I’ve mentioned before that this house has one a/c unit and it isn’t zoned. It’s ok most of the time but sometimes, not so ok. We have a dropped ceiling in the basement and we’ve talked about having a second unit with its own duct work installed but the inside part of the unit has to go somewhere and we don’t want to give up the space needed for the inside unit. If we ever have to replace the whole unit, we’ll probably at least get an estimate for adding a second unit or at least a zoned system.
The upstairs gets so hot in the summer. The morning sun beams through 5 windows on the back side of the house (breakfast room open to the kitchen) and the afternoon sun beams through the 3 dining room windows and that heats up the kitchen so most of the summer, the kitchen is way too warm. In fact, Vince has started storing his bananas in the basement kitchen and they’re lasting much longer.
Having the thermostat upstairs (only thermostat) set to about 74 usually means the family room and master bedroom are 74 degrees, but the kitchen area is about 78 degrees. Turn on the stove burners and/or the oven and it’s quickly over 80 degrees in there.
If the thermostat is set on 74, the basement family room and bedroom will be about 68 degrees. The basement garage will often be 65 degrees. That’s a huge difference.
The stove downstairs is in the garage and the garage is air conditioned. The heating/cooling unit is in a closet in that garage. I keep telling Vince we should move our bedroom to that garage because it stays so cool. Of course, I’m joking but that room feels so good.
Last week I had the canner going with one thing and had bones roasting in the oven for over an hour . . all in the basement garage. In fact, the reason we had the gas line run to the garage and bought the stove for down there was one day I had run several loads in the canner in the upstairs kitchen. The a/c had been running non-stop and at bed time, it was almost 80 degrees in the bedroom. With the canner running and the oven roasting bones for over an hour, even the basement garage got hot.
There’s a door from the garage to the house and I keep that door closed so none of the heat had gone into the living area. That got me to thinking about the houses I remember from my grandparents and great grandparents’ homes. The houses were all on the back side of the house; they all had a door leading to the outside and they all had a door to the dining area/living area – not just an opening but a door that closed. Back then, none of those houses had air conditioning and those ladies did a ton of canning. My grandma would open the windows in her kitchen. The door leading to the outside had a screen door so she would leave the main door open and have a fan blowing so that helped keep things cooler . . a little cooler.
House styles/designs change. Now, the “open concept” seems to be the prevalent style. I don’t like the open concept. I want to be in the kitchen, in my own little world, my music playing and be left alone. My kitchen isn’t totally open because there’s a wall that divides the family room from the kitchen/breakfast area but there ‘s a big opening to the family room . . as wide as the breakfast room so any heat in the kitchen is going to be in the family room too.
I do understand that some people enjoy have interaction with the family while they’re in the kitchen so it’s nice to be able to observe children playing in the family room or chit chatting with the husband while the wife/mom is in the kitchen but for me, I always said I would have the kitchen/eating area in a separate room . . keep all that kitchen heat and mess completely out of the house. That would be a weird house, wouldn’t it . . a house with no kitchen.
The bar stools are at the bar which is, obviously, part of the kitchen. I had wanted to take that opening out – close it up, but that’s not going to happen. I also wanted to chop that raised part of the bar off and make everything counter height and that’s not happening either.
There would still be the opening on the other side of the kitchen but . . I’m sure nothing will ever change. Well, since that picture (before we bought the house) the stove, fridge, wall oven, microwave and dishwasher have all changed. Those things surely do look different now.
So, who likes the open concept kitchen and who wants to be totally left alone and not even seen while working in the kitchen?
Speaking of that, I have the second batch of bone broth in the roaster now and I can smell it downstairs. It doesn’t smell bad but that’s just part of having an inside kitchen. I almost took the big roaster out to the sun room today . . to make the kitchen less cluttered since company arrives tomorrow, and it would keep some of the heat out of the kitchen but then I thought about the mess I make straining/filtering the broth and getting it in jars and decided it needs to stay in the kitchen.
I’ve always told Vince if we ever built a house (we won’t), I would have a small kitchen on the main level but my working kitchen would be downstairs. I’d have a dining area on the main level but the area where Vince and I eat would be in the basement. A girl can dream . .
Amy Kollasch says
I would rather have a wall separating my kitchen from the rest of the house. As a side note, we have an air conditioning unit installed on the wall to help keep our house cool. The people that owned our house before us added on and the central air couldn’t keep that addition cool. It isn’t the old style box air conditioner you put in a window. It is a long unit installed across the top of the wall with a unit outside. Maybe you could install one in your bedroom to help cool it.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Mini split. We had one in Texas in the sewing room. Actually we had three in 8 years because each one lasted just beyond the warranty and went out. Not again.
Teri says
Our neighbor has had a split for almost 13 years and has never had a problem.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We don’t even keep our main house units that long. 🙂 I think the mini splits may be better in some areas than others. One of the school systems in Louisiana replaced all their old units in one school and after four or five years, replaced them all again with regular units. I’ll never buy another one but I do hear of people who have had them for long times and love them.
Ginny says
Maybe you could have a split air conditioning unit installed in your kitchen to help keep it cool. that type has just a small unit inside where it cools and most of the unit outside.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Been there/done that. We’ve had our fill of those. We had one in the sewing room in Texas. Put it in new in 2012 and by the time we moved from there in 2020, we were on our third one. Each one lasted til just days after the warranty.
