The Dreaded Room That Is Never Used

 

The Room That Is Never Used: our Living Room

If you are the owner of an older house, say, one built before 2000, then you probably have a large amount of square footage devoted to a room in the house that you hardly ever use. It is called "The Living Room."

Its successor is something that we now call "The Family Room." If the house has an open floor plan on the first floor, i.e. the kitchen and The Family Room are one open space, then the room is sometimes known as "The Great Room."

Someone mentioned that all the room was missing was a dog (s) laying on the floor in the room.
I added Angie (black Lab) and Bella (Golden Retriever) to the scene.

Nowadays home builders do not have Living Rooms in their houses, but rather, they opt for the open designed Great Room. Great Rooms are fine, but the noise from the kitchen (also known as "The Room Where Everyone Congregates When You Are Having A Party".) is one of the negative points of this concept.

Our house has the Living Room, Family Room, Kitchen, Dining Room, Entry Hall and Den. We probably spend most of our time in the Family Room because that is where we have placed the only functioning television in our home. 

And That Other Room Too

The Dining Room is also a room that is rarely used, save for a place to put things, The Dining Room table is a clutter magnet - all sorts of stuff and paraphernalia wind up on the table. Around the time of the Christmas holiday, the large dining room table is employed as a gift wrapping space due to the its size. Sometimes the dining room table does service as a war game table when my daughter and I play our Teddy Bear Wars game. We only use the room for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have noticed that some newly built houses have also dispensed with the Dining Room as all of the ground floor square footage is devoted to that Great Room culprit.

Back To Main Point

So I have strayed away from the whole point of this post, which is to highlight the Living Room as a place that is comfortable and needs to be used more often.

Last night we decided to forgo any watching of television and instead park our butts in the Living Room next to the fireplace. Herself worked on some crossword puzzles from the Wall Street Journal, while I immersed myself into Dan Sickles and the fight for the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg. In the end, everything gets back to Dan Sickles, don't you know?

Herself and I both commented on how nice it was to sit in The Room That Is Never Used (TRTINU") and just read and talk to each other and that we should do this more often. We say that every time we use the TRTINU and then never follow up on it. There doesn't seem to be very much to watch on television. We cut the cable cord recently and now use various streaming services. This has had the effect of us watching less television unless it is the News or some movie/series on Netflix.

The yellow sofa shown in the pictures above is one of the most comfortable sofas that I have ever tried. So that makes it a good place to take my afternoon nap. It is even better after we turn the clocks back to standard time because the daylight recedes into early darkness that makes it easier to nap.

I have ramble on long enough. On a long and cold winter's night, and with the fireplace stoked with a load of wood, TRTINU is the best place to be.

nn