# House Hunting Duds **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843 "2011-12-30T16:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/201 "2012-01-12T01:30:36Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > hahhaaa, WHERE do you find pink bathroom fixtures? Egads! I mean, you could paint the walls and redo the carpets, but a pink bathtub?? I suppose there’s no accounting for taste… 😛 > > Your story reminds me of this kooky lady in the neighborhood I grew up in. Who painted the outside of her beautiful, natural _brick_ house… salmon. Fucking day-glo salmon fucking bricks. We didn’t have a HOA or anything that would have prevented her from doing it, it was just an old lower-middle class neighborhood. Every time we passed it, my parents (and friend’s parents) commented on how they could sense their property values plummeting. heh. > > \*Who \*wants a salmon house? In our world of cookie cutter McMansions in Beigeburbia, my husband and I made a conscious decision to live in a neighbourhood where we can paint our house salmon pink if we want to. > [@UntouchedTakeaway](#): > > [http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/](http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/) > > Links to suppliers of said pink items contained in the site 😃 > > UT My parents-in-law have a pink bathroom that is probably about 30 years old - I should send them that link. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/202 "2012-01-12T01:43:58Z")
My grandfather had one of those 50’s pink bathrooms in the CA Bay Area. I love those old bathrooms like that. When I lived in the Bay Area, a bathroom in an apartment I lived in was dark hot pink on one wall and bright pink on the other 3. It was lit by a dim yellow bulb. You couldn’t see anything but pink in there… ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/203 "2012-01-12T02:50:43Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > My grandfather had one of those 50’s pink bathrooms in the CA Bay Area. I love those old bathrooms like that. > > When I lived in the Bay Area, a bathroom in an apartment I lived in was dark hot pink on one wall and bright pink on the other 3. It was lit by a dim yellow bulb. You couldn’t see anything but pink in there… I live in an Eisenhower-era bungalow. It’s been pretty much renovated, but I still have pink tiles & a pink tub. It’s not the princess/cameo pink - it’s more of a sandy pink, and there’s a modern white toilet and very nice vanity & lighting. I love it. I do wish I had a [Cinderella bathtub](http://retrorenovation.com/2009/06/08/3-midcentury-bathrooms-with-large-square-cinderella-bathtubs/), though 😃 UT ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/204 "2012-01-12T17:10:14Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > To our minds the trash wasn’t the real problem, it was the concrete and steel fixtures - ut would have taken a gang of guys with jackhammers significant time to remove! :eek: Bulldozer rental. Like I said, “generous” allowance for clean up. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/205 "2012-01-12T17:29:33Z")
> [@campp](#): > > One house I looked at had a door off of the kitchen. Opening it, there were about 6 steps up, and at the top was a toilet mounted in a tiny room with nothing else. WTF?.. Where in the country was this, and when was the place built? I’d lay odds that it was for the maid’s use. We visited friends in an older house in Richmond that had a basement, with (IIRC) a dirt floor - and in one corner there was a cubicle with a toilet and nothing else. The owners told us that was supposedly the maid’s toilet (they were not the original owners, and never had a maid). We didn’t see any real whoppers when we were house-hunting 23 years ago, except for the one where the entire family was there hanging out in the living room - and a bunch of _incense_ was burning. We always wondered what they were trying to cover up with the smell. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/206 "2012-01-12T20:22:33Z")
Here’s a site y’all might enjoy - [lovely listings - odd finds in real estate listings.](http://lovelylisting.icanhascheezburger.com/?from=moreabovefooter) ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/207 "2012-01-12T20:40:31Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Where in the country was this, and when was the place built? > > I’d lay odds that it was for the maid’s use. We visited friends in an older house in Richmond that had a basement, with (IIRC) a dirt floor - and in one corner there was a cubicle with a toilet and nothing else. The owners told us that was supposedly the maid’s toilet (they were not the original owners, and never had a maid). Just watched “The Help” a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed/appalled that people in the South used to build separate bathrooms/toilet cubicles for the use of their African American maids because they didn’t want them using the family facilities. Could it have been something like that? ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/208 "2012-01-14T03:58:06Z")
