I went through a phase of visiting open homes recently and
was staggered by the large number of bathrooms and ensuites which renovated and new houses
have. Where does this obsession with
plumbing and cleanliness come from? Is
it the new modern to show friends your ensuite or kid’s bathrooms?
How about only having one bathroom in your house, or should
that be in realestatespeak ‘your home’? Instead
consider a return to the one family bathroom and the luxury app of a separate
toilet. If you have hordes of kids then
put in another toilet which is accessible from your backyard/garden/deck.
This isn’t nostalgia talking, there is likely to be an
environmental cost for each additional bathroom or ensuite. At the very least
these bathrooms require more plumbing, more drains, more whiteware, more
cleaning, and more maintenance and add thousands to construction or renovation
costs. Why not use the space in a
different way, to create a separate study ,music room, homework centre, small
factory for child labour making crafts to be sold on the wayside in these
straitened times or anything else you can think of? Maybe it is all about the matching towel sets
required to furnish these spaces?
As I write this I realise that any family will not shit or
wash more if they have more than one bathroom but that family members could do it all
simultaneously. Is that enough of a
reason to add another bathroom? You
don’t need another bathroom – you just don’t!
Don't come and see our new ensuite, we don't have one.
