Too many redundant bathrooms? Old houses had one! (stove, cleaning, kitchen)

[Need_affordable_home]

Anyone notice that most houses in the early 1900s had just a single bathroom? Some of the very big ones may have 1.5 or 2 bathrooms, occasionally even 3! Houses today often have 3, 4, 5 or more bathrooms! The expensive luxury houses have so many bathrooms its ridiculous! They often have more bathrooms than bedrooms! Who needs a 6 bedroom house with 8 full bathrooms and 3 half bathrooms? Even our 4 bedroom house has 5 bathrooms(well it had 4 before dad added a 5th one only because HOA had stupid rules about adding another bedroom) We never use all the bathrooms at the same time! Our house really needs only 2 or 3 bathrooms!

Did people like sharing a bathroom in the past or was it expensive to make a bathroom? Most 3, 4, 5 bedroom houses long ago had just a single bathroom, in fact many of those with more than 1 bathroom were recent additions, they origionally had just one!

[Cosmic]

In fact many houses at the 1900's mark had no bathrooms. The comfort station was out back in the outhouse, sometimes referred to as the Johnny, Aunt Loo or Uncle Samuel. A good wash up was via a galvanized bucket heated on the kitchen stove. Was how all the farm houses did it in my kiddy dazes.

Today is like everything else. Excess for the hay of it. Some of it may be people feel they can't wait because of busy schedules. Some might like the idea of having their "Own Bath". Plus they try to build enough baths so you never have to go up or down a level to answer the Call of the Wild.

I would think you want at least 1 and a half baths at the bare minimum. Tough World when your only hopper is out of commission. Full baths are probably over kill in many situations. Half bath can be build in a closet sized area. I need to build another half bath just to avoid always having to go up stairs during waking hours.

Not to worry 8700 square foot mansions will probably peak out around 20 baths. You will have a full time job just cleaning them.

[Need_affordable_home]

LOL I arent buying any house that lacks a bathroom. An outhouse isnt my idea of fun. Whats wrong going upstairs? Good exercise

[christina0001]

A bath and a half is necessary if you have more than 2 people in a home, IMO. Right now it's just my husband and I; we have 1.5 bath in our apartment and we rarely use the halfbath. It's more of a nuisance because I have to clean 2 toilets for no good reason. However, I think if you have children or have company over regularly, 1.5 or more are necessary. Kids can really trash a bathroom...they're experts at clogging toilets...and teenagers can go in a bathroom and not come out for hours. I would be happy with 1.5...2.5 is the very most I would find desirable (1 full bath for the kids upstairs, 1 for DH and I upstairs, 1 halfbath downstairs), and even that would be somewhat excessive. I loath cleaning and bathrooms get dirty, fast.

[square peg]

Just today the Mrs. and I were discussing an additional bathroom. There's only the two of us living in an older three bedroom farmhouse. Granted, there are times that we both would appreciate another 1/2 bath. Our problem is that we can't think of a place where one could be added unless we do away with a bedroom, one of which now serves as a reading / music room, either way an additional bath would locate both of them upstairs, which I could live with. Having one bath seems a minor inconvenience we have found in 20 years of living here. Closet space, on the other hand, seems to be more problematic. It's like the folks from a hundred years back didn't own more than a few garments and other assorted items which we would sure like to store properly today. I think living in an older home can only help to simplify one's life by providing a constant reminder that you really don't need a whole lot of stuff to get by.

[cm729]

I'm no expert but it seems to be really popular in the south. I know when we lived in Raleigh, the people I knew thought it was odd and a trifle extra germy.. to only have one bathroom especially if you had kids or guests. Perhaps the NE just had more older homes..still 1 1/2 was most common in the newer ones. Newer apartments almost always seem to be 2 Bath with 2BR apts because roomates are so common.
I still prefer just one...otherwise its a whole extra room to keep clean..

[rubytue]

two people with the norovirus is enough to convince you that any house with more than one person needs at least 1.5 baths.

[gizmo980]

A lot of the really large homes have "entertaining bathrooms"... this basically means they throw a lot of parties, and want to make sure guests don't have to wait. Seriously, look at how many bathrooms the Beverly Hills/LA mansions usually have. And yes, I do think it's overkill... my apartment has 1.5 baths - full upstairs & half downstairs - which is just perfect. Obviously I'd want more if I had a big family, but it's not necessary to have one per person.

[dlh891]

Originally Posted by rubytue

two people with the norovirus is enough to convince you that any house with more than one person needs at least 1.5 baths.

Amen to that. Been through it twice with our three year old!

[j33]

Every apartment I've ever lived in has only had one bathroom, and sometimes if there were more than one person living in the apartment, it got awkward. However, that is just how most of the older (read, apartments I can afford) are around here. I think that for 2-3 people 1.5 bathrooms is ideal. However, with 3-4 adults, two full bathrooms are best. I don't think that everyone needs their own bathroom. I grew up in a house with six people and 2.5 baths, it worked out just fine.