It depends how many rooms are in the house. If there's just one living room type area, it's always called the living room. If you have a second room that's also used for squishy furniture and TV, it's usually called either a family room or a den, depending on size. Typically, in houses with lots of living space, the family room is where the kids hang out and is generally just a less formal space.
Sometimes, family rooms will be in the basement (i.e. with the main living space/cooking/eating space on the main level). Often basements are unfinished or semi-finished. A particularly shabby family room in a basement could end up being called a rec room (short for recreation). Especially if it has a pool table and/or ping pong table. It's not the kind of place you'd take guests, unless they're really old friends.
Obviously, people in smaller homes don't have the luxury of spreading out like that, and use their living rooms for all these activities. All that having been said, depending on how much the people living in the house love electronics, the family room may end up being the centrepiece of the house, showing off the big TV, the video game systems, etc. In houses like that, the living room may be reserved for more formal occasions. There's a smaller TV in there, but the furniture is chosen for looks rather than comfort, and you definitely want to keep the kids and the pets out. In suburban McMansions, you'll often see a formal living room and formal dining room which are hardly ever used. The main activity of the house happens in the family room and the informal dining area (usually off the kitchen).
Getting back to your actual question, and getting away from my generalised ramblings (sorry, it's, like, 1 am here). The Winchester house was older, from a time when houses were built with a smaller footprint. My guess? Three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Kitchen, dining, living room, utility room downstairs. Unfinished or semi-finished basement down below with possibility of future family room, maybe a downstairs bathroom and fourth bedroom. But renos are pricey, and unless you desperately need the extra space, you may not WANT to expand into the basement. Often they have quite low ceilings, and are prone to flooding. I expect the Campbells would've used their basement for weapons storage. When it's John and Mary living there...
Oh, wait. I just remembered that Season 1 episode set in t he house, and it looks like it has a cellar rather than a basement. Which is essentially a basement with no windows. Never mind. God, insomnia sucks.
A couple of families I knew growing up had a "family room" in the basement, but the main TV-viewing room was the living room. The "den" in my experience belonged solely to Dad (the precursor of the "man cave").
Raincitygirl kinda took care of it with her comment. The Winchesters had a living room, but it really would depend on the configuration of the house and how many overall rooms there were.
Also, Kansas mostly has cellars, frequently with the "Dorothy doors" accessed on the outside of the house (like in "Scarecrow" when they toss Dean and Emily down in the cellar for safekeeping before sacrificing them).
Ah, okay, that's an interesting distinction. So a "living room" would be more for company and a "family room" would be more where the family hung out and did stuff?
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caffienekitty) wrote2009-03-23 11:47 pm
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Sometimes, family rooms will be in the basement (i.e. with the main living space/cooking/eating space on the main level). Often basements are unfinished or semi-finished. A particularly shabby family room in a basement could end up being called a rec room (short for recreation). Especially if it has a pool table and/or ping pong table. It's not the kind of place you'd take guests, unless they're really old friends.
Obviously, people in smaller homes don't have the luxury of spreading out like that, and use their living rooms for all these activities. All that having been said, depending on how much the people living in the house love electronics, the family room may end up being the centrepiece of the house, showing off the big TV, the video game systems, etc. In houses like that, the living room may be reserved for more formal occasions. There's a smaller TV in there, but the furniture is chosen for looks rather than comfort, and you definitely want to keep the kids and the pets out. In suburban McMansions, you'll often see a formal living room and formal dining room which are hardly ever used. The main activity of the house happens in the family room and the informal dining area (usually off the kitchen).
Getting back to your actual question, and getting away from my generalised ramblings (sorry, it's, like, 1 am here). The Winchester house was older, from a time when houses were built with a smaller footprint. My guess? Three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Kitchen, dining, living room, utility room downstairs. Unfinished or semi-finished basement down below with possibility of future family room, maybe a downstairs bathroom and fourth bedroom. But renos are pricey, and unless you desperately need the extra space, you may not WANT to expand into the basement. Often they have quite low ceilings, and are prone to flooding. I expect the Campbells would've used their basement for weapons storage. When it's John and Mary living there...
Oh, wait. I just remembered that Season 1 episode set in t he house, and it looks like it has a cellar rather than a basement. Which is essentially a basement with no windows. Never mind. God, insomnia sucks.
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A couple of families I knew growing up had a "family room" in the basement, but the main TV-viewing room was the living room. The "den" in my experience belonged solely to Dad (the precursor of the "man cave").
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Hee! That's cute! Haven't heard one called that, most of the guys I know call theirs their 'office' even though it's primarily not for work.
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Also, Kansas mostly has cellars, frequently with the "Dorothy doors" accessed on the outside of the house (like in "Scarecrow" when they toss Dean and Emily down in the cellar for safekeeping before sacrificing them).
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But usually, it's the family room. The living room is more "formal" and might not have a television, for instance.
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If you had a smaller house, you wouldn't waste a room on the rare hope of company. You'd just have a family room and no living room.