Lone Star Ranch Florida is following the new trend in home building in which the formal dining room is being left out of the major floor plans.  The formal dining room in most houses, seems to be a lonely room most days of the year; the family uses it for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other special occasions and maybe Sunday dinners.

Today’s new homebuyer wants everything done in one communal area. The cooking, the eating and the lounging are now done in great rooms that combined kitchens, dining areas and living rooms or family rooms all in one space.

There is an exception to the rule of having a formal dining room and that is in larger houses - those that are 5000 square feet or more, usually still have a formal dining room.  However mid-level buyers of new homes do not want to waste the space on a dining room that will only be used a few times a year, families need all that useful space they can obtain.

The versatile great room in the new houses Tampa, Florida is more casual than a formal dining room which is more like a ‘showplace’.  There is furniture for lounging and children might sit at the kitchen table to do their homework.  These great rooms are very versatile and can go from a  ‘family room’ to an entertaining space by moving a piece of furniture or bringing in another kitchen like table for food or games.

In large homes, where homeowners can afford the luxury of a seldom used rooms, such as the formal dining room, they are becoming as big as ever.  Unlike living rooms, which seemed to be getting smaller, formal dining rooms are getting larger for entertainment purposes and new homebuyers are always afraid they will not be able to get their large dining room furniture in the smaller dining room spaces.

If you are in the market for a newly built home, you may have the choice of a great room which incorporates a kitchen, eating area and sometimes the family room or a formal dining room.  The choice is yours and it would depend on how much entertaining and family get-togethers you host.