The Kitchen Door.

[imoldfashioned]

I love my kitchen doors...

I hope the purchase works out for your friend--I love bungalows but the closest I'll get for awhile is my subscription to American Bungalow.

In my 1905 condo the kitchen is separated from the dining room by a small hall with a built-in china cabient. There are full size swinging doors between the kitchen and the china cabinet space and the china cabinet space and the dining room. A third door (in front of the china cabinet) leads to the main hall that goes to the living room, entry hall, etc.

All the doors have a flip down doorstop, so when I want them open it is easy to do but having them closed and the kitchen out of view is very nice too at times (for instance, after/during a party when the kitchen is a wreck!). I do leave the door to the main hall propped open nearly all the time because I like folks to be able to see my china.

I grew up mostly in older houses, so this "kitchen as living room" craze escapes me. I've got a tall chair with the step stool flip out on the bottom in the kitchen if someone wants to sit and chat, or if I'm on the phone for an extended period but that's proved good enough for me. If I had kids it might be different though.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

this "kitchen as living room" craze escapes me.

That's an easy one, picture a few builders sitting around counting their money and wondering "How can we build less house for the same cost?". "I KNOW, lets make something called a great room so we don't have to build as many walls! Ca ching!"

 

[Mike in Seattle]

That's an easy one, picture a few builders sitting around counting their money and wondering "How can we build less house for the same cost?". "I KNOW, lets make something called a great room so we don't have to build as many walls! Ca ching!"

Actually, it's not that at all - it costs more to do the great room. One big room requires longer, stronger rafters since there aren't walls to disburse the load. The longer the piece of lumber, the more it costs. The larger the piece of lumber (going from 2 x 6 to 2 x 8 or 3 x 8) also increases the price. Longer expanses of drywall take more expertise in doing so you don't see any seams. More electrical for more can lights or track lighting so the whole room is evenly filled with light.

Instead, it's what everyone wants now...or thinks they want. Cooking in the same room as everyone watching TV or playing video games so the whole family can spend quality time! No more Dad and the kids having fun in the living room while Mom's alone in the kitchen, sweating & slaving away over a hot stove making the meals. Now Mom can do her microwave this or instant that while keeping an eye to make sure little Bobby & Cindy aren't turning on the Playboy Channel or playing too violent a shoot-em-up video game. ("If they get it out of their system on a video game, maybe they won't grow up wanting to be bank robbers or serial killers!")

And for those who have parties, you know that there's no way, door or not, to keep everyone out of the kitchen. Everyone congregates there no matter what you do, no matter how many times you shoo them out, no matter how many times you hand them the potatoes & peeler and say "Here...make yourself useful!" You chase them out one door and they start coming back in the other. Hmmm, swinging kitchen door with a LOCK...now there's an idea whose time has come.

The house I grew up in had the sliding door between the kitchen and dining room. And they were "rooms" and not "areas" of a larger room. But my house now has the combination kitchen/den/breakfast area. Cooktop island with "breakfast bar" looking out into the den/breakfast area. The den never functioned right - they put the fireplace on the wrong wall (not the outside wall where it should be) right where the TV ought to go. The only layout left meant 3-4 people on the sofa could see the TV, with others on the loveseat craning their necks. When we'd have dinner parties, we'd have half seated at the table in the breakfast area, half in the dining room. The minute there'd be a big laugh from the other table, everyone wanted to know who said what.

Two years ago, a bolt of brilliance hit me. We got rid of the den furniture, then moved the dining room furniture into the den. Now we've got both tables in the same room. So our "great room" became more of a "dining hall" or, as friends who'd visited Hearst's little "ranch house" dubbed it, the refectory. The former dining room became Paul's music room with his keyboards, the grand piano, music files and so forth. It's worked great for parties. Bar in the corner by the window, hors d'oeuvres on the sideboard & more on breakfast bar. People can sit down at the tables if they want, or if they want to sit & talk where it's a little more quiet, there's the living room. Since a big chunk of our circle of friends is involved in music & theatre, at some point, someone's playing the piano, people are singing and laughing, and the walkway between dining room and sunken living room becomes a little impromptu stage. Why it too me about 10 years to come up with THAT solution, I'll never know. One of these days, I'll post some pix.

 

[Willi_Goat]

For our non-Southern California resident Loungers, don't have a stroke, that price is fairly typical for around here. In my neighborhood you'll see 3 bedroom post-WWII "Stucco-Boxes" going for that, and I'd much rather have the Craftsman.

I remember in the not too distant past, a couple of mobile homes going for seven figures in the Malibu area. Just the home, they were in a trailer park so the lot rent was still being paid.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Instead, it's what everyone wants now...or thinks they want.

Like there's any choice. Every new "track" home I go into is made the same way.

 

[Wild Root]

Could we talk about the original topic please guys, she's my thread so, lets hear about the missing kitchen doors in old homes... does anyone here have the original swinging kitchen door in their old homes?

=WR=

 

[Mr. 'H']

Wildroot will you please post a link to the realtor's listing so we can all see the house and the actual sales photos?

By the way a good three bedroomed house in South Dublin would cost over a million dollars. The property prices here are really high.

 

[Wild Root]

Unfortunately though, all the woodwork was painted tan in the 50's and then white in the 80's. I'm stripping and refinishing all the doors, but all that trim would be a pretty big job.

Yes, it would be a pretty big job to strip and finish all the wood trim in the house... tough yes, worth it? YES! I just hate painted wood when I know it was to be a nice dark stain! It makes all the difference in the world!

I hope my friend gets this house... I'd be so happy there! Decorating in the true vintage fashion, treasuring the house as it should before some dumb clucks buy it and gut it! We need to save this home!

I'll keep you all posted!

=WR=

 

[Rosie]

Mail order houses I never knew such a thing existed, thanks Major.

I'm not sure when my house was built, I tried to research it but the closest I came where there were actually homes on this street was around 186? so, I'm assuming my house was built around that time. I know that my walls have studs for gas lamps and all of the major rooms have fireplaces, the kitchen haveing a HUGE one so, it was pre 20th century. Anyway, getting back to Root's topic, my original kitchen doors are in the basement as the house itself has changed a bit since it was first built. I have a townhouse/rowhouse in Brooklyn which pretty much looks like this:

My kitchen is completely cut off from the rest of the home, it's downstairs through a pantry next to what was once the maid's quarters. The maid's quarters is now my formal living room and the door came down because truthfully, it just sort of got in my way. If I renovate (which I may do if I stay in NYC) I'll probably hang the door again.

 

[Rosie]

Yes, it would be a pretty big job to strip and finish all the wood trim in the house... tough yes, worth it? YES! I just hate painted wood when I know it was to be a nice dark stain! It makes all the difference in the world!



=WR=

So true. All of the wood trimin my house is painted. When I moved here, I painted too because I didn't really think to strip it. My neighbor, whose house is the same layout as mine, stripped and stained all of the wood trim in the house, the stairs, banisters and stripped the paint off the fireplaces. It's beautiful! I've only done one fireplace but, it is my intention over the next summer or two to return the house to it's original splendor. I even have stained glass hidden under paint on some french doors I had no idea about.

This is the one fireplace I've done, the surronding area is marble which I haven't gotten to yet.

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[DancingSweetie]

Rosie you are so lucky to live in a place like that. I wish I could find an old apartment or home with all those kinds of details. Where I live the nice older buildings are very expensive and way out of my range.