This thread is why I vowed to never buy a house with a formal dining room and/or formal living room ever again. I had those once and the result was that a full 1/3 of the main floor of the house never, ever, ever got used.
Nowadays our house is too big, but the great room that encompasses our eating area and living room is used just about every single day.
It’s the library on the second floor that never, ever, ever gets used now (except for book storage). But at least it looks nice, and I walk through it to get to my office every day. And the dogs sleep there. Nothing like a beautiful formal library with lovely furniture and book-lined walls for your dogs to sleep in.
The hobby idea is interesting, especially if your hobby is aircraft models. I can picture having them all hanging from the ceiling in a diorama of exploration and combat. That could interfere with guests, depending on how low you hang them.
If it were mine, it would definitely become a library: Plenty of bookshelves, a comfy chair or two, plus a large sofa to lounge on with a book. No pesky traffic patterns, so maybe reading a few paragraphs without interruption would be feasible.
(But the bouncy castle would be my second choice!)
Yup. Full size pool table, not one of the scale model ones they put in bars. And a pinball machine if there’s room without interfering with the pool table.
Perhaps some history will shed light (NOT “lite”):
Back in the day, a house had a Parlor, wherein the adults would entertain. It was also where the dead were laid out for viewing before final service and burial, The (new) Mortician trades did not like that. They got laws passed REQUIRING embalming on all bodies whch passed through their greedy hands.
Some think the “Living” iin “living room” was a direct dig at the practice of the family burying their own.
However the name came about, “Living Room” = Parlor
In the 1960’s Recreation Rooms (rec room) came about - often in the basement. Builders started offering them pre-built shortly thereafter. These are for informal adult entertainment (when the boss came over for dinner, he/she would be entertained in the Living Rooom, the kids and their friends were confined to the rec room.
“Family room” = rec room.
You don’t want ot know about split parlors, do you?
Good furniture and adult conversation go in LR.
No-longer-prime furniture (and/or home theater) goes in the FR.
My (1979 tacky tract) house has the only fireplace in the family room. WRONG - adults get to use the fireplace, the kids get to watch TV.
We have oak flooring and the answer is not that much. Even his jumping up and down with his scooting toy hasn’t really done any damage. I second the idea of a toy room, getting all that stuff out of the rest of the house would be golden.
Yes on the pool table, maybe foosball, add a wet bar. A nice poker table, the kind with the cover so that you can use it for board games as well.
Then (this is the pièce de résistance) decorate it entirely in Buffalo circa 1979 style, with all throwback Bills and Sabres stuff, and those weird wall hangings that say things like “Beer: Not Just For Breakfast Anymore.” And one of those lamps that looks like a waterfall. Well, that’s the plan for my extra room, anyway.
Seconded, but there’s also the luxury version of that. Furnish the big room as a studio; bed, table, chair, little walk-in bathroom corner. Then rent it out as a B&B. Brings in heaps of money, and you only get to have guests when you want to.
