Hellobee Boards

No, our 1st floor is two long rooms, one side is the kitchen/dining area and one side is the living room. Separated by the stairs to upstairs in between. I'm dying for a house with a great room (one big room for kitchen/living room). I love open floor plans and don't feel any need for a formal living or dining room.

Ours is not open-concept, but the kitchen is very large and it has a large open double door leading to the living room. I am planning either to turn the eat-in portion of the kitchen into a play area, or to put the play stuff in the area closest to that double door. We also have a small loveseat in the kitchen which helps to create a "great room" effect. My experience has been that eventually everyone ends up in the kitchen anyway

ETA: When I was younger I lived in a great-room type house and my mom had a TV in the kitchen so she could watch her shows since the main family TV was always tuned to cartoons! So there were two TVs within a few yards of each other. But it was good for her since she spent so much time with toddlers, then infants, and could feed them in stages THEN cook dinner.

We can't see the living room from the kitchen, but it's a half wall with a vaulted ceiling so I can hear everything.
What we can see is the family room, that's where we have the kids tv with the wii/netflix, and Maddy's play kitchen and a few other toys to keep them all occupied in there!

Yes, but it's kind of an awkward set up. There's doorway lead from the living room to the kitchen and then another door way from the kitchen to a side hallway. You can see into the living area from the first doorway but a wall separates most of the kitchen from the living room. I do like being able to see DS, but I wish it was more open so I could see him from anywhere in the kitchen and not just the doorway.