front room used only for weddings and funerals

Many of the older houses in St. John's are built with a front room, and, correspondingly, no "living room" as we know it. My supervisor's house is one such house and they find it very frustrating not to have a living room. (The front room is used as his wife's studio.) Apparently in "old" Newfoundland it was common to have a couch in the kitchen and do all your visiting in there - hence, the concept of the East Coast "kitchen party".