Michele....I purchased a house like that. I showed it to a friend right afterward, before the remodel. Her snide comment, with a proper English accent, "How nice. You can roll right out of bed and into the bathtub."

It’s not the tub that troubles me. Lol

The WC didn’t have a door on it!

Nah....open concept kitchen family room? I’m ok with that.

Back when I was learning about real estate, I toured a lot of expensive apartments. I remember one that was huge with a kitchen the size you might see in a suburban home. Off of the kitchen was a small room with a washer and dryer and a toilet...but no sink. I know someone could wash their hands in the kitchen sink but still, eeewwww! I also saw a big prewar apartment where they had renovated to put in a modern kitchen, but had also left the original kitchen, complete with 1930s appliances.

We looked at a house that seemed normal until we got to the primary bedroom, where a huge hot tub was completely recessed into the floor at the foot of the bed. Talk about getting out of bed and into the tub...in the dark, on your way to the toilet?

When our DS was house-hunting we saw a small ranch where the resident teen's entire bedroom was painted glossy black: Walls, ceiling, floor, doors, trim...even the glass in the windows. The ceiling fixture's bulbs were blacklights. (Did I mention the *smell*?)

We accompanied friends to an open house in a new development. Stairs led straight up to bisect a sort of 'catwalk' hallway. At each end of the hall was a door, open to display a toilet. Charming presentation.

When we were looking for a city apartment, we looked at two in different areas, oddly as it turned out, being sold by the same agent. The first (which also smelled of some dampness issue in the roof) had unusually high kitchen counters, which I didn’t like as I am not short, but not tall either.

The next was a doozy. It had unusually low kitchen counters with a round sink about size of a dinner plate, the living room was a tiny space you walked straight into from the door and the couch had to be placed under the stairs to the upper floor, with the TV mounted on the opposite wall, and they had crammed three bedrooms and two bathrooms into a space meant for two bedrooms and one bathroom. The master suite was OK, but the second bedroom was not much bigger than a double bed, and the third a single bed only. The second bathroom was a nightmare, with a bathtub across the back, a shower butted up against it blocking access to half the bathtub, and there was a pedestal sink allowing the tiny floor space to accommodate a bathmat

My mother bought an older, two-story house, to use as a rental. The downstairs bathroom was in the 4x4' landing for the basement stairs. It had a hip-high rail to keep one from taking a tumble. And a curtain as a door. I think the older couple who sold it to her had both become too frail to walk upstairs, before they had to sell the house.

We were looking for rental property in the local ex mill town. Most houses were built before indoor plumbing and the typical floor plan was a basment, eat in kitchen and livingroom on the 1st floor and two bedrooms on the 2nd floor. Usually a full bathroom was added on to the back of the house or in the basement later on. This one house we looked at the toilet was in a closet in one of the bedrooms to do your business , you ran down a flight of stairs to use the kitchen sink to shave, brush your teeth, etc. and then ran down another flight of steps to the basement to shower.

Off topic,

Patriceny, a friend had a screen when she had her baby. They didn’t want the cats to jump into the crib. This way they could see the baby while he napped as he wasn’t behind a closed door.

She also used this screen idea when assimilating a feral cat into her home. The cat didn’t feel trapped as she would if behind a solid door.

I had a boyfriend who lived in Greenwich Village in an old tenement studio apartment.

His shower was in the kitchen area. He also had just a toilet and no sink, so you had to use the kitchen sink.

i also knew some again in NYC that had their bathroom outside of the apartment. It was only theirs and of course it was kept locked. I asked how it was, especially at night. She claimed she got used to it.

When my DD was looking at apartments in NYC they did a lot of bate and switch thinking young people are naive. She would respond to an ad complete with pictures. They would show her some dump, not at all like the picture and say that they thought maybe that could work for her. One had the refrigerator in the bathroom.

"when we rented an apartment in Amsterdam a few years ago. It was a very quirky apartment,"

I LOVE Amsterdam, I've spent a lot of time there. It may be redundant to say "quirky" and "Amsterdam" in the same sentence but that is an oddity, it's part of the charm. Did that flat have a stairway with a pitch so steep that it was almost like going up and down a ladder,? That's typical of the older buildings there.

I love the city and love the people there.

A trellis with several bunches of silk flowers attached. I mean, they were still in their bunches.

Many, many years ago, my ex-husband I were house-hunting. There was a hot tub in the master bedroom. I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense at all to me.

It wasn't in the bathroom, a jaccuzzi, it was a hot tub, in the bedroom.

