Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a thought.

What about putting the kitchen in the middle (the traditional dining room area and the proposed living room area) and the living room where the proposed kitchen is, at the back, feeding into the backyard via a nice terrace/deck, and the dining area up front.

Just to toss out an idea.

Great idea! (I'm not the OP)

That was my thought too. I'd hate having my living room area where I spend most of my time in the middle of the house and not directly by windows. Also think future buyers will be bothered by the weird layout of kitchen -->living -->dining area

We just moved into a new house and we inherited the seller's awesome and very solid dining room table (it's super heavy). They placed it in the great room (next to the living room). I'm not too happy with this setup, but we can't move it without a lot of help. So there it remains, but I would really like to move it in the area next to the kitchen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have the living room between the dining room and kitchen?

Is the 2nd drawing from the left the first floor? It's a bit confusing.

Yes, they are in order from left to right, the third floor, the second floor, the first floor and the basement.

The living room is between the dining and kitchen, mostly because I don't use the dining room that frequently and the middle space is MUCH larger (I don't need a table to seat 25), so I'd rather have more living space. However, I don't think there is anything going into either space that would force a future owner to use them in that way (i.e. no chandelier over the table) so if someone else wants to flip them, they can.

Where do you eat? In front of the tv?

That's where I eat if I am home alone? Is that weird?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have the living room between the dining room and kitchen?

Is the 2nd drawing from the left the first floor? It's a bit confusing.

Yes, they are in order from left to right, the third floor, the second floor, the first floor and the basement.

The living room is between the dining and kitchen, mostly because I don't use the dining room that frequently and the middle space is MUCH larger (I don't need a table to seat 25), so I'd rather have more living space. However, I don't think there is anything going into either space that would force a future owner to use them in that way (i.e. no chandelier over the table) so if someone else wants to flip them, they can.

Where do you eat? In front of the tv?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a thought.

What about putting the kitchen in the middle (the traditional dining room area and the proposed living room area) and the living room where the proposed kitchen is, at the back, feeding into the backyard via a nice terrace/deck, and the dining area up front.

Just to toss out an idea.

Great idea! (I'm not the OP)

That was my thought too. I'd hate having my living room area where I spend most of my time in the middle of the house and not directly by windows. Also think future buyers will be bothered by the weird layout of kitchen -->living -->dining area

Anonymous wrote:Here's a thought.

What about putting the kitchen in the middle (the traditional dining room area and the proposed living room area) and the living room where the proposed kitchen is, at the back, feeding into the backyard via a nice terrace/deck, and the dining area up front.

Just to toss out an idea.

Great idea! (I'm not the OP)

Here's a thought.

What about putting the kitchen in the middle (the traditional dining room area and the proposed living room area) and the living room where the proposed kitchen is, at the back, feeding into the backyard via a nice terrace/deck, and the dining area up front.

Just to toss out an idea.

We are in a row house and have lived in it for about 10 years. We also use the front room as dining room, contrary to most traditional three room deep row houses. We did it for the same reason - middle room is bigger/more open and gives us more seating and options to arrange furniture and more privacy.

For the kitchen, one of those last pics you posted - that looks like a big wide space in the middle. That’s a lot of walking back and forth between sink and stove and fridge. Carefully consider your layout. Did you have a kitchen designer weigh in? One of our friends does have a similar, but smaller layout. They have a smallish mobile island they plop in the middle with a couple stools. We did a different layout and went with island in the kitchen. So we have cabinets and counters on two walls with fridge and stove there and sink in island. There wasn’t a better place for our sink, but it worked out well as we can talk to kids or guests while washing dishes. Our island has room for four counter stools. The other wall is blank - no cabinets or anything

The one thing that I didn’t realize about our home is that the back door would be our primary entrance bc we park out back and also have a shed where we keep strollers, scooters and bikes. So even though we don’t have strollers anymore, we still often go out that way. If we did it again, I would plan a storage/mud room something as well as a small seating area at the back of the kitchen. We kind of had to force the coat and backpack storage in there.

p.s. I vote for that countertop. Who says you need a clear view from the front to the back of the rowhouse?

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all the rowhouse architecture porn, by the way.

