My mother likes to watch house-selling shows, home improvement shows, things of that ilk.

[conuly]

And she makes fun of how exaggerated these people's demands are - "Oh, I can't live here, the bathroom is the wrong color" and "We have two people, and we NEED three bathrooms" and the like. (These people never consider painting or waiting, apparently.)

One thing that comes up all the time, that I myself simply do not understand, is "Oh, the kitchen is too small". Here they are, looking at a reasonably-sized kitchen, and complaining that it's not big enough.

Big enough for what, I ask! For three cooks, a baker, and a scullery maid? If you're cooking for yourself, why would you want a big kitchen? You want a small kitchen so you don't wear your feet out getting dinner on the table, and so you are less likely to spill your perfect meal all over the floor because you had to run it 20 feet from the fridge to the oven!

But no, they all think they want big kitchens, and I just don't understand it at all. Any insight would be much appreciated.

Edit: Okay, so it's all about the counters, got it. So, how big is your ideal kitchen, and how much counterspace is needed?

Comments

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

I love counter space in a kitchen, it's so very useful! If I had a kitchen that was big enough with three walls of counter and an island, it'd be heavenly! But that's my definition of 'big kitchen'.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I agree for the most part--my current kitchen (or at least the working area of it) is about 14' × 16', 3 walls of counters, so there's plenty of work space ... or there would be, if the fridge weren't in the corner, the range next to it, a small amount of counter space, then the sink, then miles and miles more counter space that's 16' away from the stove. I have a plan to get a semi-permanent island (one of the ones that's cabinets and a counter top, not just an open cart) that should eliminate part of the problem, but what it really needs is a far more sensible layout that, I don't know, has counter space somewhere remotely near the fridge on which you could put whatever you've just taken out of it.

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

When I get together with friends, the kitchen frequently turns into a social space -- two or three people in various stages of food preparation, several others standing around talking. If your life is such that the kitchen often doubles as a social area, then I can see why you'd want it both big and open.

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

This too.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

As someone who currently has a tiny kitchen, it's frustrating because when you account for things like dishracks and toasters and coffee machines, there's no room to spread out more than one "station" at a time - and if you've got more than one person working in the kitchen, you've got to constantly move out of the way so someone else can access the drawers or cupboards.

That said, our kitchen really is short on counter space (three sink-sized squares, only one of which has room for prep) and we have four people living here all cooking different meals. If I were living here alone, I'd get rid of the table, replace it with one of those movable islands, and live happily ever after.

[azurelunatic]

Yes. The microwave took out one chunk of counter space. I wanted to have the bread machine permanently set up, as well as the toaster oven and a cutting board. This left basically no room for anything else.

[shinga.livejournal.com]

It's pretty much an issue of counter space.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Like others said, it's an issue of counter space. I do a ton of baking, and while my kitchen is decent sized for regular, everyday cooking, if I'm doing any sort of baking, or any kind of large week-long batches of cooking, I just don't have the room for it. Fortunately, my parents live nearby, and have a much larger kitchen, so I invade it from time to time, but then there's the issue of transporting the food (cooked and not) back to my place.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

If the kitchen is too small, you can't fit the kitchen table into it, much less seat people.

For example, my parents' kitchen is 12'4" by 13', and it gets crowded if more than four people are eating. It's in the sensible L-configuration, where the sink is between the stove and fridge with some nice spacious countertops alongside. The traffic runs between the prep area and the table, which is against the wall across from the sink.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

I agree with all that's been said about kitchens. On the subject of bathrooms, well, some of us are very territorial about our bathing/toileting space. For some of us, waiting isn't an option due to medical issues (me, for example). So this isn't always greed or unreasonableness; if you are spending the amount of money that buying a home takes, you want it to be a place that will be comfortable.

[conuly]

True, though I doubt every single person on these shows has medical bathroom issues.

Then again, they might. There sure are a lot of biracial and gay couples, maybe the people putting together these shows also pick a lot of couples with at least one not-visibly-disabled partner.

Edit: Not that, obviously, there's anything the matter with biracial and/or gay couples, indeed, it's better than everybody being the same that you so often see. It's just noticeable, and a little disproportionate. I'm not complaining, at any rate.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

We cook a lot, and we have storage problems, even though we don't have a lot of electric gadgets. Also, counter space is frequently at a premium. I'd love a kitchen island, and it's a damned shame I can't have a hanging pot rack.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I guess I should add to say that, while the other things are nice, I'd rather have a big kitchen than a big living room, dining room, study, or bedroom.