We also toured a new home built by a builder. He was there and asked what we thought and I asked where linen closet was. He got this horrified blank look on his face, and said, oh well you could use the shelves above the washer and dryer. I looked at him as if he had 4 ears. Seriously??

Eld6161, my dad had to screen my youngest brother's crib. But not because of cats.

My brothers were born 13 months apart. The middle brother pretty much skipped the crawling stage and then, as Mom always told it, he didn't walk, he ran. He liked to sneak baby brother's bottle out of his crib and drain it. Then he chucked it back into the crib! And those were the days when baby bottles were all made out of glass...

Friend invited us few years back to see her daughter’s new home. It as lovely as we approached the beautiful entrance. All the formal rooms and lovely furniture. She started leading us to bedroom suites. Master suite was first room on left. French doors with no covering opened into bedroom with bathroom fully open to bedroom. There was nothing to block view of bedroom or bath from view in hallway. We came out and continued to the other 4 bedrooms. All the children’s bedrooms had solid wood doors. Seemed odd to have a master for mom and dad that had no privacy.

As far as screen doors inside the home go, I figured maybe it was a bird room. You couldn't tell, the house was vacant. That made it even weirder. Typical ranch home...with a screen door for an interior door to a bedroom. Complete with roll up screen and everything. And a lock. Just too weird.

I don't care if you want to put screen doors up for every interior door in your home. :) However, if you're going to list your home for sale, people are going to very literally be judging your home. And if I have to take down a screen door, fix all the trim, and then buy and rehang an interior door, I'm putting a cost on that in my head, and probably moving on. Which I did. :)

We encountered what I think is an oddity but apparently a common one when looking for a second home in another part of the state. Apparently many neighborhood developers have adopted a style where the passageway from a master bedroom to the ensuite bathroom has a portal but not a door. Not our first choice but in the area we were looking, this was a style apparently followed by several different builders and so quite common. So that's what we have. It isn't so much an issue of modesty but rather, as an example, wanting to keep the humidity of showering out of the bedroom itself. The toilet is in a WC-type closet with a door and an exhaust fan so that's not an issue. With the portal, the bathroom itself becomes part of the bedroom rather than being adjacent to it.

my sister was a sleepwalker when little and once turned on the gas stove at night, a wooden screen door was used to keep her in her room at night.

We use to lock our sons bedroom door at night when he was young. At 1 1/2 years old on the lowest setting he would climb out of his crib. So we put him in a bed with rails and locked his door so he couldn't get out of his room at night and get into trouble.

While looking for an old house to renovate in the south my ex and I saw a "ghost". I had toured the house earlier with the realtor. It was a Victorian that had been very expensively partly renovated(divorcing couple by the way) and the third floor master bath ought to qualify here as strange-a large room with mostly double everything as in pedestal sinks, toilets sort of scattered about and a super huge tub all in deep red but the weird part there was it was raining. Water was coming through the ceiling plus streaming down the walls. It was pouring outside but we expect rain to stay outside a house. While spending massive amounts on this house they had not replaced the roofing of this extension even though they put in a skylight in a rotted roof. Bad idea and maybe that is why they broke up because it was affecting the entire back of the house but that wasn't the weird thing.

After looking at another house late in the day I took ex to see this house from the outside and while standing on the extensive wrap side porch we were looking into a window that was at the bottom of the back service stairs where there was a landing with steps to the kitchen on one side and the formal rooms on the other so we were looking slightly up. We saw a woman dressed in a white uniform with a little blue name tag come walking down the stairs. She walked right up to the window and stared out not acknowledging us at all. I waved and spoke thinking we could get her to let us in. Nothing. So I think maybe she doesnt want it known she was in the house. Then she walked backwards up the stairs and disappeared. I dont actually believe in ghosts.

Elmer J Fudd: I agree with you--Amsterdam is definitely quirky, and we love it! No, this particular apartment didn't have those steeeeeep stairs!. But--on an earlier trip I rented, for some dumb reason, an apartment on the 3rd floor. What a trek that was, especially after a long day of exploring.

In Amsterdam my DM and I checked into a typically *narrow* hotel. The clerk put us both into the tiny elevator and ran up the circular stairs around the elevator, carrying our luggage. She beat us to the top and was there to open it and let us out.

One of those area things but in the 1980's early 1990s it was suggested that doors be removed to increase the feeling of openness. I had toured a bunch of display houses and finally curiosity won and I asked the agent about where were the doors and that was the reason I was given.

