DIL posh family - advice needed

Parties? Large family gatherings, parties after a Christening, a wake, a special birthday, a Halloweeen party, even an adult party (with a Dirty Dancing theme!), our houses have accommodated them all. Sometimes, if the weather was fine, we used the garden, and had barbecues.
A house doesn't need to be huge to have a party. It's the guests that matter, the atmosphere and the nosh!

Our main home has a living room, dining room, study/snug and a small sitting room at the back of the house.
We tend to use every room but the heating costs are eye watering, we light a fire at weekends and hunker down in the sitting room and let the rest of the house remain cold!

We are currently staying at our holiday apartment, it’s an open plan converted chapel, we had to open windows on Friday as we were too warm as the sun floods the building.
Since Wednesday we have only had the heating on for around 4 hours!

I am loving living with what you need in a warm place rather than a cold house full of stuff we have collected and inherited.

I wish my husband felt the same, he’s not ready to downsize.

The fashion with new builds seems to be a completely open plan kitchen, dining area and living area, no partitions at all. I can’t imagine sitting for the evening virtually amongst the kitchen cupboards and with lingering cooking smells.

I can’t imagine sitting for the evening virtually amongst the kitchen cupboards and with lingering cooking smells.

No I wouldn't like that either, and we don't.
It's the extra light we benefit from, and why I had the work done.
Previously our lounge was quite gloomy and I realised I hardly used it. Now I actually get to enjoy my nice sofas, big television, and the view of the back garden, all at the same time!

Germanshepherdsmum

The fashion with new builds seems to be a completely open plan kitchen, dining area and living area, no partitions at all. I can’t imagine sitting for the evening virtually amongst the kitchen cupboards and with lingering cooking smells.

The extractor takes care of smells, which are of foods we love anyway. The cupboards aren't among the dining table/ chairs or following sofas areas or further following children's play spaces and library. Our kitchen work spaces end, full stop, no extraneous kitchen cupboards mixed in with the furniture.

I agree, open may not be for everyone, just as doors are not for us.

We've a lovely set of beautiful double doors from the kitchen to the mostly unused, old fashioned dining hall, living room, and foyer.

Who ever has time to sit long with dogs and children?

Modern homes have great open spaces to hide the fact that they are smaller than similar houses built 30 or more years ago. Were they to put walls and doors in it would show just how small they are.

It is also not easy to control heating in these big open rooms, you cannot limit the area that has full heating. Every room in our house has a thermostatic radiator valve, that means that each room downstairs is set at a differetn temperature accordingto whether it is being used or not.

I caught an interesting programme on R4 some time ago in which Laurie Taylor discussed the role of corridors in life and in literature. It’s on the Sounds app if anyone is interested- just search under Laurie T and corridors. Anyway, there was mention of how modern regulations don’t give people as much ‘neutral’ space as before, so we spend more time in areas with designated purposes, whether at home or in workplaces or municipal buildings, which gives us less time for gathering thoughts and psychological ‘resetting’. Modern houses often don’t have hallways or corridor-style landings that separate rooms, and offices are often open plan, so people are ‘always on’, which has an impact on anxiety and so on. I don’t remember all the detail, but it was interesting.