Back in the model kitchen, the answer occurred to me. I wondered what family the architect had in mind when he designed that house. I had some obvious objections. As a family of eight who would need a five-bedroom house, the kitchen was too small–both for our table and our kitchenware, and none of the non-master bedrooms could accommodate more than one occupant.
Aside from our particular requirements, though, the house, like most others that are not custom-built, assumed a generic lifestyle. Yet, for that much money, I would expect to be free of juggling furniture and belongings to fit in the house. It comes down to, where do you live? How do you live? As disillusioning as the reality is, satisfactory solutions do exist.
Ignore room labels. According to the official floor plan, our house has a kitchen, five bedrooms, dining room, living room, two family rooms, and office. According to our usage, we have a kitchen, five bedrooms, family room, music room, play room, and two offices. Just because that room off the kitchen has a chandelier doesn’t mean you have to use it for formal dining. Transform it into your computer room or display your pool table there. We’ve turned a closed-in porch into a toy room, a friend realized her dream by transforming a large extra bedroom into a library, several of my in-laws use their extra bedrooms as sewing/craft rooms. Basements have all sorts of possibilities. Look at your home again–what rooms do you see now?
Also consider where you want a particular room to be. The office of this model home was off the master suite. I’ve had my work station in my bedroom before and it taxed my patience. The family spends a lot of time in, yes, the family room, yet they also wanted to be near me. They started hanging out in my bedroom. It’s much easier to utilize space near the family room and turn the actual office into something else.
Break it down. Our family room furniture consists of a sectional sofa, two arm chairs, a rocking chair, a coffee table, two end tables, two bookcases, a TV unit and a quilt rack. All together? Not even in a generous-sized family room, not even with a shoehorn. Rather than lose our sanity trying, we create two specialized rooms. The sofa, coffee table, TV unit and bookcases group together for the active space, and the chairs and end tables form a quieter area. We add the other
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