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Lolly88
Posts: 322 Forumite
I've been looking at properties for months now online and keep noticing houses with a dining room, a family room and a living room. The latter two rooms tend to be furnished in the exact same way i.e. sofa's with TV in the centre. I've looked it up on wikipedia and the description of a family room doesn't map onto what I'm seeing in houses. This is a really alien concept to me and I just don't quite understand the function.
Here's an example:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69170432.html
In that house if possible, I would be tempted to knock the wall down and just have one big living room.
Do people with these houses take turns sitting in the different rooms? I could almost understand if there is a big family and they have different viewing preferences etc. However as someone who is going to be buying alone and doesn't own or want to own a TV, I'm wondering about other uses for rooms like that?
Here's an example:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69170432.html
In that house if possible, I would be tempted to knock the wall down and just have one big living room.
Do people with these houses take turns sitting in the different rooms? I could almost understand if there is a big family and they have different viewing preferences etc. However as someone who is going to be buying alone and doesn't own or want to own a TV, I'm wondering about other uses for rooms like that?
Homeowner
:j
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Comments
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Rooms are rooms until you put your own furniture in them and do in them what you wish. The naming of rooms will depend purely on the local words used by the local estate agents and the current trends in room names.
They have to call a 3rd living room something.... one is a dining room, two is a living room .... after that the word for the next one will depend on the local market. In some areas it might be called the cinema room, or the hobbies room, or the den, or "3rd bedroom/study/office".
They're all meaningless. You can sleep in the kitchen if you wish once you own it.
What you ask yourself is: How would I move in that space, what would I do in each space....and then judge whether it's doable for your needs.
Some people like to have a living room for "inviting friends into" - and the other one's the "family room" which is an absolute tip with the ironing board still out ... but they can shut the door on that if anybody comes round.0 -
I think the point of this is for families as you say.
With children in the house a lot of parents like to keep the kids TV show watching and mess that children generally create separate to a nice, clean and a little bit more grown up space to relax of an evening. Hence the two rooms.Grocery Challenge Sept 2021 £95.40/£500
Declutter and Clean - 660 -
My understanding is that in a family room there are children's toys and play equipment everywhere - and the other reception room is the calm space where adults relax when the children are in bed, and where they can take visitors for a child-free chat.e cineribus resurgam("From the ashes I shall arise.")0
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Rooms can be anything you want - if someone wants two lounges, why does that confuse you? We are a family of 4 and could easily use a room each if we had the luxury lol. We have a downstairs room, originally the dining room, currently our 'den', formerly our office/study, temporarily a bedroom and soon to be a music/hobbies room.It was also our kitchen for a while while the real one was redone!
Not sure why you'd want a property with so many rooms as a solo buyer though especially if you can't think of uses yourself. Are you really asking why is good space divided into so many rooms? Its just the long standing nature of UK housing where land is at a premium, relatively small and dense properties, where generally one person is not expected to have (or to afford) too much space.0 -
Means nothing. Our third reception room was labelled “TV Room” in its listing.0
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Nice house! Can only dream of finding the equivalent down here.0
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And how do you use the three reception rooms? I'm not really bothered about the semantics of the name, more curious about how people use these spaces.
When you have a busy family you might have one room where a child is playing a musical instrument or noisy computer games or having friends around or watching TV. Then in another room another child may be sitting doing homework quietly , whilst in the dining room someone would be laying the table and preparing for the evening meal.
When you have a family with two adults and three older children they can all be wanting to do different activities and the children will all have different friends who won't necessarily want to interact. It's nice to have the space to spread out and enjoy life without annoying each other.
Even now with just two adults some days I am busy at my noisy sewing machine while husband is wanting to watch TV and hear it.
OP sounds like they have never experienced a busy family , strange !Decluttering, 20 mins / day Jan 2024 2/20 -
a family room is what others have already said, a space where standards may be lower in terms of mess and where the kids rule. The separate "lounge" is then the adult zone where standards are higher (perhaps!)
in the respect of the house referenced by OP, making one big "lounge" is not what I would do given the unfamily friendly nature of the kitchen & dining room. That is the wall I'd knock down and make it into a "family" kitchen diner. If you want to give posh dinner parties you can always temporarily convert the family lounge into the "proper" dining room and then revert back when the guests have left.0 -
oystercatcher wrote: »
OP sounds like they have never experienced a busy family , strange !
Thanks for replying.
People have different life experiences and personal situations, I don't see what's strange about that.Homeowner:j0
This discussion has been closed.
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