The TV Nerd’s house: It was difficult to imagine what the house would look like without the EIGHT (yes, we counted) big screen TVs. There was a 40" projection tabletop set in the kitchen, and that was the smallest screen we saw. This was not a high-end home in any other respect, either. Just crammed with high dollar TVs. The Suicide house: Wonderful floor plan, great neighborhood. Bad, bad, master bathroom. It had been the site of a suicide a few weeks before, and while they’d cleaned it up pretty well, the bathroom mirror still had a bullet hole, and the grout was bloodstained. Yuck. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/209 "2012-01-14T04:16:09Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Just watched “The Help” a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed/appalled that people in the South used to build separate bathrooms/toilet cubicles for the use of their African American maids because they didn’t want them using the family facilities. Could it have been something like that? They still do that in Brazil. I saw a new construction apartment there where there was a service area for the maid complete with a tiny full bathroom for the maid. In Brazil, the maid’s bathroom is usually of the kitchen. It is usually tiny and is the kind where there is a drain in the middle of the floor and a shower head over the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/210 "2012-01-14T04:36:01Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > The Suicide house: Wonderful floor plan, great neighborhood. Bad, bad, master bathroom. It had been the site of a suicide a few weeks before, and while they’d cleaned it up pretty well, the bathroom mirror still had a bullet hole, and the grout was bloodstained. Yuck. That’s the thing. With a lot of these things, some people see ICK. I see INSTANT PRICE DISCOUNT and great opportunity. I am happy that other people get turned off by that stuff however because it is easy to fix. Every property I have ever bought has had something superficial yet very fixable wrong with them and they were all great business opportunities. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/211 "2012-01-14T06:11:25Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > It’s publicly available in Canada but the realtor version allows for some additional search criteria. Due to my job, I can log in to the realtors’ MLS for Victoria. You get a lot more detail, of course, and can view previous sales information. It’s possible to spend a LOT of time looking, and viewing property history, and what it sold for 10 years ago, and gawk at the multi-million dollar listings… sigh. It’s kind of fun, except it really does tell me how expensive it is to buy here. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/212 "2012-01-14T21:51:24Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > Just watched “The Help” a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed/appalled that people in the South used to build separate bathrooms/toilet cubicles for the use of their African American maids because they didn’t want them using the family facilities. Could it have been something like that? I almost fainted last weekend when my brother mentioned watching “The Help” with a remark of “there’s nothing like that here”… the maids in Spain didn’t use to look all that different from the masters, but - speaking a different dialect? Check - speaking differently at home and in the masters’ pressence? Check - getting a tiny toilet the masters would never use and not being allowed to use the masters’ toilets? Check - if live-in, getting a bedroom the size of a closet, and being glad because they were sleeping in a bed for the first time since infancy? Oh wait: the closet-sized rooms have been seen in the homes of several of our relatives, and the bed detail is from that same brother’s mother in law :smack: This past July and August, I lived in a flat in Madrid which would be described in Spain as “the ‘I want to but can’t afford to’ type”. The master bedroom was so narrow that if you placed a ‘marriage-size’ bed on it, whomever slept on the window’s side would have had to climb over the other - but it had clearly been designed to have a live-in maid. There were two entry doors, which were besides each other, but one opened to the micro-foyer and the other one directly to the kitchen. The maid’s toilet had one door to the foyer and one to the kitchen; you had to step into the shower to open either door and couldn’t open both at the same time. My mother’s closet has more footage than the room which would have been the maid’s bedroom. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/213 "2012-01-14T22:31:21Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Our agents before just let us log into the MLS ourselves and search. Might be worth finding out how you can do that. Where I live, the local real estate association has a website that you can search property listings for this and surrounding counties, with filters for price and so on. When we bought our house eight years ago, I just looked through the listings and printed off the ones that looked good, my husband and I looked them over, and I called the agent and dictated to him the ones we wanted to see. All he had to do was set it up. Win/win for both of us. And the house we bought was one I found. When I was very small we had a pink bathroom in a house we rented. This was the mid-1960s and my mother just wept over the horridness of it all. I have a great photo of my wee naked brother at about a year old, standing at the tub watching the water run in. Of course, being 5 years old, I thought a pink bathroom was the best thing ever. As an adult I lived in a house with blue bathroom fixtures. The tile was a mix of pink and blue. After a while, you got to where you didn’t even notice it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/214 "2012-01-14T23:57:11Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Where in the country was this, and when was the place built? > > I’d lay odds that it was for the maid’s use. We visited friends in an older house in Richmond that had a basement, with (IIRC) a dirt floor - and in one corner there was a cubicle with a toilet and nothing else. The owners told us that was supposedly the maid’s toilet (they were not the original owners, and never had a maid). Wow, that’s an interesting thought. Built in 1914, Boise ID, in a better part of town. It did have a “Maid’s quarters” which was a tiny room also off of the breakfast nook, which was off of the kitchen. Sort of makes sense now. The other two bedrooms shared a single hall access bathroom with make-do shower. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/215 "2012-01-15T07:52:47Z")
I looked at a home once with an interesting utility room located off the kitchen. Walking into the utility room you first see the washer/dryer but to the left against a wall, unsurrounded and out in the open, was a functional toilet. It was definitely a “What the hell were they thinking?” moment. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/216 "2012-01-15T11:12:39Z")
Hmmm, I will have to think back about 24 years to looking for a place in Norfolk. What I ended up in - 13th Bay St Norfolk. White slums with a beach, go figure. Half a duplex, the required back door for the place was in the bathroom, you couldn’t sit on the pot and open the door. Had one of those in the wall gas furnaces that had issues when it lit that left a gentle film of soot in the entire place. Next door neighbors had a blowjob contest with the kids still in the yard and house [loud enough that sitting in my house with the windows open I heard all of it.] No idea of the marital status of anybody in that house. Neighbor in the apartment building behind the house on 12th street - navy guy killed his SO and left the body rotting in his tub for a month, showered on base and used a neighbors bathroom because ‘he was having drain problems the landlord wasn’t fixing.’ And the bikers that lived across the street dealt drugs and used to shoot out street lights and transformers for fun on weekends. But it cost me $250 a month for the 1 bedroom … I looked at an apartment that had its own watercloset, but shared the shower room with 2 other apartments. There was a small peephole in the shower room that looked like it lead into the landlords apartment. Oddly enough he preferred renting to college age females. :dubious: Small rental house near Ocean View in Norfolk, probably built in the 30s, no insulation in the walls - what I would call summer cottage construction, pretty much the outside layer of siding and the inside drywall were held together by the 2x4 frame. The construction was so shoddy the floor was … springy. It was like walking on a trampoline. The kitchen was one of those 10 cu foot half fridges with a freezer the size of a shoebox, one of the funky micro ranges, 2 burners and an oven you might be able to cook a chicken in if you crowded it in. A toaster oven would be better. The sink had no hot water, the hot water heater was only hooked up to the shower. 3x3 shower stall in metal, popriveted together and freestanding in the bathroom. Hot and cold running roaches. :eek: When you can afford $300 max for rent, you get the real bottom of the barrel locations. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843/217 "2012-01-15T12:47:21Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#): > > I looked at a home once with an interesting utility room located off the kitchen. Walking into the utility room you first see the washer/dryer but to the left against a wall, unsurrounded and out in the open, was a functional toilet. It was definitely a “What the hell were they thinking?” moment. Well, it could be like what we did once - we built a bathroom in the basement that also housed the washer and dryer. Of course, ours looked like a bathroom that just happened to have a washer and dryer opposite the sink and toilet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunting-duds/607843.md?page=10)