The DiCicco family of South Barrington used to own a house with a traditional floor plan — living room, dining room, kitchen and family room. But the living room went unused, even when company came.
“Everyone gravitated toward the food,” says Gary DiCicco. “They would all be in the kitchen/family room.”
So when he and his wife, Kristen, hired Inverness-based Harris Builders to build their current house in the Glen of South Barrington in 2005, they nixed the idea of a formal living room and built two family rooms — one on the first floor and another in the finished walk-out basement. Although the house is 6,000 square feet larger than their previous home, it has no formal living room. The family, which includes their 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, gathers daily in the first-floor family room, which includes a TV and fireplace. When their extended family comes over or when Alyssa entertains her friends, they head to the lower-level family room, which includes a swimming pool, arcade games and kitchen.
Although the DiCiccos’ neighborhood, where houses start at $3 million, is higher-priced than average, their new floor plan is a reflection of the times, says architect Deborah Pierce from the American Institute of Architects’ Advisory Group for Small Project Practioners.
“People entertain more informally now. Formal living rooms and dining rooms are becoming vestigial and casual family rooms are more important,” says Pierce. “But one isn’t necessarily enough because everyone wants their own space — for their own hobbies, to watch their own TV shows or entertain their friends. I’ve designed chess rooms, homework rooms, scrapbooking rooms, even one ‘room of good habits’ that was for things like practicing music.”
The floor plan that worked back in the day, when adult guests were entertained in the living room and seen-but-not-heard kids were relegated to the lone family room or to their bedrooms, doesn’t work for some families. Nor does the garage suffice as the “man room,” and the kitchen as the “woman’s room,” as they did when men’s hobbies were fixing the family cars or building the family’s furniture and women’s were baking cupcakes for the church bazaar.
“When we have our family over, adults and kids are everywhere,” reports Joe Guin, who built a two-story house with his wife, Amy, in the Hawthorn Woods Country Club in Hawthorn Woods in 2007, where houses, being built by Toll Brothers, start at $500,000. Their house has three family rooms. One is on the first floor, with a wet bar, flat-screen television and windows that overlook a golf course. The second is in their finished walk-out lower level and has a home theater, wine cellar and toys for their four kids, ages 1 to 7. The third is next to the kitchen and has a television and fireplace.
Like the DiCiccos, the Guins’ previous house had an unused formal living room.
The Hertzberg family of Long Grove also has three.
“When the kids are awake,” says Dr. David Hertzberg of his 2-year and 4-year-old children, “we use the one we call the toy room, which is on the second floor. When we’re making dinner, we use the one next to the kitchen, which has a fireplace and TV. But when the kids are asleep, my wife and I use the lower-level family room, which has mostly adult things, including a big TV and bar.”
When his children become teens, says Hertzberg, he predicts the toy room will become a homework room or a video game room. This new house serves his family much better than their previous one, says Hertzberg. “Our old house had a traditional living room, family room, dining room and kitchen,” he says. “There were toys everywhere.”
The Hertzbergs’ house was built by Empeco Custom Builders in Vernon Hills. Prices in their Long Meadow Farms subdivision start at $1.2 million.
A notch down the price ladder are the dual-family-room houses built by Lakewood Homes of Hoffman Estates. Most of the buyers of its Heritage Series houses, built in Hampshire, St. Charles, Plano and Joliet, choose its second family room instead of a fifth bedroom.
Count Scott Rambatt among them. When he bought his Lakewood house in Hampshire in 2007, where prices start at $239,990, the second family room helped clinch the deal, he says. “The upstairs one is private, where I hang out and watch TV,” he says. “The downstairs one, which I call the fireplace room, is by the kitchen, so that’s where people go when I have company.” Company bypasses his smaller living room, he says, which serves as an extension of the entry.
The trend extends to townhouses, too. Jesse and Doris Bell chose the dual-family-room Astoria model when they bought their split-level townhouse at The Plaza on New York in Aurora in 2007. Townhouses, being built by Wiseman-Hughes Homes, start at $261,900.
“Most of the time, we use the upstairs family room,” says Doris. “But when the grandkids come over, we use that and the downstairs one, too.” When they watch movies, the downstairs family room wins, she says, because it has recliners and an extra-large TV.
Nor is the family-room phenomenon limited to the suburbs. Frederick Quinn and his wife, Dr. Joyce Kocher, bought their Chicago house from CA Development Inc. in 2007, then equipped two levels with family rooms. The main-floor family room is next to the kitchen, so the couple use it on weekdays, before or after work. But when company comes, he says, some guests head to their lower-level room. Houses in their Edgebrook Glen subdivision on the city’s Northwest Side start at $699,900.
“After we finish our [back-yard] courtyard,” says Quinn, “I can see us using the upstairs room more during the summer and the downstairs one more during the winter.”
Although today’s houses are bigger than their predecessors and have more rooms to suit their owners’ interests, one thing hasn’t changed, notes Quinn: “When there’s a big group, women still gravitate toward the kitchen and men still gravitate toward the best TV.”