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

Our kitchen is very tiny. We have a coffee maker, a toaster, a dish rack, and a microwave which take up every inch of counter space. No dishwasher, so the dish rack is in constant use. We have a butcher block in the middle of the floor precisely positioned so neither the oven nor the fridge hits it. There's room for one person to use the kitchen.

Our kitchen is ridiculously small, really. I guess if we ditched the microwave it would be better. Actually, that makes me wonder if maybe I could move some things... hmmm...

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

Nope. Everything is where it has to be, or not at all.

Still beats getting raped while gathering firewood tho! Gotta keep some perspective, after all.

[azurelunatic]

My ideal kitchen has serious pantry space. I will happily buy a 50-pound bag of rice and use it, and equal amounts of sugar and flour. There's just nowhere to put that in a tiny kitchen.

Counter space-wise, I want enough room to leave a cutting board, a microwave, a toaster oven, a rice cooker, and a bread machine set up, and still have preparation space.

[conuly]

Honestly, I don't consider the pantry part of the kitchen, anymore than I consider the closet part of the bedroom. It's an adjunct to the kitchen. (For that matter, in the sort of kitchens often seen on these shows, where there's a counter separating the cooking space from the dining/socializing space, I don't *really* consider that other space part of the kitchen either, though I know the people on the shows do and that's what they mean when they want more space, I guess.)

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Counter space is good, but for us, we love our big kitchen because of the CABINET space! We have a ton of appliances (most of which have been gifts over the years), like a vegetable steamer, rice maker, kitchen Aid mixer, blender, toaster, toaster oven, coffee maker, ice cream maker (2 of them even), etc, and we actually for once have a place to store all that shit without it going in a closet where it's so inaccessible you never even use it. I really love that.

I lived in an apartment where there were just enough cabinets for pots and pans, and dishes and glasses. Nothing else (and we use plastic stacking cups, so it's not like we had a ton of glasses either; 3-4 rows only) and we had to get a shelving unit to put in the dining area to hold our food and the appliances were in the hall closet. The only counter space was the top of the dryer, which was in the kitchen. I wouldn't pick THAT again.

Bathrooms. We have 2.5 bathrooms in our house and it's more than enough. We like the downstairs toilet, and the master bathroom/shower/toilet, but we rarely use the second upstairs bathroom except for brushing teeth or showering IF Daniel or I are sleeping in in the master bedroom (which is connected without a door to the master bath). When the girls are teenagers, I'm sure we'll be glad for the extra bathroom, but right now I'm just annoyed that it's that much more to clean all the time!

I would get rid of our front room (space for a "formal living room") in a heart beat. I'd trade that 12x20 room for bigger closets or a shed in the backyard. That room is a waste of space!

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

About what everyone else has said. Having lived in two places with errr kitchenettes, a large kitchen is very high on the list when considering a new place. There can never be too many cupboards or too much counterspace.

Our ideal kitchen would resemble our stepmother's old place; about 12x12, it had a little worktable you could move around instead of an island. There was a plain kitchen table at the far end next to a set of glass doors leading onto the back porch. In winter you could just sit there with your cocoa and watch the birds at the feeders.

ETA: It was more like 12x15. And we just saw Moonstruck again last night and there are those of us who watch it just to contemplate that beautiful kitchen.

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

I moved into an apartment with a galley kitchen and I love it. It's small, but everything is within arm's reach.

I don't like big kitchens if you can't get around it quickly

Nineteen Feet

[siderea]

When I was an architecture student, we were told that studies showed that people were optimally happy with kitchens laid out so that the perimeter of the triangle described by the fridge, the sink, and the stove was about 19ft.

Doesn't matter how big, over all, your kitchen is, so long as your "kitchen triangle" is about 19ft. Googling "Kitchen Triangle" turns up tons of hits. http://www.merillat.com/space/work-smarter/index.aspx is nice.

I was really into laying out kitchens. :)

[leora.livejournal.com]

I want a big kitchen such that people can grab glasses, plates, etc. and then walk to the fridge and grab something from the fridge without getting overly in the way of whoever is cooking.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Big enough for three cooks would be great, especially as I'm trying to teach my children to cook and one has space issues (he doesn't understand how much space he takes up).

I'd LOVE a pantry, and would really love more FUNCTIONAL cabinet space that I could actually reach into without having to kneel and burrow in. I try to put rarely-used things in one of those cabinets, but rarely-used doesn't mean never-used.

