(03-23-2021, 08:35 AM)Mikey Wrote:

(03-22-2021, 03:23 PM)americus 2.0 Wrote: What is it with women in these home renovation shows who need to be able to see their kids playing in another room while they're in the kitchen? Generations of kids grew up just fine not having mommy watching their every move. 

Heck, there were hours at a time my mom didn't see me or my siblings because we were down at the park or riding our bikes around the neighborhood or in the backyard building forts. Also, my mom didn't live in the kitchen. She was a stay-at-home mom until after me and my sister left home and it was just my brother, but she was always busy doing her chores plus stuff we were too young to do and my stepdad didn't have time for because as a UPS driver he was gone most of the day.

It's something that just drives me nuts, the whole helicopter parent thing. But I also never wanted kids so there is that. 

Let's spend five grand to remove a load bearing wall and put up a beam so I can watch from the kitchen while little Suzy and little Johnny play on their iPads! And just to let them know they're super special I'll cheer them on.  

No wonder kids are growing up so needy and codependent.

Our home is what you would call open floorplan. No walls between entryway, living, dining and kitchen. Very nice for open space, especially when entertaining (remember when people used to do that?) but the big trade off is that there is no isolation. When one kid is at the dining table working on math problems, the other can't sit on the couch and watch a show without it being a distraction. When wifey is rinsing a bowl, the sink drowns out the stereo. 

Our kids fight like cats and dogs, and for a while we had issues of tiptoeing along boundaries, so the open floorplan helped to keep an eye while we prepared food. We looked at a house in the neighborhood that was the exact same design, but the previous owners installed cabinets over the kitchen counter between the kitchen and dining, and it was remarkable how claustrophobic it made the kitchen seem, and visibility was drastically reduced.

I get what you are saying, there's no way I'd spend a fortune to overhaul the floorplan, especially if it was just to watch kids sit in a chair and read. I think a lot of those shows do those kind of improvements on purpose though - how exciting would a home improvement show be if the entirety of the improvements were just "slap a new coat of paint on the walls and rip up the shag carpeting"?

My husband and I are not entertainers at all. Lol. I like the open floor plan for sure, but I'm not spending $100K to renovate my house to get it. That's what the couple who spawned my rant spent on a new kitchen/dining/living area. Maybe $8K went toward a much needed new roof but the rest was reno budget. $22K on kitchen cabinets alone and there weren't a boatload of them. That makes no sense to me, but I'm a simple girl. Lol. 

My favorite home improvement show is This Old House. You can learn a lot from those guys.

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