Lounge/ diner - am I making a massive mistake?

[Wiggleroomm]

Lounge/ diner - am I making a massive mistake?

Fallen in love with a house which is great size, characterful, modernish (despite the longe diner), gorgeous well developed south facing garden and decking area, big bedrooms and lovely road with outstanding schools….. however it has a large lounge / diner and no other rooms downstairs. There is potential to knock through but it’ll be costly and we will have no money left after purchase. We already need to build a new bathroom upstairs and potentially separate one of the large bedrooms, strip wall paper and buy an outdoor storage facility.

I’ve only ever known a social, eat in kitchen - there not even room for a brekky bar.

Do you think we’ll get used to it or regret it forever? How fundamental is a kitchen / diner as opposed to a large longer / diner?

We are a family of four. One older child and one baby. We’ve also been looking for nearly a year - sold our house so could potentially lose buyers if we don’t find somewhere. No prepared to rent and with it coming up to October I feel like we’re at the the end of the housing season so need to find somewhere and settle really.

Thanks 🙏

Separate small kitchen you can shut door to is fine

I've lived in a variety of houses as an adult, and in only one of those you could eat inthe kitchen. Its nice eating away from cooking mess and smells (and noise from washing machines, extractor fans etc)

It's fine. We have a separate kitchen and it's mildly annoying with the 1 year old, but generally I can keep him entertained in the kitchen when cooking. It's nice to shut the door on the mess and the sound of the washing machine. Having the separate spaces is good when DS1 and DS2 need some time apart.

There’s always a compromise on something you want, when buying a house! This doesn’t sound too bad. I agree with pp, being able to shut the kitchen door on the mess is a bonus!

It’ll be fine. It’s a bit of a pain with young babies and toddlers as you can’t watch them play while you get on with jobs in the kitchen, but as soon as they are past the “watch at all times” age it’s not an issue.

Is there any scope to knock a hatch through from kitchen to diner? Old fashioned but would solve a lot of practical issues including the keeping an eye one.

A kitchen you can shut the door on is a huge advantage in my book! Also for heating, sound, socialisation reasons. If you ever get a dog, if you struggle to keep it tidy 24/7 (aka normal life)

It’ll be fine and if not you can knock through eventually

How does it work though if there’s no where to sit down in the kitchen? This is what I’m worried about… as usually one goes in kitchen and one in lounge if time apart is needed x

We have a large diner/lounge and it works well. We looked at new builds with generous kitchen/diner but the lounges were so small you couldn't get two sofas in. And you would be so close to the TV. DH and DS are both over 6ft tall and love the space to stretch out.

This is our current set-up, but we always knew it wouldn’t work for us — DH likes to cook and have people over for meals, so having a kitchen with nowhere to sit was never going to work, and we always knew we were going to need to extend the kitchen so it could include a dining table and a seating area.

A lot probably depends on your layout, though — ours is annoying in that food has to be carried through two halls to the room we eat in. If it were a matter of just walking through a doorway, it might be ok?

We have a step stool so DS1 can reach the sink, they both just use that as a seat. I can move it round to wherever it's not in the way. There's a blank bit of wall that we have a blackboard on too, although that turned out to be pretty aspirational as neither of my two are "let me just quietly draw" types!

We had a hatch RIP but sadly no longer but it was perfect, worked really well and the grandkids adored playing peek a boo with it.

I haven't voted because I think this is more nuanced than a yes/no situation.

We bought a similar house when our DC was 2yo with every intention of doing a major restructuring of downstairs to make a big kitchen diner and a smaller sitting room. It then was 6 years before work even started due to planning delays. It did eventually happen but I really disliked the years with the bad layout.

One thing you should take into consideration with a layout like this is how much of the time you will have to leave your little one alone if the kitchen is so small. Obviously whilst still baby-sized you can use a sling but think about what a toddler/3yo/4yo is going to be doing while you are cooking or clearing up after meals. If there's no room for a breakfast bar is there also no room for a high chair or toddler table? I didn't find that keeping an eye through a hatch was at all a satisfactory solution and DC was alone far too much.

I think having a separate kitchen is fine but having only one reception room would give me pause.

The room then has to be dining and sitting room and play room all in one and it gets messy and difficult to do separate things.

I would consider a separate kitchen, dining room and sitting room, but not a combined dining/sitting room

I have never had an eat in kitchen but finally just had decided to extend and have one. Enjoying having one but it wouldn’t ever stop me buying a house if it didn’t have one. This house sounds lovely. It will allow you to get on with your life. There are always compromises.

you.

We have a lounge/diner and a small kitchen. We recently redid the kitchen so that it is more spacious and we can have 3 or 4 people stand and chat in it now whereas before there didn’t feel enough room. No room for a table or breakfast bar though (I attempted a breakfast bar as part of the Reno and once it was in, it was far too small so we just recessed some shelves creating more floor space).

It’s not my preferred layout - when we move I will be looking for a large sociable kitchen but it depends on what your priorities are. If you need a bigger house for the bedrooms for example then it sounds like it might be worth going for it.

I think it's just a personal decision that only you can know how important it is.

I wouldn't buy a house with a kitchen with no space for eating, as we use the kitchen as a big social space. The kids like to do stuff at the table while I'm cooking or sit up at the island to have their breakfast while I'm making lunches etc. It's probably the most-used space in the house up till after dinner. So for me, that would be a deal-breaker unless there was scope to change things around to extend it or similar. It's what I look for when fantasy home shopping!

But that's just us, everyone's preferences and how they use the spaces in their home differs, so it's not really about what others would do but of how important you feel it is overall. And also if you can change things around in the future to suit what your family wants/needs.

Also it might be livable with if you can change it in the future as a short-term thing (and you might find it works okay for you during that time and don't feel the need to change).

That would really put me off tbh. It’s really old-fashioned. I like having a kitchen in which everyone congregates and can sit and relax.

it would be a no for me as a permanent situation but I’d consider it if there’s a future possibility to separate the lounge and diner with a stud wall and open up the route between the kitchen and diner. My parents have a double wide door between kitchen and dining room which can be enough to make it work together.
if the kitchen didn’t open directly into the dining part of the big room though it would be a no from me.
as the dc approach teenage two rooms people can sit in downstairs is very much appreciated.

Would it be possible to add a conservatory on the back to add a bit of extra living space?