# What's the weirdest room you've seen in someone else's house? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 23, 2026, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512 "2026-04-23T08:41:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/41 "2026-04-23T21:25:39Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > There are wet toilets (or whatever the term is) in some RVs, and in Amtrak bedrooms. Amtrak bedrooms!? I need to see this my search is on. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/42 "2026-04-23T21:28:46Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Like your house, you could get to the basement via the back door without having to go through any other room. I once lived in a very small house where the _ **only** _ way to get to the basement was to go outside and enter through a bulkhead. So you had to go outside, then come back in, to do your laundry. I also visited a house in Providence, RI where a lot of college kids lived in very small rooms. I was told it was once a bordello. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/43 "2026-04-23T21:29:25Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > The house where I spent my first 11 years had a shower built into one wall of the concrete basement. This was fairly common in places where people, mostly men, came home from their work dirty. They would enter the basement and shower there before entering the rest of the home. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/44 "2026-04-23T21:30:31Z")
Look on YouTube, @Si_Amigo. A lot of the travel vloggers who travel by Amtrak have shown the wet toilets in their cabins off before. Two I recall are Mike Downie of the “Downie Live” channel, and Paul Lucas of the “Wingin’ It” channel. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/45 "2026-04-23T21:34:28Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Amtrak bedrooms!? I need to see this my search is on. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SZcOMEeqwck/maxresdefault.jpg "Amtrak Bedroom Bathroom: What to Expect") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZcOMEeqwck) Here’s the compact teeny wet room shower/toilet combo in some Amtrak bedrooms. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/46 "2026-04-23T21:35:04Z")
I stayed in a place in Denmark like that: the bathroom had a sink and a toilet and a drain in the center of the floor and a shower head. It wasn’t really possible to use the shower without getting the toilet seat wet. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/47 "2026-04-23T21:36:35Z")
What I wonder about such arrangements is where do you stash the toilet paper and towels so that they don’t get soaked. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/48 "2026-04-23T21:37:27Z")
On a hook outside the bathroom door. But there wasn’t really room for them. Oh, i forget about the toilet paper. It stayed dry if you were careful, i guess. But the only place to hang a towel was outside the bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/49 "2026-04-23T21:39:02Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I stayed in a place in Denmark like that: the bathroom had a sink and a toilet and a drain in the center of the floor and a shower head. It wasn’t really possible to use the shower without getting the toilet seat wet. Yeah, I also had that in an inn room in Northern Holland in the 90s, it was just a niche in the wall with enough space for a shower, a sink and a toilet. How we kept the toilet paper from getting wet, I don’t remember at all. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/50 "2026-04-23T21:40:43Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Oh, i forget about the toilet paper. It stayed dry if you were careful, i guess. From what I’ve seen on those YouTubes I mentioned, the paper is in a waterproof drawer. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/51 "2026-04-23T21:47:34Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > I once lived in a very small house where the _ **only** _ way to get to the basement was to go outside and enter through a bulkhead. I had an acquaintance who rented a similar small house for a short period of time. Except that the shower was in the basement. So he had to go outside to get to the shower and then, after showering, back outside to return to the main floor. He moved rapidly on cold winter days. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/52 "2026-04-23T21:56:20Z")
Probably my uncle’s house, which has a basement. Which wouldn’t be so unusual, except that he lived right on the beach (as in, you could step out of his back door onto the high-tide boardwalk). He designed the house himself, and was bound and determined that he was going to have a basement to put his train sets in, no matter how difficult the waterproofing was. > [@salinqmind1](#): > > Can anyone explain the ‘Pittsburgh Potty’ in the basement of some older houses in, well, Pittsburgh? A toilet right next to the washer/dryer, no walls. Just, have a seat and a good long constitutional while waiting for the laundry to be done? My grandparents’ house (in western PA, but rural) had that (though they also had a curtain around it for privacy). When you’re busy with something in the basement and need to go, it’s convenient. > [@jnglmassiv](#): > > A family I went to grammar school with had a swingset in the basement. Just a regular backyard one with a slide, a couple swings, monkeybars, nothing special except it was inside! And downstairs, anchored to the floor! And I still remember it. For many years, my mom’s house had a couple of swings hanging from the basement ceiling. No sliding board, though. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/53 "2026-04-23T21:57:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In New York City, they have railroad flats, in which you have to go through rooms to get to the ones in back. My first apartment in the West Village was like that. The shower stall was in the kitchen next to the fridge, and you had to walk through one of the bedrooms to get to the toilet. > [@doreen](#): > > My great-grandparents had something similar - the basement was finished but there was a small “room” under the stairs that wasn’t really , there were exposed pipes etc. > > Inside that room was a toilet on top of a couple of steps , like this That looks like an accident waiting to happen. Imagine using that at night and stepping _just_ so slightly wrong. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/54 "2026-04-23T22:03:11Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Look on YouTube, @Si_Amigo. A lot of the travel vloggers who travel by Amtrak have shown the wet toilets in their cabins off before. Two I recall are Mike Downie of the “Downie Live” channel, and Paul Lucas of the “Wingin’ It” channel. Other channels to check out are Jeb Brooks and Trek Trendy. (Trek Trendy seems to focus mostly on ultra luxury travel experiences nowadays, but he traveled on Amtrak in some of his older videos) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/55 "2026-04-23T22:03:59Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > That looks like an accident waiting to happen. Imagine using that at night and stepping _just_ so slightly wrong. It might have been an accident waiting to happen - but it was in the basement , so no one was using it in the middle of the night with the lights out. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/56 "2026-04-23T22:04:30Z")
Accidental double post. NM. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/57 "2026-04-23T22:12:23Z")
Definitely not a waterproof cupboard. I think it was just a small handheld shower head, and you had to be careful. But the room was so small that you were basically brushing up against the toilet seat when you used the shower, so you couldn’t keep all of the seat dry. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/58 "2026-04-23T22:26:39Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > I once lived in a very small house where the _ **only** _ way to get to the basement was to go outside and enter through a bulkhead. Oh, I lived in a house like that. It was smallish, 1300 sq.ft. farmhouse built in the 1940s. Another weird thing about that house was the bathroom. You’d expect a house of that size and age to have a small utilitarian bathroom, but instead it had one of the biggest bathrooms I’ve ever seen. Probably 20% of the house’s floor plan was that one bathroom. It had a huge vanity with two sinks and about a dozen drawers, a closet, and two doors so you could enter either from the hallway or from the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/59 "2026-04-23T23:18:54Z")
Years ago, my wife and I were shopping for condos. One condo we saw was kind of shaped like a donut: there was an outer ring that was one large open area (containing the kitchen, dining area, and living areas) and then there was a walled-off box in the middle of the ring containing the bedroom. > [@salinqmind1](#): > > Can anyone explain the ‘Pittsburgh Potty’ in the basement of some older houses in, well, Pittsburgh? A toilet right next to the washer/dryer, no walls. Our downstairs bathroom in our house in Toronto has a washer/dryer in it (as well as the usual sink, toilet and shower). I guess I thought it was a bit odd when we first bought the house, but now I don’t even think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512/60 "2026-04-23T23:21:55Z")
About ten years ago a buddy took me down to his basement for the first time. When he had the house built, he had the builder pour concrete walls for a 12’ X 20’ room in the basement. In one of those walls he installed a safe door. Inside… _lots_ of guns and ammo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-room-youve-seen-in-someone-elses-house/1029512.md?page=4)