Even more annoying to me is the fact that the bathroom in the 5300 (or the room most often depicted as the bathroom) opens up onto the balcony patio. And there is no CLOSING DOOR for the bathroom entrance, so anyone can just walk in there while a klicky is on the toilet or taking a bath. I can just imagine being in there and then suddenly someone walks by and says "don't mind me, just trying to get to the balcony patio."
or if you throw a party on the balcony with the Victorian Balcony party set, all your guests have to pass through the bathroom just to get to the balcony and say "pardon me, just passing through" while you deliver a donation to the porcelain god.
Also annoying is that there is railing on the 5300 stairs along the sides, but NO RAILING at all at the top where someone could easily fall through the opening. UNSAFE!
And no roof access hatch or ladder to actually get onto the Widow's Walk area on the rooftop.
And a chimney that leads to no fire place! (even if you put the fireplace from the Grandpa's Den set, it doesn't really go to the chimney!)
And the staircases can ONLY be placed on the LEFT side of a room (though I modded mine so it can go in the reverse direction and placed on the right side.)
And NO CLOSURE in the sun room! It's just open! For all thieves and weather to do as they please to your unsecured home!
As far as the kitchen goes, actually, I have seen plenty of (ugly) rambler style houses (circa 1950) where the front door actually does lead to the kitchen directly. I lived in a few myself. I don't really like it either.
What the 5300 and other mansions lack also are HALLWAYS connecting the rooms, rather than the rooms just connecting to each other (so in order to get to one room, you have to pass through another).
On my 5300 the first floor room is of course the kitchen. The next room on that floor is the living room combined with the sunroom. The second floor is wierd because the 1st room on the 2nd floor (usually used as "Grandpa's Den" is more of a passing room because you have to go through it to get to the bathroom, balcony patio, and the 3rd floor. So you can't use that passing room as a real bedroom or anything because people pass through it to get to other parts of the house. So it's pretty much useless IMO. The only room left is the attic, which I reserve for the master and mistress of the house, but then where do the children go? They have to sleep in the same room with the parents I guess (so the parents get no privacy whatsoever).
And then how do you get to the Widow's Walk on the roof? There is no access hatch or ladder there.
Not to mention, the kitchen is only really fully lives up to its potential (with furniture and appliance arrangement) if you leave out the staircase, which then begs the question (how do you get to the second floor?!?!) Unless you somehow put the staircase leading from the living room up to what is usually used as the bathroom. But once again you will have the problem of people passing through the bathroom (while you're in it) just to get to the 2nd and 3rd floors, unless you make the bathroom into Grandpa's Den, and turn grandpa's den into the bathroom. IN which case you should also move the stairs leading to the attic to the same room as the 2nd story stairs. Then that MIGHT make more sense. The room above the kitchen could now be a bathroom free from passer-bys walking through to get to other parts of the house SAVE for the front balcony above the front door. That's STILL wierd though. Imagine haveing a FRONT DOOR view of the bathroom (or whatever you're doing in it) for all your visitors to see!
ARGH! It bugs me too, the whole layout!
Needs some serious customizing in order to make it more architecturally practical.
