The men tolerated each other and ate supper together on a card table set on the creaking floor of the big dining room.

NEWYORKER: Idols

We spend a lot of time together in the dining room, which has four big sofas and plugs for laptops, choosing conversation over the lectures.

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As your outdoor room setting will probably be further away from your kitchen than your indoor dining room, a collection of big trays and a trolley come in handy.

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In my house, every night at dinner we have a big piece of paper that we put on our dining room table as our tablecloth and we doodle.

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For now, you can heat up the complimentary instant oatmeal in the microwave or drive to the nearby Big Sur Bakery or Nepenthe for meals, but come June, Glen Oaks will have its own dining room, overseen by a chef who worked at the Bakery and Esalen, and plans to let his New Orleans roots show in his cooking.

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The second floor was divided several big rooms, including a living room with large glass doors that open onto the front lawn, a dining room and an open kitchen centered around an island topped by a thick slab of lapis lazuli.

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