The desk and “planning area” where Mom kept her cookbooks and stashed coupons — a hot item in new kitchens 10 to 15 years ago — has morphed into a place for a laptop, where owners can sit and pay bills, and a 1- by 2-foot flat-screen monitor, placed at eye level and close enough to the food prep area that the chef can read recipes, Dickinson said.
Another frequent complaint that Dickinson says he hears concerns living rooms: “They really are dinosaurs for three-quarters of our clients and not used at all.” When a budget allows for a renovation of a center hall plan that is more extensive but remains within the the house’s footprint, he “activates” the living room by removing walls, relocating a back powder room and integrating the freed-up space with the kitchen to create a combined eat-in kitchen and family room across the back that overlooks the nature the owners crave. The front half of the living room can be turned into a formal dining room or some other space that is more useful to the household.
Moving the main family living areas to the back frees up the old formal dining room space on the front of the house to be converted into “service areas” that most households now desperately need, Dickinson said. These include a large walk-in pantry and a multipurpose mudroom foyer accessed from the garage, the place where most car-dependent households enter their houses. The mudroom, requested in all climates, not just those that track in mud, has become a place to store kids’ sports equipment. Dickinson also incorporates a new powder room into this area, and, when there’s enough space, a laundry room.
The home office, a must-have only a few years ago, has shrunk by at least half and in many remodels that Dickinson designs now has vanished. Few homeowners need dedicated desk space or bookcases because they can use their laptop anywhere in the house, and they can access whatever reference material or other information they might need electronically, he said.
How much would such an extensive renovation of the traditional center hall plan cost? Dickinson said that costs vary a great deal across the country but that by staying within the footprint of the house, it can be done “in the neighborhood of $100,000.”
Katherine Salant has an architecture degree from Harvard. A native Washingtonian, she grew up in Fairfax County and now lives in Michigan. If you have questions or would like to suggest topics for coverage, contact her by e-mail at salanthousewatch@gmail.com or at www.katherinesalant.com.
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