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What were they thinking when they did that?

Email|Link|Comments (3) Posted by Rona Fischman February 11, 2008 10:35 AM

Some houses just don’t make sense!

I see strange layouts mostly in older homes. When homeowners make changes, it is generally an improvement for them, so they don’t always notice how awkward the end product is.

When a room is added or a porch converted, doors get stuck in odd corners, hallways get maze-like or there are sudden steps up or down. Then there are those “captured rooms” where you cannot get to the room without going through another room. It’s particularly odd when you must pass through the bathroom to get to a bedroom or the basement or into the house from outside. (I have seen all of these!)

Then there are the non-room rooms. These are “bedrooms” too short to put a bed into. Attic “rooms” with doors, but ceiling heights about five feet – these are sometimes called “study nooks” when they should be called “storage.”

Let us not forget the short basements, the short bedrooms in the attic and the overall short houses. Then there are the kitchens that don’t work and the bathrooms that can’t be used by fat or tall people.

What is the worst place you have seen, or lived in, or renovated? Contractors, what have you been told to do, when you knew it was dumb?

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3 comments so far...

What's with full bathrooms right off of dining rooms? Do people need to hose themselves off after eating, or apply antiperspirant in front of dinner guests? Or do they think the sound of flushing makes the food more appetizing?

There's a house in Davis on the market right now (or maybe it's pending, or on hold for the winter) that was obviously once a badly reconfigured two-family. To reach the upstairs apartment, one must traipse through the entry, past the living room, up the stairs, and enter the apartment through a door across from the downstair unit's master bedroom. Perhaps this arrangements suited in-laws or siblings who lived together, but it makes you wonder if it ever occurred to the owners that they wouldn't live in the house forever.

Posted by Marcus February 11, 08 01:59 PM

A pet peeve for me is doors that open the "wrong" way, be that opening in when they should open out, or opening from the right when they should open from the left, etc. And it's not only in older homes -- hasty contractors (or those with a lack of common sense) are guilty of disrupting the proper flow of homes.

A related pet peeve is also the orientation of the refrigerator door opening. The refrigerator should open from the side that makes most sense for the layout of the kitchen. Far too often do I see fridges with their handles tucked up against a wall.

Posted by Jason February 11, 08 02:31 PM

Dear Marcus,

My personal favorite are full bathrooms off the kitchen, with no fans! Appetizing smells and a floor show when a guest leaves the shower in a towel or bathrobe!

Dear Jason,

Doors can be switched. A carpenter can do your wooden doors and your refrigerator may have reversible hinges. Look for little plastic covers over the holes for the hinges. If they are there, you are golden.

Posted by Rona February 11, 08 08:01 PM