I'd like to be able to pass through my dining nook (the only place in the house to put the dining table) without worrying about barking my hip on the corner of the table.

And before you ask, this isn't the house I wanted. It's not bad, and the location's better than the one I wanted, but the floorplan is worse.

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

I've got about 105 inches of total counter space, and it's only enough because I ditched my microwave. I'd really love a second sink, so that I can do prep while my husband or mom does clean up. I'm a pretty serious home chef, though. I cook almost everything from scratch, and I do a lot of baking, too.

While I'm fantasizing, I'd also like an oven with a thermostat that works right and a gas stove. This is unlikely to happen, though. I have a drop-in oven/range combo that is a size that is no longer standard, so to replace it would require a full countertop replacement.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

I have about 12 inches, total, of counter space (with NO APPLIANCES AT ALL). I will trade you!

We got a small folding table to stick in the kitchen to make up for it. :(

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

My Sims have all the counter space in the world. Their kitchens are more often than not double the size of the dining room. And that is the type of kitchen *I* want. :D

[feralkoala.livejournal.com]

I also love watching these shows. HGTV is one of three channels I watch regularly. The other two are the Cartoon Network and PBS. I'm not sure what, if anything, that says about me.

I like watching them mostly for the interior and architectural design aspects. The ridiculous people are just icing on the cake. More than anything else, what gets me is the people saying they need to move because they don't have enough room for all of their stuff. It's not stuff from running a home business, or stuff from being in a band, or stuff from having 8 children, it's just random piles of crap they don't use.

I am not a "stuff" person. I have things, I like them, but the lengths people go to on this show for their useless stuff is mind boggling. Child A needs a room just for her toys. So does child B. I need at least 400 sq ft of closet space for my shoes. I don't know. Maybe I'm just biased because I live with my mother and I'm still in the process of trying to stop her from hoarding crap. I don't think her hoarding qualifies as a true medical issue, there's no 6 inch pathways you have to follow to find the toilet or anything, but it personally drives me bonkers. It took 3 suv trips to the dumpster to clean out the room that had been occupied by my brother than she managed to fill with stuff in a matter of months. Then there's her four "closets" filled with clothes she hasn't worn in years and shoe rack upon shoe rack of dust caked shoes she won't get rid of.

I apologize for some the rambling, but many of these people assume that bigger is always ALWAYS better. Unfortunately, considering current housing market, they're fairly normal.

[adina77.livejournal.com]

I'm addicted to those shows too...When I watch house hunters, I think "they should go for this house because it has mostly what they want" and when they pick the house that they say is too small, I'm like WHAT! I think when buying a house, get the amble (sp) amount of space that is realistically good. Not something that is too huge or too small.

[conuly]

Ample. Amble is a word, but it means to walk about. (NOT, of course, to walkabout, which is another thing altogether.)

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

I love counter space in a kitchen, it's so very useful! If I had a kitchen that was big enough with three walls of counter and an island, it'd be heavenly! But that's my definition of 'big kitchen'.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I agree for the most part--my current kitchen (or at least the working area of it) is about 14' × 16', 3 walls of counters, so there's plenty of work space ... or there would be, if the fridge weren't in the corner, the range next to it, a small amount of counter space, then the sink, then miles and miles more counter space that's 16' away from the stove. I have a plan to get a semi-permanent island (one of the ones that's cabinets and a counter top, not just an open cart) that should eliminate part of the problem, but what it really needs is a far more sensible layout that, I don't know, has counter space somewhere remotely near the fridge on which you could put whatever you've just taken out of it.

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

When I get together with friends, the kitchen frequently turns into a social space -- two or three people in various stages of food preparation, several others standing around talking. If your life is such that the kitchen often doubles as a social area, then I can see why you'd want it both big and open.

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

This too.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

As someone who currently has a tiny kitchen, it's frustrating because when you account for things like dishracks and toasters and coffee machines, there's no room to spread out more than one "station" at a time - and if you've got more than one person working in the kitchen, you've got to constantly move out of the way so someone else can access the drawers or cupboards.

That said, our kitchen really is short on counter space (three sink-sized squares, only one of which has room for prep) and we have four people living here all cooking different meals. If I were living here alone, I'd get rid of the table, replace it with one of those movable islands, and live happily ever after.

[azurelunatic]

Yes. The microwave took out one chunk of counter space. I wanted to have the bread machine permanently set up, as well as the toaster oven and a cutting board. This left basically no room for anything else.

[shinga.livejournal.com]

It's pretty much an issue of counter space.