Of course! I have so much more all saved for when all the actual designing needs to happen so that my kitchen can go from this:



to this:

Thanks for all the rowhouse architecture porn, by the way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How wide is the opening into the kitchen with and without the peninsula? I really think the peninsula is just going to be a thing to walk around but obvs up to you. A wide opening is so great into a kitchen. The first time you have 3+ people in there you will be so happy.

I think where the bathroom is now, you get a very narrow living room that looks like a hallway and will be difficult to decorate (remember you've got to leave room for the doors to swing and for humans to move to in front of the open door), and a very awkward situation if people are in the living room and someone goes to the bathroom. If they're opposite the stairs, you have a kind of logical hallway area for the stairs, coat closet and powder room and a full width living room oriented towards a blank wall you can build out. That room wouldn't get much light from the front of the building anyway imo.

In fact, is there a way you can sneak a solar tube through the master closet/bathroom down into the living room? It would eat some space but I'd consider it if you like them.

I love the dining room up front fwiw, but I would definitely try to sneak in a kitchen table if at all possible or maybe a small game table in the living room that you could use for a quick bite.

Thank you!

The house does face south, so the best light will come from the front/dining room windows. There will be a skylight in the living room, its shown on the floorplan as the rectangle that is next to the two chairs in the living room. The second floor has a slightly different shape than the first, letting there be a skylight there. Is there a reason to prefer solar tubes? I thought a skylight might be better because I can install some sort of electric shade if we want to darken it sometimes (i'm not sure if there is anything similar I could do with solar tubes?).

Without the peninsula the opening is about 9 feet and with the peninsula the opening would be about 3 feet. But even without the peninsula, there would probably be some counter there, sort of like the below (but there will be a window where those open shelves are):



What do you think about just squaring off the counter there? So hardly a peninsula at all, maybe just a foot or two? It would just be a way to put out food if I was entertaining that is accessible from the living room.

To me that’s much better and 3ft is not enough. But obvs to each their own.

Or kind of like this, since I'm envisioning mostly bookshelves. I doubt that I will personally use that fireplace, but there is a fireplace above in the master bedroom that I want to be able to use. And in the future if I sell the house someone else might want to use it.

Anonymous wrote:Where are you envisioning the fireplace and built-ins in your current layout?

The fireplace and built-ins are next to the dining room table, it will be sort of like this:

Anonymous wrote:How wide is the opening into the kitchen with and without the peninsula? I really think the peninsula is just going to be a thing to walk around but obvs up to you. A wide opening is so great into a kitchen. The first time you have 3+ people in there you will be so happy.

I think where the bathroom is now, you get a very narrow living room that looks like a hallway and will be difficult to decorate (remember you've got to leave room for the doors to swing and for humans to move to in front of the open door), and a very awkward situation if people are in the living room and someone goes to the bathroom. If they're opposite the stairs, you have a kind of logical hallway area for the stairs, coat closet and powder room and a full width living room oriented towards a blank wall you can build out. That room wouldn't get much light from the front of the building anyway imo.

In fact, is there a way you can sneak a solar tube through the master closet/bathroom down into the living room? It would eat some space but I'd consider it if you like them.

I love the dining room up front fwiw, but I would definitely try to sneak in a kitchen table if at all possible or maybe a small game table in the living room that you could use for a quick bite.

Thank you!

The house does face south, so the best light will come from the front/dining room windows. There will be a skylight in the living room, its shown on the floorplan as the rectangle that is next to the two chairs in the living room. The second floor has a slightly different shape than the first, letting there be a skylight there. Is there a reason to prefer solar tubes? I thought a skylight might be better because I can install some sort of electric shade if we want to darken it sometimes (i'm not sure if there is anything similar I could do with solar tubes?).

Without the peninsula the opening is about 9 feet and with the peninsula the opening would be about 3 feet. But even without the peninsula, there would probably be some counter there, sort of like the below (but there will be a window where those open shelves are):



What do you think about just squaring off the counter there? So hardly a peninsula at all, maybe just a foot or two? It would just be a way to put out food if I was entertaining that is accessible from the living room.

Where are you envisioning the fireplace and built-ins in your current layout?