I lived in an apartment where there was an enclosed bathroom on the landing that I shared with one other person. I did draw the line at another one where there were separate three room apartments but only one kitchen and bathroom in the house. I did not cook much at that time but the landlady had a couple of requirements. Everyone in the house must clean the kitchen on Saturdays including the oven even it it was not used. You were restricted to four sheets of toilet paper so that one roll would last a week and you could not have your own and it would be searched for. More than that would clog the toilet.

We were scheduled to look at a particular house in the mid afternoon. It was rented to a lady and her middle school age kids, but the owner and the realtor were insistent that we go ahead and look at it while the renters were living there. On the way there, the realtor said the lady worked nights and would be asleep in her bed but we should go ahead and look at everything!! And her kids would be getting home from school soon and they would be doing their homework in their rooms!!

And that’s exactly how it was. The lady was asleep in the master bedroom, fully covered up with the top of her head showing. A bit awkward to look at that room and the adjoining bath. And the two kids were quietly doing their homework, barely looking up when we poked our heads in their bedrooms.

Super weird.

My DS and his wife were looking for their first home and took me along for some of the showings. There was one that was supposed to be no one there, but when the realtor let us in we could hear music. It was a trilevel and on the lower floor they had a hot tub and the owners brother was in it naked!!! They said no to that house!

We went to see a house that was on sale and all the fire alarms were dangling from the wires. Not unplugged, just dangling from the ceiling.

When we were looking we came across a house that had carpet everywhere. I mean everywhere. Including around all the toilets. It was stained and smelly and quite repulsive. Why would you do that? This house had 5 bathrooms and they were all carpeted wall to wall, and they were all disgusting. And they had i suppose was supposed to be an accent wall in the master bedroom. It was covered in carpet. That green outdoor carpet. The kitchen floor was carpet. I tried to think of some sort of condition that someone might have that carpet everywhere might be needed but came up empty. Yeah, the sheer ick factor (combined with all the confederate flags we saw flying on our way up there) was enough for us to pass.

And even if someone has some sort of issue that needed that much carpet, why would you leave it like that when trying to sell it? (At an exorbitant price I might add)

Oh littlebug, you’ve reminded me of a place we went through when we were looking for our city place. It was tenanted by the owner’s daughter, I think, and I also think that the owner was getting desperate to sell and also evict his daughter before the place was unsellable.

The tenant had made no effort to tidy, and we gingerly picked our way through clothes horses laden with drying women’s undergarments and other clothing, which were ranged around the living room. Poor DH didn’t know where to look! The rest of the house was dirty and untidy, and we couldn’t even see the master bedroom as the tenant was “hiding“ in there.

It was potentially a nice house, but needed too much work and was much bigger and more expensive than we had budgeted for, and with five bedrooms bigger than we needed since only DH lives there for work during the week and sometimes I visit when I have time off from work. Plus who knew what horrors the master bedroom might hold?

We wished the agent luck in finding a buyer, but it wasn’t going to be us. But then, he took us to see a place that hadn’t quite gone on the market yet, so we could only see it from the outside, but we decided then and there that if the inside met our expectations we would buy it because it was just right. And we did 😁

My master bathroom in Cathedral City is open to the master bedroom, and I do not have a problem with that. I do have a lock on the bedroom door to the hall. I like the light that comes into the bedroom from the bathroom window. The W/C has a door on it and is tucked away from view from the bedroom.

DS bought a small house from a couple who were licensed foster parents. Naive as I am, I didn't identify the odor in the house, and I just thought the middle aged couple were *very laid back*. The home inspector noted that the water heater was not vented to remove carbon monoxide. It was located in the garage beside an opening to a mini-greenhouse. This was long before weed was legal.

Additionally, the door from the hall to a back bedroom was a full-glass French door...with a lock on the outside. When DS repainted that room he found a lot of soiled childrens underwear hidden in holes in the wall behind the bed.

It must be very hard to find good foster parents.

"My master bathroom in Cathedral City is open to the master bedroom, and I do not have a problem with that."

Besides the humidity from showering, not as much an issue for you out in the desert where the added moisture in the air might be welcome, the bigger problem is imagine a situation where a couple shares the bedroom. One needs to get up early, shower and get dressed, to go to work or somewhere else. There's no way to shield the noise from the sleeper nor, during darker winter months, the light.

I've seen more frequently in newer and also custom homes where the bathroom AND closets are separated from the sleeping area for just that reason. One person can get up, shower, get out clothes, get ready, and leave, all behind a door so as not to disturb the sleeper.

