Why do most houses I see have one living room or open plan kitchen?

[ohhfiddlesticks]

I'm looking at houses around 200k.

It seems that recently every house I see on the market has one living room and open plan kitchen. What happened to the two living rooms and separate kitchen?

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Or could it be that is what you can get for 200k?

Thanks in advance

Who the hell needs two living rooms?

It's not the price (though I knew like any property thread it would be a case of "£500,000 wouldn't buy you a brick in a crumbling garage in my area. Where possibly has houses for £200,000?")

There's been a change in how people live and use spaces. The kitchen is no longer a functional space to hide out the way for many people. It's an entertaining space.

If you want a separate kitchen then you're probably needing to look at 1970s properties and older, and look for the ones where people haven't already knocked through.

@LikeDuhWhatever, we use one and usually DS uses the other. He's got his computer and playstation in there, there's no way we'd allow those in his bedroom. When his friends are over they hang out in there (he's 14) and DH and I use the other living room.

Our place was open plan when we bought it; we put all the walls back in and built an extension for the kitchen diner.

@LikeDuhWhatever plenty of ppl have and like to have two living rooms, especially if you have kids. Our second living room is currently a playroom and will be the dc’s den/living room as they get older...then they can have friends round/sleepovers without getting in the way. We also positioned the room in a way that it could be a spare bedroom if we wanted too (we built/designed the house ourselves)

Our 2nd living room was a home office and is now a music room. It means dh can teach and ds can practise piano/composition/guitar or use the computer without impacting on the rest of the family watching TV or listening to music. Dd did her GCSE studying in there as it meant she didn't get distracted by general household comings and goings.

Who the hell needs two living rooms?

Why do some people completely fail to understand that other people think differently to them? I find this lack of comprehension quite bizarre.

@LikeDuhWhatever

Me. One we can all live in, and then another I can keep kid/toy/cat free.

I have no problem with a kichen diner, or even kitchen/dining/living space. But I also want a separate living room.

I hate open plan living. We need areas we can shut off from each other, and to have a house with one big kitchen diner living room, without having a separate living room, would drive me mad.
There are houses available here where I live which would meet your criteria, but as they say location location location, and this is very much out of your chosen area ;)

Lots of 3&4 bed new builds here have just one living area kitchen/dining/lounge combined. For £600k.

I think open plan is good for young children but for an older family separate rooms is much better.

It must be the price bracket or the style of house you are looking at. I've seen a few conversions go for this sort of Kirsty Allsopp approach. However, some of us want our kitchen smells in the kitchen or kitchen/diner but not in the living room

I personally wanted a house with a kitchen/diner and separate lounge but thats what I grew up with so probably why I like it. So thats what we bought. Ours is a pretty standard size 3 bed semi so if the kitchen was separate it would be tiny. I see the appeal, especially for people who enjoy cooking and entertaining.

Having a separate dining room feels weirdly formal. Also dislike lounge/diners as for some reason it feels smaller to me to have it that way around.

In an ideal world I would like a house with a huge kitchen/diner with maybe a space for sofas as well, separate lounge, office space, utility space and bathroom downstairs. But I don't have that kind of money.

We have an open plan living/kitchen/dining room and a separate lounge as well.
It was set up with a separate kitchen/dining/living originally and actually it was quite nice in some ways.

I like open plan for when the kids are younger but as they get older they need their own space as do we.