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Most people who like open floor plans feel they are getting what they want, not paying more to get less.
Saying that it would be too small with added walls means the expectation is to pay less and get more - they want more square footage (so the individual rooms aren't too small) for the same money. If someone wants more square footage, they should expect to pay more for it, not complain that open floor plans aren't what they want.
Yes. I like the combo living area. It works well for us. But, apparently some people who want newer homes want an old fashioned sort of floor plan that is almost unavailable now. I wonder if this is due to other desires of most home buyers. Perhaps other wants in housing drive the need to consolidate the living areas?
OK, I get what you are saying. You don't like the standard kitchen/dinning/family room set up.
If you can stand some separation of the kitchen from the living area, you might find what you like in a late '80s -early '90s house. I am basing this on my observations when I house hunted four years ago.
If you want a strictly segmented floor plan, with closed off kitchen, then you might find something built earlier than the '80s. You might look for a two story with center hall. Those could be traditional in design.
Another option might be to buy a house in a new development that allows customization. Or, you might have to buy property and have a house built custom for you.
I do think you should be able to find something, somewhere.
We purchased a house in 1977 that was cape cod style with a center hallfront to back with closed off rooms on either side. Nice house with good floor plan.
What we are trying to tell you, and you don't want to listen, is that it is becoming almost impossible to find either new construction or old construction in reasonably good condition, without an "open" floor plan, at any kind of reasonable price point. The new plans are all open and are not easily divided for the reasons we just told you, and the older houses have increasingly been "opened up"; so if you find an old house that has been updated, most of the time someone took a bunch of walls out, and often they have combined rooms and relocated stuff so you cannot easily reverse what has been done.
It's like saying "You don't like cars with aluminum wheels, bucket seats, and plastic bumpers? Well, just don't buy that kind of car" when THAT'S ALL THERE FREAKING IS.
Our house is not open floor plan and cost only $1.
It is in good condition (now), but it is no longer $1.
We did have a lot of stuff relocated. Typically older houses have walls added because they were built without bathrooms or closets.
Removing walls for an "open floorplan is a more modern idea generally done by flippers who have no idea what they are doing. Avoid those houses unless they are cheap enough to be able to put everything back. You can almost always figure out where the walls and doorways were by removing the pergo or whatever garbage they put over the floors.
Pretty certain the original upstairs in our house was just one big room. No interior walls. The downstairs was two rooms. Kitchen was a separate building. As they added on, they also divided the upstairs into two bedrooms and a hallway. (Bathrooms are all squeezed into part of the newer 1850 addition and the 1868 addition).
By the time of the 1850 addition, they were installing bedrooms with walls, but no closets or bathrooms. the 1868 addition which added one more bedroom apparently had a closet too. They attached the milking barn to the house in 1868 too and made it into a kitchen. It was all very modern.
Most people who like open floor plans feel they are getting what they want, not paying more to get less.
Regardless of what they "feel" the fact is they are paying more and getting less. Builders charge more for "open floor plans" and save money/increase profits by using less materials and labor and design effort. It was a brilliant marketing idea. They figure out how to make people "feel" a way that is most profitable for them. How does marketing get any better than that?
We built a fully custom home with a very open floor plan, incorporating many disappearing glass doors to the inner courtyard and the backyard. Every month or two, we'll host a party or fundraiser with from 30 to 100 guests. We need the open floor plan to make it all work.
I like a circular floor plan for entertaining, with separate rooms, so that guests can "rotate" through the house but break off into smaller, more intimate groupings. We don't have 100 guests at a time but we do sometimes have 30 guests at a time and that's what works best for us.
I have a good friend who has a huge New Years Eve party every year with at least 100 people. They have a similar floor plan - with door openings between rooms that are laid out in a circular manner - works very well for her.
What I mean by "circular" is that there is a natural walk from front door, through dining room, through kitchen, through living room, through den, back to foyer and then around and around you go again.
This makes for a quiet, more intimate setting.
