Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people imagine that a certain house will make them into the kind of people who throw fancy parties, etc. Sort of like people who buy/renovate to get a huge, high-end kitchen.

But the fact is, if you are the kind of person who really likes to entertain, then you'll do it when you live in the 800 sf apartment. If you really like to cook, you'll do in it your tiny galley kitchen. If you already do those things, then it makes sense to look for features that make it easier/nicer if you buy a new house.

If you don't, then it's just buying into HGTV or someone else's idea of what your house is supposed to be.

+1

Exactly this.

Yes!

Anonymous wrote:I think people imagine that a certain house will make them into the kind of people who throw fancy parties, etc. Sort of like people who buy/renovate to get a huge, high-end kitchen.

But the fact is, if you are the kind of person who really likes to entertain, then you'll do it when you live in the 800 sf apartment. If you really like to cook, you'll do in it your tiny galley kitchen. If you already do those things, then it makes sense to look for features that make it easier/nicer if you buy a new house.

If you don't, then it's just buying into HGTV or someone else's idea of what your house is supposed to be.

+1

Exactly this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The overvalued entertaining area I see is a basement bar. Houses in my hood frequently have a huge 20+ foot L shaped bar which really takes up a huge slice of the basement and limits how you can set up the rest of that level

I hate the basement bar, it's so fratty. Would convert it to a kitchenette though, for guests, au pair, art cleanup, etc.

I recently saw a house that had a banquette in a nook in the basement, which seemed kind of fun although I don't know how I'd use it.

We got rid of a huge basement bar because I hate them too. It had a wet bar and we got rid of the plumbing altogether because we were renovating inexpensively and had not money to put in a little kitchenette. Fast-forward 15 years, I wish we had that now. Oh well.

Maybe this changes depending on if you are from here or not. I think a lot of people in this area are transplants like us, so we don't have anyone to entertain. We don't know anyone aside from coworkers (who we aren't hanging out with) and parents of other kids in our kid's grade (which is very superficially). My husband and I grew up in the same city, both families are also from there. If we were still "back home" I can imagine wanting to host more often. We are both only children of divorced parents so if we still lived back home, there is no chance in hell we would drive 80 miles around the city to see all the grandparents on holidays...they'd be driving to us. Our childhood and college friends are still there as well, all of whom have multiple kids now. When we do make it back to visit, we gather at the friends' with the big house. All that entertaining space is nice with a busload of offspring running around.

However, back home, real estate is cheap. Not the case here. I don't want to pay big bucks to have rooms in my house that I never step foot in. I'm just trying to come up with the least tacky way to turn the formal dinning room into an office...

We host people once a month - more during the holidays - and while it's doable in my tiny house, it's not pleasant. I do all the cooking, so when people congregate in the kitchen (which they tend to do - to help, to chat, to get drinks, etc.) I can't move around and do my thing. I would LOVE to have a larger kitchen that opens into a dining room (with a large table).

Anonymous wrote:The overvalued entertaining area I see is a basement bar. Houses in my hood frequently have a huge 20+ foot L shaped bar which really takes up a huge slice of the basement and limits how you can set up the rest of that level

I hate the basement bar, it's so fratty. Would convert it to a kitchenette though, for guests, au pair, art cleanup, etc.

I recently saw a house that had a banquette in a nook in the basement, which seemed kind of fun although I don't know how I'd use it.