Just bought a house... - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

Cali Coug · 01-31-2007, 11:13 PM

It isn't really big (as it turns out, homes cost a lot in California).

We like it, but we have an issue we are debating about. Right when you walk into the front room you enter the living room. It is walled off on 3 sides, so you can either turn right into the living room or continue down the hall to the kitchen/dining room (which is also walled in on 3 sides).

The kitchen/dining room are the same size together as the living room (the kitchen/dining room is really just one room with no dividing walls, but we use some kitchen space as our dining room).

I would like to tear out a 5 foot section of the wall separating the kitchen and the living room. That would make the home feel a bit bigger. If we do that, though, we lose some cabinet space in the kitchen which we can't really make up because the dining room is in the way. So, my solution is to make our current living room a formal dining room and then expand the kitchen into a really nice kitchen.

My wife hates the idea because that would mean people would enter into our formal dining room and there wouldn't be a sitting area for people on the main floor. Sure, it would be odd. But I think the value of the house would shoot way up with a really nice kitchen and I think it is simply a better use of our space. We don't have any furniture in the current living room anyways because we are too poor to buy any.

Thoughts? Would eliminating the living room lower the value of our home? Would any decrease in value be offset by having a great kitchen? We have a big family room on the lower level that would act as a living room.

01-31-2007, 11:13 PM	#1
Cali Coug Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5,996	Just bought a house... It isn't really big (as it turns out, homes cost a lot in California). We like it, but we have an issue we are debating about. Right when you walk into the front room you enter the living room. It is walled off on 3 sides, so you can either turn right into the living room or continue down the hall to the kitchen/dining room (which is also walled in on 3 sides). The kitchen/dining room are the same size together as the living room (the kitchen/dining room is really just one room with no dividing walls, but we use some kitchen space as our dining room). I would like to tear out a 5 foot section of the wall separating the kitchen and the living room. That would make the home feel a bit bigger. If we do that, though, we lose some cabinet space in the kitchen which we can't really make up because the dining room is in the way. So, my solution is to make our current living room a formal dining room and then expand the kitchen into a really nice kitchen. My wife hates the idea because that would mean people would enter into our formal dining room and there wouldn't be a sitting area for people on the main floor. Sure, it would be odd. But I think the value of the house would shoot way up with a really nice kitchen and I think it is simply a better use of our space. We don't have any furniture in the current living room anyways because we are too poor to buy any. Thoughts? Would eliminating the living room lower the value of our home? Would any decrease in value be offset by having a great kitchen? We have a big family room on the lower level that would act as a living room.