On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:54:55 -0700 (PDT), The Ranger
> wrote:

>On Jul 13, 4:59*am, "George Leppla" > wrote:
>> We have a formal dining room that we have used once in over two years. Our
>> kitchen is very big with a huge table in there and that is where we always
>> end up. *When we bought this house, my wife suggested that I convert the
>> dining room for my office, but we ended up using a spare bedroom. It would
>> have been a better use of space to do away with the dining room.
>
>That's the reason we combined the living and dining rooms into our
>current hall, or great room. I'm glad we did it and can't imagine how
>we were able to host dinners the way it was set up prior.
>
Frankly, I can't stand having a dining/living room combination. There
is nothing worse, IMO.

I would have combined the kitchen and dining room years ago (the old
breakfast room is part of the kitchen now), but I didn't have the
heart to cut into that gumwood paneling. A future owner of this house
can do it, I won't.

As it is, life has reverted back to more formal entertaining now that
the kids are grown and I'm glad I didn't combine rooms. A city house
should be more formal anyway.

--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.