One place we looked at had a hasp on one of the bedroom doors so that it could be padlocked closed from the outside. The next room over from that was a storage room out some sort and there were stacks and stacks of Playboy and Penthouse and others that I hadn't heard of, on one table, and a workbench with several partially dismantled guns on it.

We looked at a house. ALL the windows were open on a chilly Winter's day. It "smelled"....like someone had died in it. DH crawled in the dirt crawl space, it was covered in a black plastic tarp, with lime sprinkled under it. (Lime dissolves bone). The exterior was baby-doll-pink! Low balled an offer...and got it.

Nicole, did you ever find the body??

I think I would have walked quickly away from that house Nicole...and Bob.

To tvq1

About that Amsterdam apartment.

Note that the exterior windows are equipped with blinds, the center window has its blinds raised. If a person does not want anyone from outside gazing in, all he/she has to is lower the blinds. However, I did not see any privacy device between the bath and adjacent room. There could have been one, out of sight and above the window-wall.

Elmer, in the house hunting shows I've seen, people are always trying to get ready in the morning at the exact same time - thus the need for double sinks, as they must brush their teeth at exactly the same moment, as they are too selfish and childish to know how to take turns. However, even as a child, I knew how to take turns. If it takes five minutes longer to get ready, then you get up five minutes earlier. I used to have to get up early enough to milk a cow before I went to school, and I had to take a bath after that and change clothes, as I would not wear barn clothes to school, and especially not the same shoes.

I have double sinks (which I do not need), as I am the only one who sleeps in my bedroom and the only one who uses my bathroom. I don't mind having two sinks, but one never gets used.

In my case, one could install a curtain between the bedroom and the bathroom to avoid the light, or one could pull the covers over one's head until the offending person has left. I've been known to do that.

My parents' house in Texas had the bathroom in the middle of the house, and there was a window between my sister's bedroom and the bathroom. When I was young, my mother put curtains on both sides of this window - plastic ones on the bathroom side and organza ones on the bedroom side. My sister and I used to climb through this window, as a shortcut. My grandfather (with the help of his father, I think) built this house in 1934, and it was very quirky. There was a light switch in my sister's closet, so that you can turn the light in her bedroom on and off, I guess in case you got trapped in the closet. My brother would occasionally get trapped in the closet when he walked in his sleep, but the light switch did not help him. He always had his eyes closed when he sleepwalked and he never woke up.

Kathyg, Kathsgrdn....We lived with the smell while remodeling the whole house gut.....remodeled the kitchen last. The dishwasher had a P-trap with no water in it and NO cap. The counter top covered the error. Spent $2 on a cap....FIXED!

Another one: Had what looked like a quickly built coffin alongside the house out back. Like it had once been a brick planter, then was hastily covered in with "more" brick pavers. Some were right side up, some upside down, all wonky, cemented in, to hide it's contents. Outside it smelled like something had died. Kept looking at that hastily covered planter teasing Jimmy Hoffa was in there and we'd be on the news when we uncovered him.

Here's the planter, after the demo. Nothing in it. Just sand.

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There was a shed built alongside the left side of the house, a few feet away. A raccoon had crawled under it and died. We found it when we demoed the shed. It rained every day. Water pooled under the shed. Kept the body moist and smelly.

We looked at a house in the Denver area that had way too many extension cords. They strung out across the basement which alerted us to the fact that there were not enough outlets. The carriage lights on the outside were also plugged into extension cords. The house was in the $700K's so not an inexpensive house. I must admit that the view was spectacular.

Nicole's 'coffin' makes me think that it was possibly some sort of sand filtration system for water.

adellabedella.....nope. ☺ The original owners son sold me the home. Built in 1959. He said his mother wanted him out-from-under-foot and busy, during Summer vacation. The son was given cement paver stones and he made a bench....for his father.... to sit on. So............the coffin looking "thing"........was constructed by a child. Not hastily built by an adult covering up a crime...as it appeared. ☺ There was a sewage smell in the lower level too. It was a clogged drain in the cement flooring we had to saw out and replace(in the furnace room).

Now that I think of it, my parent's house had some weird things about the bathrooms. Both had windows to the outside in the bathtub/shower area. The glass was frosted but still weird and cold in the Winter. I also hated the fact that the closet where towels and soap was stored was open to both bathrooms. You could open both linen closet doors and talk to and see the other person in the other bathroom.

"Elmer, in the house hunting shows I've seen, people are always trying to get ready in the morning at the exact same time"

House hunting shows? No, I'm talking about people.