Kathy says
Two things I feel others will regret in the future- #1 completely open concept. Sure you can see the kids play etc (which only lasts a few years) but mostly- kitchen noise is LOUD. Think dishwasher, garbage disposal, stove vent, running water. No one can hear the tv which is generally in adjoining room, so tv gets louder and louder and LOUDER. Meanwhile someone in the kitchen is watching all the others NOT helping in the kitchen…. oh my ask me how I know this.
#2 Having main eating area at a ‘bar’ or a kitchen island, with chairs all in a row. How are you supposed to carry on a conversation when you’re not looking directly at the person? Not a good habit to teach. How can you teach proper table/eating manners when no one can see each other???? Also, if just children are at the island, and parent is on the other side “serving” – what does this teach a child?
Oh my, sorry for the rant, but I’ve been waiting a looooong time to say this.
While I’m at it- I predict there will be many, many people somewhere in the future regretting painting wood cabinets- just like people pulling up carpeting and finding perfectly good hardwood floors underneath. “What were they thinking?” Yup. Ultimately, to each their own.
Kathy
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I agree. We don’t have a tv in the family room, which is just off the kitchen and we’re rarely in there . . always in the basement family room. That would be a problem. We have the bar with the three bar stools and I’m sure it would be a great place for kids to sit if there were a bunch of people eating but no one has sat in those stools in the almost 3 years we’ve been here. The dining table seats 8, the breakfast table seats 4. I doubt we ever have more than 6 or 8 people here to eat.
Joyce says
My parents had an “extra” stove in the basement, mostly because the kitchen had a wall oven and a separate island range top, and they had an extra stove from moving. (Our old house was been torn down, so they could take anything they wanted with them.) My mother loved having the stove in the basement for canning, baking and having an extra oven for holidays. I think she would have loved it if she could have had a separate building for the kitchen–as the old plantation houses did. (Mostly just to keep the heat out of the house.)
Andrea in MO says
I’m a person who loves rooms. The houses with two story ceilings and open floor plans are nice to visit, but I don’t want to live in one. That’s so much wasted space, and it seems like they aren’t very cool in the summer (that might just be the preference of the people who live there, though). Whenever I’m at an estate sale and see a summer kitchen in the basement I’m a little bit envious.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I do use my basement stove for almost all baking and for all canning in the summer but it’s a lot of going up and down stairs since I have no water in there. We did look at houses that had full kitchens in the basement but there was always something else that wasn’t quite right. I keep saying that I won’t always be canning and baking as much as I do now but I’m not so sure about that.
Jane S says
We also have a row of windows facing south at the back or our house. We have blinds and a sliding patio door bind. The living space will be more comfortable if you keep the blinds or shades closed (or just barely cracked open). The rooms will be cooler in summer and warmer in winter by doing this.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We put up blinds and that didn’t do a lot of good so got the room darkening insulated roll down shades and put those behind the blinds in the breakfast room windows. We keep those down til the morning sun isn’t coming in so bright and then we open those and have the other blinds open. That has made some amount of difference but not too much. We don’t have any problems keeping the area warm in the winter because the heat from downstairs rises.
JustGail says
At one time, summer kitchens were somewhat common in some areas. A totally separate building for summer cooking & canning to keep the heat and smells out of the main house. I’d love to see the look you get from Vince if you suggested building one! 🙂
I’d prefer the kitchen separate, as long as there’s a comfy spot to sit and stitch or read while keeping an eye on things.
Barbara says
I found my dream house, but it’s out of my price range unless I win the lottery. It has a second kitchen right behind the first kitchen. At first I thought it was for caterers to use for parties, but these hidden kitchens have become popular in new designs. You do all the dirty work in the second kitchen when entertaining and the first kitchen is more for serving and light work. This layout is great for parties or big holiday gatherings. It would be great to have a big cookie baking project in the back kitchen and then make a light meal in the first kitchen. It would also be great for catered parties, most of the prep work and staff would be in the second kitchen and the guest facing kitchen with its large island counter would be the serving area.
Vicky Ross says
I don’t like an open concept. When my husband and I built this house 30 years ago there were two things I insisted on – laundry room on the main level and NO dining room. Our very large eat-in kitchen is separated from the other rooms. Fifteen years ago we added a sun room with French doors onto the kitchen which has become the hangout for our grandsons when they visit. We can add another table in there if necessary for extra seating. We felt that a dining room would be wasted space and just a pass-thru.
Our daughter has an open concept arrangement and I hate it.
DebMac says
I don’t care for open kitchens. We hosted the big family Christmas dinner for years and I had a rule about only those actually doing prep work could be in the kitchen. Everyone else had to stand in a doorway and stay out of the way. In this house the kitchen, breakfast area, and family room are in a row and it’s true; the cook does the work while watching everyone else enjoy themselves. We used the dining room in most of our houses ( we are in #7) but not this one. It’s is the catch-all. I have complained for years about open plan houses; I keep getting bigger houses but have less wall space. Where am I supposed to hang all the cross stitch?
Jean says
Blackout shades on those windows would help.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That’s what we have behind our regular shades. Helps a little I’m sure but not enough. I’m betting new windows would make a huge difference but that isn’t happening either.
Sheryl says
…I’m a messy housekeeper but I love my open concept kitchen/living area.
Denise in PA says
I’m with you, Judy. I love rooms, not open concept. I don’t have true open concept, but live in a split level and the wall from the living room to the dining room was taken down and the kitchen/dining room are divided by a peninsula, so it is more open than I’d like. With no kids in the picture anymore, keeping an eye out isn’t an issue. Maybe in the next house I’ll have my “rooms” (if there is one!)