Totally makes sense to me! Go for it!

I would do it, we have a formal dinning room and living room~~we only use at Christmas. Make it your own home and what is comfy for you. You will find out in the end that this improvement will pay off in the resale stage and you will have enjoyed your new home more~

It all depends on how you plan to use the kitchen. Some folks don't actually use theirs much... but if you do, of course, make it work for you! :)

Mine is tiny. I live here by myself. It works great for me.

But when my daughter and her family is here, it gets VERY crowded.... but it is only for short bursts of time, and we just crowd in. :)

It really just has to work for you!

Moni

Could we see a floorplan showing the load-bearing walls?

A 14 X 17 space is a pretty big DR. Do you host big groups often? Maybe there's another way to enlarge your kitchen.

The people to ask about resale are the realtors in your area. This can be regional, like people in one place wanting a basement and others happy with crawl or a slab.

Often, it's the *dining room* that people don't care about. If you have a big kitchen with a nice eating space a bit apart from the kitchen 'workings', you might not use a dining room often. DH and I have a seldom-used DR (12 X 15) and use our "breakfast" room (12 X 13) all the time.

Thank you for your feedback!

Our current kitchen is 18 x 22 and everyone gathers in the kitchen! My husband & I spend most of our together time in the kitchen as we both cook. We plan to include a "breakfast bar" with stools in our new kitchen.

We also both have large families and have used the dining room in our current house very often. We plan to continue to host our families.

I will ask our real estate agent for feedback also.

Thanks!

Aren't living rooms normally in the front of a house? Now a Dining Room? You would eliminate that space, and rely on the Family Room as a Living Room. It's your house, the next person may change it again.

When my neighbor enclosed the garage for a game room, I was positive that she'd shot herself in the foot as far as resale went.

Lo and behold, when she sold it, the lady that bought it was ecstatic about the huge 'family dining room, formerly two car garage' that would hold her big dining table set that she had in storage for years because it wouldn't fit.

You just never know!

I think most people would prefer a large kitchen over a formal living room, considering there is also a family room.

I am a firm believer your home should suit your lifestyle, not some future resale. Besides, the future owners could always make the DR a LR because there would be an eat in kitchen. Go for it.

I just purchased a 5-bedroom house today - the formal dining room will become the 'family' room and the family room will become the 5th bedroom, since it is down stairs. My realtor said formal dining rooms are a thing of the past - everyone gathers in the kitchen or family room these days.

When we built our present house, I wasn't ready to give up a living room. I wish now I had walled off the opening from the foyer and made the living room a "sitting room" across from the Master bedroom and made the great room a little more formal. We almost never use the loving room. When guests come, they gravitate to the great room. Recently, we remodeled our master bath and I removed the jacuzzi. In 17 years, if I used it 10 times, that's a lot and DH never used it. We now just have a sizable shower, no tub. If someone doesn't like that when we sell the house, they can buy another. Not going to worry about it.

I like having a BIG kitchen that opens to the dinningroom...or a greatroom concept.....

I did that 18.5 years ago and have never missed having a living room. Our large 12x16 eat-in kitchen is between our (now) dining room and family room. Works well for us. I love having a huge dining room. I have a china cabinet, a buffet, a tall corner curio cabinet and room to seat 12 easily. The only thing we really added was a chandelier which my DH was able to access through the attic. Our family room is even larger than our old living room, so it works well for company and family things like Christmas even better than before.

If you are going to be living there I think you should just make it into whatever works best for you and not worry about a resale value 10 years down the road.

I'm trying to get a handle on your goals here. Few people today entertain *formally*: Linen, china, crystal, multiple courses in a separate dining room. It is pretty hard to do that without table and kitchen help. If you DO, then that's what you want!

You want a bigger kitchen for you and your DH to cook together. You want your guests out of your workspace. You want to be able to seat members of your extended families.

My preference would be a big kitchen with a dining/seating area at one end -- big enough to be devoted to table(s) and chairs when you are hosting family. For a while this was styled a 'keeping room'. Mr. and Mrs. enjoyed it as a mini-family room and breakfast area daily, but it was big enough to be cleared to seat a crowd.) I don't think you can keep family out of the 'kitchen', but you can give them an area near the action.

We seldom perch at our kitchen 'bar'. We gravitate to the table and chairs in our 'breakfast' room, where two walls are French doors and there's a small TV on a buffet. We use our LR daily, as well as that room with the large TV that the architect insisted on calling The Library.

I'd consider the rest of the house. Is it a 'family' home, with 3-5 bedrooms? A family that needs those beds needs space in the rest of the house, but probably not a dedicated, formal, DR -- especially if that replaces living spaces.

hey my one kid paid a fortune for a house with the same plan! it was one huge room with kitchen/livingroom, and with a formal dining room off the space...

the only drawback is you really have to be a clean freak as the kitchen is exposed along with the island...

the one nice feature was the tv over the fireplace, was visible....furniture placement was a bit tricky, but they used their sofa as a divider, with a nice "parson" table behind, in place of end tables, ect...they had pot lights in lieu of table or floor lamps (no cords across the floor)

I wouldn't call either living area in our home as "formal". It's just more than one living area. We bought our home new while planning our wedding. After our second daughter was born , we made our sitting room in the master into a separate bedroom and opened the front bedroom . I tend to call it the front room but has a loveseat, puter and other tv.
The girls could watch something or play in there . Now my grandaughter or my hubby can be on the computer or watch football. 10 years is too long a time to live in a house that doesn't fit your needs .

Agreed about formal living rooms being useless. Unfortunately they still need furnishing and dusting.

I think if it works well for you, it will probably work well for a number of buyers. Go for it!

I have a great room - no formal living room and no formal dining room. It works for us and will work well for buyers when we go to sell.