Comments on: #156: Downsize Your Dining Room

By: dkzody

dkzody — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:37:17 +0000

No dining room in this old house, circa 1976, just a dining area in the kitchen. However, my youngish friends have always liked the set up–you can sit at the table and be in the kitchen at the same time–so maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to sell the place. Of course, getting the price we want is another matter. The house cost $72k in 1980. It’s paid for and comfortable, and since we could probably only get about that same price, due to the horrible, terrible, real estate market, we will stay put.

By: Pamela Redmond Satran

Pamela Redmond Satran — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:24:21 +0000

I grew up with a nook, Mr. 18b! My parents would trap us on the inside of the benches and then they would sit on the outside and smoke. And smoke and smoke. I am really jealous that you and your wife have gotten to smoke for 50 years; I loved smoking and even 18 years after quitting, I still miss it. If I live to be 85, I’m planning to start again.

Meanwhile, do not f-ing tear out your nook! It sounds like a family shrine. Glad you love my blog. I love your comment. xx

By: joem18b

joem18b — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:32:05 +0000

Say, Ms Satran, what about nooks? We have a perfectly darling little breakfast nook. The great-grandchildren love to sit in it and smoke, which I discourage because of their age. The solid wood table is rather heavily scarred with cigarette burns, as my wife and I are heavy smokers ourselves and have taken our cigarettes and coffee in the morning there for more than fifty years. I just think that when we sell, it would be an f-ing shame to tear out our nook. Love your blog.

By: nocnocintn

nocnocintn — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:59:18 +0000

My dining room is currently undergoing transformation to a library … we’ll keep the small round table and put two big comfy chairs in there for homework and reading. We have always had a separate formal dining room but I don’t like china or china cabinets, so it’s been most often used as a crafting area if used at all. I’m trying to downsize my life and only have things that I love and really use the things that I have … on the other side, my youngest daughter (13) is dying to have a big formal dining room complete with silver, china and formal linens. I think it’s becoming less a matter of age and more a matter of taste. I’m inherently transient and she wants to get married, raise children and die in the same house.

By: xxx

xxx — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:55:22 +0000

im 36 and throughout my twenties I said I’d know I’m old when I buy a dining room table for a dining room. I now have both, i think I’m oldd

By: Dianne

Dianne — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:34:30 +0000

Ah! This brings back fond memories of the spring of 1992 when my daughter and my chairs appeared in “The Dining Room” at her high school.

By: Roni

Roni — Mon, 30 May 2011 04:18:36 +0000

I actually like having a large, open living room/dining room area. It makes mingling easier when I have people over as opposed to having a group of people in the dining room and another in the living room. And it doesn’t feel as stuffy since we’re not dining in an area enclosed from the rest of the house.

By: Trinity River

Trinity River — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:55:45 +0000

Our dining room has turned into a storage room. I haven’t objected because the table is to big for the room and the chairs are uncomfortable. We tend to do the “throw stuff on the bar-b and ice down the beer.” I’d like a dining room that works. Love your site by the way. Your book is on my reading list.

By: Diane @quirkout.com

Diane @quirkout.com — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:29:57 +0000

I remember my parents having elegant dinner parties when my mother made dishes like Beef Stroganoff. It was all very Mad Men.

My dining room table has 3 extensions, but I’ve never used them. (Craig’s List anyone?)

Best laughing and chatting now is while everyone sits at the kitchen bar stools watching the cook. Oh, and there might be some wine involved, too.

By: wendy

wendy — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:37:28 +0000

I’m 35 and throughout my twenties I said I’d know I’m old when I buy a dining room table for a dining room. I now have both, i think I’m old…. 🙁