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National site takes note of open-plan condos, like that one in JP with the bathroom with no door
By adamg on Fri, 08/20/2021 - 11:27am
An Open Letter to the Architect Who Invented Open-Concept Floor Plans on McSweeney's by Alice Lahoda, who lives in Jamaica Plain, where, yes, she was inspired by the South Street condo without a door or walls around the bathroom.
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Could it have been for wheelchair access?
And the Developer changed their mind at the last minute?
During the Before-times
I attended a panel where the cast of Maine Cabin Masters talked about their show. Someone asked about open concept floor plans and they said the reason for their immense popularity was because home renovation tv shows had market research that showed "people like seeing someone swing a sledgehammer." So almost every show had to have someone taking down a wall with a sledge. This led to all these projects on TV with open concept renovations, and here we are. Now people are realizing open concept can be REALLY annoying and loud with no privacy, and it is going out of style. Thank god.
Open concept
My first house, purchased in 1986 had an open concept kitchen-dinning room. So the idea has been around awhile. Same with first apartment in Boston in 1999 - wall between small bedroom and small living room taken out. I learned my lesson. Most recent renovation the kitchen designer suggested taking out wall between kitchen and living room and I said "no". Happy with decision.
Exactly
I can't tell you how many houses that I toured in Arlington in the mid-90s that had the entire second floor blown open to the structure - and no bedrooms.
Works for a single or couple, but not for a roommate situation or a family.
I saw some similar places that had been on the market for a while when I was looking for a smaller house for my aunt - small houses with everything removed and a "bed nook". This was in the mid teens. People did things in both cases that vastly reduced the value of their homes because it was fashionable - but entirely impractical if you, say, needed roommates to help with the mortgage or wanted parental privacy.
"Shit..."
"...was that load-bearing?"
And
And they make it look so easy.
I remember watching a This Old House where they wanted to "open concept" a kitchen and take down a wall. Of course there was a heating pipe for the unit upstairs. But so easy taking the wall down & suuure if you have a master plumber who shows up b/c TV crews are gonna film him... why not?
Of course it will cost thousands to move that pipe.
But sure.. TAKE THE WALL DOWN
I remember why I am a Hometime fan over any of them.. real knowledge you can use. Not a buncha tradesmen peacocking on TV. People ask me how I know so much about home stuff.. I said, we got 2 channels as a kid, one was NBC and the other was PBS. We watched a lot of PBS & hometime. It musta sunk in.
Old this old house
The original version of the show was much better. It had more useful information and spent more time showing how the trades solved various problems in old houses.
The current version is trying to compete with HGTV and is nearly unwatchable.
Pandemic made me rethink open concept floor plans
The pandemic made me rethink the idea of knocking down all the walls in a living space. There is a need for separating different living functions. We live with one person attending school, one person working remotely on Zoom meetings, and one person cooking all with no separation between any of us. ALL DAY LONG! It sucks.
And Robert Frost was on to something
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall
Can I get a show of hands?
Who else HATES the whole "sink built into the kitchen island" thing?
I keep seeing these photos of the kitchen separated from the living spaces by an island - which isn't so bad - but an island with the sink on it? Seriously? I have a hard time believing that anybody cooks in these places - like, ever.
I actually don't mind
the sink in the island. If the sink wasn't there, then the stove top would be be there instead based on my particular layout and space restrictions, and that would be the worse alternative.
Really depends
Really depends on personal preference and layout. My sink is in the island that separates my kitchen from the rest of the apartment. It gives me the perfect work triangle between the sink, the refrigerator, and the stove as well as the perfect work surface for food prep on the island next to the sink and makes that prep area easy to clean without slopping water and scraps from one counter to the other. As an added bonus, I can watch TV while standing at the island.
Thank you for this post!
I couldn't agree more!! I cringe at the barstools surrounding a fancy kitchen island with a sink. Who the heck wants to eat at the sink filled with dirty dishes? What is this a college flop house?
Well, actually…
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency may not be a locally focused site, but it is locally edited: Chris Monks lives in Arlington.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/authors/christopher-monks
About that place in JP
Curious history according to Zillow.
Zillow link
It sold for $859k on April 1st (a joke?) which is a little below asking. But then it's listed as having been sold again in late July for $741k.
Buyers remorse? Maybe just sold to another family member who kept a stake in the place.
For all the talk of open concepts, it's not that hard or expensive to add a wall. Moving them is when it gets complex.