Couples don't necessarily have the same "get out of bed and get ready" times and many don't. My wife and I never have. If one gets up early to leave for a commute to work and the other stays at home to look after the kids, the second one will very likely stay in bed. My wife was often still sleeping when I left for work. That's not so unusual. I couldn't have done that with an open bathroom portal.

Double sinks may facilitate getting ready at the same time but don't focus on that as their prime reason. It gives each person their own space for storage and to keep their own things. Their own sink to use. And much more space for each than if sharing one sink. We've had this for decades, have the same at our new second place, and I wouldn't consider having a bathroom with other than double sinks. The benefits are numerous.

To each his own way of life and there's an infinite variety of bath size and configuration, but about storage space. On house hunting shows when I see a two sinks squeezed into a small vanity, I think there's a builder who choose style over function. If space is limited, sharing one sink leaves more counter space AND room for some vanity drawers, which are the best storage ever! And if space is that limited, are two people really using that bathroom at the same time? Just musing.

"when I see a two sinks squeezed into a small vanity, I think there's a
builder who choose style over function. If space is limited, sharing one
sink leaves more counter space" (I added the bolding)

Of course, and when style over function is chosen where it doesn't fit, it's as much a mistake as when better or enhanced function is overlooked where it can fit.

Bathrooms are made bigger in modern construction and remodels of older homes. Many features common in smaller ones aren't to be found when there's more room. Round shaped toilets are a compromise when size is limited and seldom chosen when an oblong can fit. And as with having a spacious stall shower, double sinks are desired and more often than not planned for so as to be included.

I dont want my own sink, I want my own bathroom. Luckily I have that as DH and I use two different ones. We can amicably share if we have to.

The house I actually bought when I didnt go with the one with the resident ghost had two front porches, two front halls and matching side bedrooms. It was built for a couple of brothers who each lived in one side. They had a joint parlor but no way to get into any of the shared rest of the house without going out on the porches that lined each side of the middle part. They owned a hardware store and apparently used old inventory for the build. When it burned (very sad story) where each stud had been on the foundation piers there was a pile of varied sized cut nails-out of date when it was built about 1890. Everything was nailed together by this weird array of nails from big spikes to tiny brads.

I rented a lake house decades ago that had been the scene of a murder. I remember finding my evening wine glass that I left on the counter, snapped in half each morning. The stem was standing upright and the bowl was laying on it's side. My bedroom door would randomly open or slam closed ( Without windows being open ) I was there for about a year before the neighbors told me what happened there and that it had been empty for more than a year because it was "haunted". I stayed there though.

It was unsold for years after I left.

With one bathroom it helps if you are both on different schedules. When we were working we had one bathroom with one sink. He had to be at work by 8 I did not need to be there until 9. We were considerate of each other. We each showered every morning. I got up during the week and fixed a pot of coffee then went back to bed. He could have made all the noise he wanted but did not. He did wake me to kiss me good bye before he left for work. Other than coffee I have no idea what he ate for breakfast during the week. There was no room for a double sink even if the house was remodeled. In this house it was the same. I have vaguely thought about remodeling but I like a bedroom that has room for a comfy chair in front of the window. To expand the bathroom which is 5 x 7' 5" will have to wait for someone that is willing to have the structural work and either expand the bedrooms, add a floor to have a larger bathroom. 5 x 7' 5" is larger than the previous bathroom.

My DM bought an old frame farmhouse for the land value. She rented it cheaply, 'as is', while waiting for an adjacent property to be available for sale for a larger project. Her most memorable tenant was a disturbed woman who did a lot of damage in the house, then refused to pay rent or vacate after her DH finally gave up and left her.

My DM had to legally serve the woman. She still refused to leave. Eventually, the sheriff's office set a date to physically remove her. That morning, deputies entered the house and found the tennant lying on the kitchen floor, with the unlit stove spewing gas. Other than being drunk, she was fine. The old house was so drafty that the gas had largely escaped.

I had forgotten about a house that I lived in. It was built in 1910. Coming up the stairs was a step to the side. The wall had been closed but on the other side of the wall in my closet were three steps leading down. The main stairs lead up to a landing. What may have been a TB room was an enclosed porch with a sitting room and a large shower bathroom. By shower bathroom I mean the whole room 9x10 was a shower. There was another regular bathroom at the other end of the house.

Houses in this area built at that time sometimes had a room that was screened since fresh air was considered important in the cure or prevention of TB.