I’ve noticed that there seems to be a increased ideal in real estate land where each bedroom gets its own bath. I guess I can see how a lot of people would like a master bath but one per bedroom just seems silly (imo). Looking at the New York times magazine today, there is a floorplanned ad for condos where each of three bedrooms has a full bath. The general living space in this condo is small compared to the luxury of all those baths. Not what I would call good space planning. A lot of Friends and acquaintence seem to feel like more baths the better.
When we did our remodel a few years ago we put in a second bath. We could have put in 2 small ones, one to a master bath (single sink, toilet, shower) and the other shared with 2 other bedrooms (single sink, toilet, tub). We couldn’t see the point of two small spaces and instead chose a 8 x 19 bath with double sinks, toilet, separate tub & shower. We love it and it really hasn’t been an issue with sharing in our family of four - we do have a second full bath if needed on another floor. And, really, more baths just sounds to me like more cleaning.
Anyone else notice this trend? And am I the only one who can’t see the appeal?
My ideal would be 1 1/2 baths or maximum 2. What I really don’t understand is the giant bathrooms that are being made now. My bathroom needs a shower/tub, sink, and toilet. That is all. I don’t need multiple sinks or room to run laps. I dont spend much time in the bathroom and would rather that space be put to use elsewhere.
I can understand the desire for a bathroom per bedroom. What I don’t get is floorplans that are for 4 bedroom houses with 7 bathrooms. Who needs 3 guest bathrooms??
At least one toilet per two people is the minimum of acceptable (with a 2-toilet minimum). I don’t much care whether I have to share a shower, but waiting to take a dump (or pee or vomit) really sucks.
Of course, if it’s a multi-person dwelling, individual bathrooms are a very nice luxury. I had my own bathroom in the first college apartment I rented, which was great because my roommates were pigs.
We have two bedrooms and three (technically, 2.5, I guess or 2.25) baths. I think it’s perfect for our layout. Necessary? Definitely not. But we’ve got our master and a guest bathroom upstairs, which is handy if we’ve both gotta go at the same time, or if someone’s showering and the other wants the bathroom. And then there’s a tiny one downstairs with just a toilet and sink which is nice for when we’re hanging out downstairs (where all the living space is). So my vote was for a bathroom per bedroom, although I’ve obviously got even more than that.
I’d say that one bathroom per bedroom plus a powder room on every floor with entertaining rooms is a luxury ideal. My requirements for a family home (given my comfortable middle-class American position) is two full bathrooms in the house.
Master Bathroom is great and then one more full bath. After that it depends on how many bedrooms and people in the house. Growing up in a family of 6 I really wish we had more then 2 bathrooms but I find 2½ work find for 5. I would image a really large family could use more.
I would add a half-bath on the ground floor for visitors. Guests don’t want to see the grime of our everyday lives, and I’d rather not have them poking around that most private of personal spaces.
Depends on how much money you have. I don’t see a big problem with kids sharing bathrooms, but if you’ve got the money, go for it. There might be something to be said about not spoiling kids so much that they don’t know how to deal with sharing things with other people. One that’s nice is to have a half-bath near the living area so your guests don’t have to see the more “lived in” bathrooms in the house.
Those floor plans you see every week in the NYT Sunday Mag are very upscale residences-- hardly representative of typical American homes.
We’ve got a master bath, a bath near the kids’ rooms, and a half bath off the kitchen/laundry room which we use during the day. That worked well, since no one ever had to wait (except for showers.) I like not having to go far in the middle of the night. Now the kids are gone we almost never use their bathroom.
There were six in our family, and until I was twelve or so we had one bathroom.then my dad put in a half bath. Never again! In my ideal home each family/guest bedroom would have a full bath, and the master bedroom would have two full baths.
In the house I live in now, we have a master bath, what the realtorcalleda jack-and-Jill bath for the two ther bedrooms, and a half-bath in the hall.
Another one here with two bedrooms, three (or 2.5, really) baths.
I like it. Could be better. Turns out that you can’t take a shower in one bathroom while someone else is taking a shower in another, or both of them get weird with the hot & cold thing. But one of them has a tub! So two family members can get clean at the same time if it’s done judiciously.
I don’t even like ensuite baths, except when it’s shared housing - and even then, having one is convenient but not something I need. The reason I don’t like them is the territoriality they often trigger… “ah no, this is the suiteowners’ bath, anybody else can just do the I’m-peeing-myself-dance outside the other bathroom!” And no, that’s not an exageration, I’ve met people who protected their personal porcelain throne like it was made from their firstborn’s umbilical cord; none of them had a problem with using the shared baths, just with others using theirs.
Having two bathrooms is a necessity if there’s kids under 10, more than two people, a person with constant intestinal troubles… but over that, there’s no need for one per bathroom much less per person.
The Brady’s only had two bathrooms (for sure) and one of them seemed to lack a toilet.
I grew up in a household of six with one bathroom. You learn rules. Like we all took showers BEFORE going to bed. And the bathroom was strictly utilitarian. You could dry your hair in your bedroom.
One bathroom per home (one to four bedrooms), plus one or two separate toilets is the standard in the Netherlands. More then one bathroom in one house is seen as the ultimate luxury.
The last two houses I’ve owned have had three and two bedrooms respectively and only one bathroom. This really sucks. Without going into detail, I have IBS and having to wait for the toilet because my ex wife was showering for an hour was agony.
In the house in which I grew up we had five bedrooms, one bathroom, and one toilet downstairs - even with a family of six in it, it was OK. Really, that’s the minimum for any property with more than one bedroom.