I like to browse through real estate listings and look at the pictures of houses that are for sale.
I just saw this one.
This appears to be an open shower stall next to an exterior door. And it appears the owners put some effort into placing it there.
What is its purpose? My best guess is that you might want to wash off your dog as it comes in from outdoors but this setup seems like overkill.
Am I missing something?
I think the doggie door adjacent to it might be a clue.
Other than that there are several faiths that have ritual foot washing traditions although the ones I’ve seen look different.
I’d want to see what’s immediately outside. If it’s a beach home maybe people wash the sand off their feet, and the dog too. But I suspect washing the dog’s (or dogs’) feet is probably the main focus. Other similar places I’ve seen in home reno tv shows have had a more enclosed place, so the dirt and water won’t splash around so much, but I’ve never had a dog so I don’t know.
How do you keep the water from going everywhere? No curtains or doors.
I would think if it’s for foot washing there would be a fixture at the proper height.
The whole place is oddly designed tbh
No water around. The house is surrounded by a large lawn/field.
I would feel the opposite. A doggy door means the hypothetical dog can leave and enter the house whenever it wants. A shower to wash it off when it comes inside doesn’t make sense unless you control when the dog enters the house.
Yes, I’ve washed enough dogs to know that if you do it in an open shower, you’re going to have water all over the room. If I was setting up a way to wash my dog as it entered the house, I’d put it in a separate entry room.
I feel you’d want to have a place to sit on if you’re washing your feet.
I think you’re assuming home design is more practical than it often is.
Well, they are trying to get rid of the house.
Both my parents and my mother-in-law have a small plastic chair in their walk in showers. They aren’t as stable on their feet as they wish, so they use it just in case, or if they get lightheaded. Having something mobile rather than built in gives you more options, and is easy to take out to clean/bleach.
Since there’s no obvious ventilation (fans or windows) and no visible attachment points for any sort of removeable curtain or anything, then I agree it doesn’t seem practical for traditional human showering, so cleaning pets with what appears to be a detachable wand/head is as good a guess as any. Of course, could also be a holdover from a prior version of the house they’re now advertising as a mudroom / pet cleaning area.
It’s for pets. Ill designed.
But that looks like a back door to me, so that’s what I’d think.
People building houses make really dumb decisions when they’re deep in the dark forest of it all.
It’s very overwhelming at times.
I wanted too many exterior doors. And another washer/dryer stackable in a closet up stairs. Both huge mistakes.
Dang, I shoulda held out for a dog shower.
I do have a nice bucket by the exterior door into the garage. The bucket sits on a rubber mat on concrete. Don’t look so purty but it washes those dog paws. Just fine.
That thing is truly a mystery. There are a few things that appear to refute the idea that it’s intended for pets. The shower head, although on a hose, is mounted at normal shower height. And there’s a little shelf apparently intended for things like soap and shampoo that is mounted at the appropriate height for a standing human. Everything points to it being a normal shower stall except for its bizarre location and the absence of an enclosure.
There also two things on the shower wall that appear to be hooks. It would be reasonable to have hooks near a shower stall for something like a bathrobe, but not inside the shower. The whole thing is bizarre.
As a separate matter, speaking as an Old Fart who always fiercely grips the banister when going up or down stairs, I dislike the discontinuity between the upper and lower banisters. There’s no reason except a tiny bit of extra cost that there couldn’t be a round piece connecting the upper and lower sections.
What about the possibility it is bad AI and doesn’t exist?
Or at least a very good Photoshop.
I agree with others that a shower, in such a place, and without a curtain, isn’t going to be very useful.
Good thinking. Maybe.
The hand shower lacks a fixed head. That’s rare at a human shower, but common at pet-washing stations. You’re right the head’s storage hook is high up on the wall. But that’s the height it needs to be to keep the hose loop from reaching the floor and getting tangled up in pet feet. You’re also right the soap, etc., storage shelf is high up. But that gets it out of reach of any pet being washed. Same for the towel hooks. Keep the towel(s) above where the bulk of water & critter is, but readily to hand.
My take:
I bet that when they lived there, there was some manner of shower enclosure, half-assed though it may have been. Here’s an example of something that would work:
But it was old and/or unsightly and was removed and the mounting holes filled and painted for the house showing process.
I agree it’s an overall dumb design. But without looking at the rest of the house we don’t know that this wasn’t the least-bad location. Lotta people build their lives and their abodes around their critters. It’s usually not obvious to them when they’ve gone off the deep end, but it’s sure obvious to outsiders. This is IMO a bit of that.
My brother in law has something like that. But it’s outside the back door. He’s in hot humid Texas on a gentlemen’s ranch, so it makes some sense.
This is very true. In addition to dumb ideas, so many people also have a terrible sense of style and taste.
There is. That shower head is handheld, and has a long flexible hose. It’s at a convenient height for a standing human to grab it, then bend over to turn it on and aim it at the dog or at his own feet. If i were building a pet shower, or a foot washing shower, that’s exactly how i would design the shower head part of it.
I have a similar fixture in my own shower. I mostly use it handheld, and rarely stand under it when it’s in its bracket.
If i were designing an entry-shower, i would put something there to contain the water, but that flooring, just outside the shower, looks like ceramic tile, which wouldn’t be hurt from a little spillage. And it’s not that hard to control the direction of a handheld spray. It doesn’t go all over the place when you hold it low.
(If i were designing an entry shower for naked humans, i would also put something there for privacy. But just as a shower for parts/animals that didn’t need privacy, that would work okay.)
It’s posted on Zillow and they’re offering the house for sale, so I think they’d be on shaky legal grounds if they were adding ai-generated features to the house.