Cohousing-L Mailing List: Windows & Kids Rooms [was How are your great room and kitchen connected?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Mar 11, 2008, at 3:58 PM, Larry Miller wrote:

> Our kitchen has door with a large glass window that opens to the  
> Great Room as well as a large
> pass through window.

Sorry to be posting so much, but I had forgotten about the option of a  
glass window and wanted to add a comment from our experience with our  
kids room. We have a large glass window between the kids room and the  
great room. It works very well. I'm sure it would in the kitchen also  
-- cooks can see out but the noise is greatly reduced.

While the counter between the kitchen and the great room is nice, it  
isn't very efficient for serving a lot of people. Serving is better  
with a table so people can serve along both sides AND children can  
reach the food. The line gets very backed up with parents serving kids  
who don't know what they want or people stopping to have conversations  
about recipes or asking "What's in this?" You need a way out!

So losing the counter to a window might not be a bad idea.

In the kids room, the window means parents can see what is happening  
without going in and children can look out to see that their parents  
are still there.

We did have problems during meetings with younger toddlers crying  
because see their parents and want to be with them. And the older ones  
making funny distracting faces in the window. We put up a shade that  
can be pulled down during meetings.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org