I had an open floor plan in our previous house and whenever we'd have a large party it would become so loud that it was distracting. We had a smaller sitting area off the main living area and we noticed that people would try to "escape" to that area (it would soon become crowded itself but was quieter) or out to the back patio.
I'm not arguing but rather pointing out that even with large groups of people, it boils down to individual taste.
Regardless of what they "feel" the fact is they are paying more and getting less. Builders charge more for "open floor plans" and save money/increase profits by using less materials and labor and design effort. It was a brilliant marketing idea. They figure out how to make people "feel" a way that is most profitable for them. How does marketing get any better than that?
I think this is your opinion, which you are entitled to.
For me, fewer walls does not translate to a poor bargain. If, as you say, a removed wall and/or a half wall saves money, the builder can add more detail or other features to the house. In my house I have lovely fat, detailed wood works which add to my aesthetic pleasure.
I had a look at some local new houses being offered for sale in my area, and I think they all had the combined kitchen/family/dining area. But other rooms were segmented in the floor plan, often upstairs.
I do know that some open plans don't organize the space well, and you get, in effect, a kitchen that looks like an island in the middle of a bunch of undifferentiated space. I don't care for that look, either.
I think home builders have responded to what buyers want, and they seem to like the combined living area. But they also like some other features they also provide, such as large windows, generous word works, various built ins and laundry rooms. These things were unusual prior to the 1980s, when the open plans became more common, I think.
I think an older home would be more likely to have the segmented floor plan that some of you want. There were some lovely homes built in affluent areas in the '50s-60s. If I wanted the older fashioned floor plan, and I had the money, I'd look at some of those older ramblers that were being built then. Or, you could find a two story with center hall built anywhere from 1950 through the 1970s.
My husband and I just bought a house together and open or closed floor plan was the biggest argument. He wanted open everything. I swear that man could have a huge studio and be the happiest guy in the world. Myself on the other hand wanted more separation. We looked at many houses and we went with an open floor plan so he won. I do like the house and absolutely adore the location..but I'm not too fond of walking through the front door and seeing the living room, dining room, kitchen and even backyard (if blinds are open) all at once. Also was told by the realtor when looking at this house that it used to be a closed floor plan many years ago but one of the previous owners took every wall down separating the living room, dining room and kitchen. I understand having some openness in houses is great but some separation is nice too!! I joked to my husband that I was going to rebuild all the walls back up.
Thankfully he agreed that I have full range to decorate however I want so that makes things better. Haha!
I can't stand open floor plans. They result in so much wasted space and noise/smell pollution between different areas. The last thing I want is to have to turn the TV up so I can hear it over sizzling frying pans, not to mention be assaulted by cooking smoke when I'm not even in the kitchen. Then there's the fact that big open spaces can't be repurposed for anything that requires privacy. My house is a Victorian from the era of many smaller private rooms, and the only rooms open at all to each other are the kitchen and dining room. The parlor closes off with pocket doors, so it could be used as a home office, first floor bedroom, huge dressing room (what I chose, since it's near the washer and dryer), as well as its intended purpose as a private sitting/living room. The kitchen could have a door put on it to close it off completely and, like most Victorians, is shoved in the back of the house so people aren't walking through it and getting in the way of the cook (and has its own door right off the back drive, so groceries don't need to be carried through half the house).
Note that I don't entertain, at least more than a couple friends, so have no use for a "traffic flow" that will accommodate large parties. I chose this house for its closed layout, as the first time I walked through I could see how every room could be used efficiently for our lifestyle, and also repurposed if our needs change.
I had no trouble at all finding a house with the closed layout I wanted, though. In fact, only one house I looked at had been altered to be open (I only looked at historic houses built pre-1900). We have a fantastic variety of housing stock here in central PA, though, so unless you have a really limited budget or ridiculously picky criteria, you'll be able to find whatever type of layout you want, be it closed, semi-open, or very open.
In feng shui, it is bad luck if you open the front door and see the kitchen and backyard.
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