedrooms. We don’t watch much tv in the evenings anymore but when my kids were young, before tablets/streaming, we did occasionally have the tv on and had to keep the volume down.
I suppose once we are empty nesters kitchen noise won’t be as much of an issue. Even still, I have never been a big fan of the great room concept. I guess the introverted side of me appreciates having separate spaces.
I actually love my current house…except it’s too big for our needs now.
We aren’t big TV watchers and have only one sort of smallish TV in the family room. Our main floor has an open kitchen/breakfast room/family room which is our main living area. The living room and dining room are on the opposite side of the house.
I love the LR…it’s never cluttered or messy and is a nice quiet place to sit and read or whatever. Our piano is there too…so I do practice that on occasion.
My dream home will be like many I have seen in the south. The center core of the house will be a great room/kitchen/eating area. Master will be on one side of this with full bath. Two additional bedrooms with full bath on the other side. All one floor.
Yes, the television could be a major roadblock of open concept. While I personally don’t like the tv on and never turn it on until after dinner when I’m home, H is retired and DOES like one on - for watching and honestly I just think it’s white noise for him as he does other things. I actually think sometimes he doesn’t know it has an “off” button because he will leave it on and go do errands and never think of turning it off! I don’t like his tv habit, but…our home is his home too - so I try to find middle ground when I’m home with that. We actually watch tv separate in the evening - we watch no common shows. Thus the need for two living spaces, even if not large.
Your dream home sounds like mine. My neighbor has that layout - I think the plan was featured in Southern Living.
If anyone opts to build their open concept dream home, I highly recommend adding sound proofing to the bedroom walls and solid core doors.
Adding a screen porch to our house was the best thing we ever did. I only wish I’d made it bigger. It just barely fits a small serving cart, a love seat and a round table that seats four. (It could do five or six if it had a better leg arrangement.) We use it as long as the temperature is over 60, though sometimes that means wearing sweater plus fleece! We’d probably use it even more if we’d ever invested in one of those heaters. We have a small backyard, but it’s pollinator heaven and it’s lovely out there.
I will be adding sound proofing to the bathroom walls!
I love love love our screen porch! We have a lovely patio now too (just added last year) but I prefer to eat on the porch certain times of the year because of the bugs. We are getting ready to turn it into a four season room so we can have heat over the winter and use it year round.
This is us too. We’ve only ever had one and it’s the smallest size flatscreen they had when we bought it - perhaps 32"? Maybe 28". I’m too lazy to get up and measure it. Whenever our family is watching something, we’re all watching it. No one has it on otherwise except for catching the news sometimes. When our kids were young everyone got to pick a show we’d watch, rotating daily giving everyone their choice. (Almost always one per day - and never cartoons - always shows adults would enjoy too - nature, history, fun series, etc, - lots of options.) Even now with adult kids living with us we still do that - though now we tend to agree more, so it’s not super often that someone is sifting through the options for a choice.
Our kids don’t plan on owning a TV. They watch things on their computer.
I understand what others are talking about though. FIL has a news station on all the time. It drives me nuts. He occasionally varies which news station, but they all drive me nuts. It’s all repetitive and usually doesn’t cover much in actual news - just whichever station’s project of the day. Days can get repetitive too. I rejoice when he chooses a weather station, but guess what… it gets repetitive too.
I’m not sure how people can watch the same thing over and over and over and over again. I’m glad that’s not the case with anyone living with me.
My parents had the TV on constantly too, especially as they aged. I think they felt like they had company.
Bet our generation will be different because we communicate with each other in places like this!
I would never have thought of noise from multiple TV’s being a problem since we have only ever had one TV in our house.
I think I’m especially sensitive to TV noise. My father developed hearing issues in my teens and had to turn the volume up ridiculously loud, which became even louder when shows went to commercials (never understood why the sound from commercials was louder?!). Thankfully now for my mother’s sake, they can turn on CC so the volume can be kept at a reasonable level.
As a result, tv noise, especially when sports are on with crowd noise, really bothers me. Basketball is the worst, with the squeaky sneaker sounds on the court. I can’t even sit in the same room and read sometimes. For the most part, that is mostly what our tv is used for - for dh and my kids to watch sports, and they manage to watch it all if they aren’t busy doing something else. We even have a large basement TV but they prefer to be in the family room. Perhaps this is why I don’t want a great room concept in any future home.
It’s increasingly looking like we will have to build to get what we are looking for. We’ve been looking on Zillow for possible homes in the areas on our list but have only seen few that match what we are looking for. So plan for now is to drop daughter off to start college in late August then take a month or two to settle on our area, and find a builder. Fun, fun.
Because advertisers know folks get up and walk to the kitchen or wherever during commercial breaks…and they want to be sure you hear them!
Not sure how it is in your area, but the reputable builders/contractors where I live are scheduling out new jobs a year or more out. Plan your timeline accordingly ; )
My house is large but I don’t feel a need to downsize. While large it still works for us. The way our house is laid out the other bedrooms are on the opposite side of the house and we just close off that wing unless we have guests. We don’t have a formal dining room. We do have two separate eating tables. A large table in part of the family room that we use when we have a larger group. We have a 6 person table in our kitchen area that we use daily. The family room and kitchen are connected open to each other. We have a separate living room that doesn’t have a TV and I like to read in there. Like some others I also like that it’s always clean and uncluttered. The way my house is laid out I walk through the living room to get to our master side of the house. Our main living areas all have large windows and sliders that go out to our outdoor area. Whether I’m in the family room, kitchen or living room I feel like I’m connected to the outdoors.
Where I’d be happy to downsize is our lot size. We have over 2 acres and it all needs work. I’d love a smaller yard that I could manage.
I did the same with my kid’s school stuff. Went through it with both of them. We threw away most of the stuff and they took some stuff as well. We still have our son’s stuff because he’s in college and he hasn’t 100% moved out of our house yet.
We have friends with your same sq. footage who say the same.
We are in 5400 sq. feet and have only one room that is not used, but it’s about to become a home gym.