Explanation of the hype

I am also a fan of the open living-dining-kitchen area. In our current apartment, living + dining is already open in one room, only the kitchen is separate. But the door to the kitchen is always open. Always! Even when we are not using the kitchen. So for us, the logical consequence and also our wish was to have a completely open living-dining-kitchen area in the house. The room has an L-shape, which we like better, yet I can look from the living room to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the living room. I like that. I find the kitchen we chose visually nice. There is nothing I would want to banish from view. The kitchen is matte white, like the furniture in the living room, and there are no bar stools or a counter (which I also don’t like). There will be no hanging extractor hood either; I generally find that terrible over islands, whether the kitchen is open or closed. We rely on a downdraft extractor.

As a rule, the kitchen is always tidied up immediately after the meal; we still live in the Middle Ages and have no dishwasher but have to wash by hand ops: and it drives me crazy that it always looks untidy there right away, even if the kitchen is separate from the living area and you cannot see there from it. So it always gets tidied up right away anyway. Well, if it’s a special case like Christmas with a multi-course mega menu for many people, surely not everything will be washed and tidied right away afterward. But I will probably have to survive that too . For me, that is not a reason against an open kitchen. Nor the smell. Nothing stinks in our home either. I like the smell of food . Since we always have the kitchen door open in the current apartment, the smell also wafts into the living area there. Honestly, that has never bothered me.

The open kitchen is one of those things that people are divided about. But honestly, everyone should just do as they want . People and their habits are different. There is no perfect floor plan. Each of us has surely planned some things in our house that would be an absolute No Go for others. But that’s how it is. You don’t have to please everyone. If you don’t want an open kitchen, don’t have one. If you want one, have one. Neither is wrong and you can live well with both. In the end, it is simply a matter of taste.

Regarding the floor-to-ceiling windows: We have several large floor-to-ceiling windows in the living-dining area and I think it’s great. That way, we always have a beautiful view of the garden from all sides. However, upstairs we mostly did without floor-to-ceiling windows. From the outside, it always looks beautiful; from the inside, I find it rather annoying because it limits the furnishing and often gives "too much" insight into the private areas. Therefore, we mostly omitted them and instead planned wide windows with a parapet to have the rooms nicely bright. But again: tastes differ.

What now? You're supposed to cook! Or what did you think?

I never cook. When she works, which is three times a week, I alternate making myself Tillmann's toaster schnitzel with Popp potato salad with cucumber and egg, eggs from cage-free hens, the microwave Pustateller from Aldi, three minutes at 600 watts, but only take the lid off afterwards, otherwise bomb, Meica Curryking with Agrarfrost oven fries and Danish remoulade on top. Those are the best days, completely vegetable-free. Karsten

These are the best days, completely vegetable-free. Karsten

The Danish remoulade usually contains things like: water, rapeseed oil, Weisskohl, sugar, spirit vinegar, Blumenkohl, Gewürtzgurken (cucumbers, spirit vinegar, salt, flavor),

You still have some work to do on completely vegetable-free.

three minutes 600 watts, but don’t open the lid first, otherwise bomb

Now we’ve got it. Microwaves are terrorist tools

I never cook. ...Those are the best days, completely vegetable-free. Karsten

You don’t have to worry about the microwave destroying anything healthy in that food – because there was never anything healthy in it to begin with. By the way, I would use the microwave for such food as well.

Therefore: I have a microwave to give away in black (almost new – heirloom). Interested?

Now we got it. Microwaves are terrorist tools

A fellow trainee actually set the kitchen on fire back then because the microwave caught fire on its own. The manufacturer gave him a nice Nolte kitchen in return for keeping quiet. A €10,000 kitchen in a €200 cold apprentice apartment. A sight to behold.

He deserves it. Sometimes you just have to be lucky....K.