Make Sure You Buy or Design a House for Real People

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How often do you want to hug a toilet?

Unless you are beyond sick, your answer should be never.

Well, with two kiddos I’m beyond friendly with the toilet in this bathroom. In the event of a bath, I’m stuck right next to a toilet used by a kid in potty training mode.

I know how to wield a toilet brush and Clorox, but jeez, this space isn’t designed for real people in everyday activities.

One suggestion is to remove the door and wall so it isn’t eating up precious real estate in front of the toilet. Slide the toilet over six inches when you lose the wall and you can also squeeze along the full distance of the tub. Not comfortably, but it would help.

Notice when the door is open, it is ALSO eating into that space along the wall. This forces you closer to the toilet in this enclosed space if you don’t want to close the door during bathtime.

Exhibit #2: the exact same footprint with the exact same change I suggested.

I didn’t realize this before I came up with a solution to fixing the layout of the first bathroom, but the second bathroom in this house is exactly as I described. No wall and less claustrophobia.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not a fan of the toilet being right there in scenario two if I have two kiddos in the tub. At least there is a little more breathing room and I’m not squeezing myself through a second door that’s too little.

Which brings me to my next point…

Why are all the doors not 36 inches?

I am not exactly what you call fat. My shoulders are eighteen inches wide. In a relaxed stance my elbows angle out around twenty inches.

This is the widest part of me going into a bathroom, but when I’m holding a baby or anything of any size, my arms are wider. Why is this doorway forcing me to perform some crazy calisthenics to get through?

Because the door jam is only 23″. Clearance is actually only 22-1/4″.*

It’s not like this house is built in 1986 like my own home. It was built in 2017.

2017.

In the amount of time between 1986 and 2017 we should have gotten smarter with how we design houses.

My grandmother is in a wheelchair and if she wanted to visit my home for any length of time she would not be able to get into any bathroom. In the 2017 house I am venting on right now, she wouldn’t be able to go to ANY of the FOUR the bathrooms either.

The shared bathroom in my house built in 1986. There is full access to the bathtub on the left.

I’d even venture to say the layout of this bathroom from 1986 is better…at least you aren’t hugging a toilet when assisting anyone in the bathtub (kiddos, cleaning a husband’s burned foot, etc.). If you can’t get a wheelchair in the first door who cares if you can’t make the next turn and give yourself a little more space.

Just know this isn’t your forever home and think about adding in a handicap port a potty outside if you are injured enough to need wheelchair access…

When you are walking through a home or in the design phase of a new home, think about the use of space.

For instance, there are some other design choices that are for sound dampening purposes, like placing a turn before a bedroom door off a shared space.

While it may improve sound, it is certainly a hell of a lot easier to wheelie a bike through the double doors of my master bedroom than make the turn to get through this 31″ doorway. Again, there is no wheelchair access to the master bedroom because a wheelchair isn’t going to easily clear this turn and go through a doorway with a clearance of 29-1/2″.

Side tangent.

It’s the MASTER bedroom. YOU pay / paid the mortgage. YOU call the shots and tell everyone else under your roof when the party is over so you get your beauty sleep.

You do not have to go home, but you can’t stay here! Sound problem solved.

Second bonus: when you remove this tiny hallway you get about nine more feet of usable space.

In this beautiful 2017 home there is no coat closet. One idea is to move the doorway over and build a closet here in this hallway since the designer of the floor plan did not have the foresight that people might require wearing coats or stash an upright vacuum.

Seriously, hallways are just underutilized space with a high price tag when you consider the cost per square foot of any house. Hence, why I unabashedly placed a chest freezer in the ridiculous eight foot wide entry in my house. At least the space is getting used!

How to prevent this from happening to you.

Really walk through a house and imagine your daily routine. Buying a house is one of the biggest decisions and investments in your lifestyle you are going to make. So don’t feel weird if you make a checklist of scenarios to go through every single home viewing so you don’t accidentally overlook a big part of your everyday life.**

Here is a start:

• Do you wear coats?
• Do you have kids?
• Do you plan on having kids?
• Do you have grandchildren?
• Is this your forever home?
• What if you have an injury that requires you to rely on a wheelchair?
• How big are the doorways including rooms–don’t discount rooms like a pantry or the walk-in closet.
• Are you in a flood zone?
• How low are the outlets?
• Are the main systems out of the way? Raised platforms for air-conditioning, water heater in the attic or raised higher, etc.
• Are there any must haves for when you entertain?
• Do you have a high stress job necessitating long, indulgent baths?
• Is easily accessible indoor space for bicycles a requirement?

Some of you may be saying, “That’s nice, but I’m considering building from scratch.” This next section is for you because it is understood–you don’t get the luxury of judging a space from reality.

How to prevent this from happening in your custom new build.

Consider hiring a firm to create a 3-D rendering of your build. Forget relying on your imagination turning a 2-D rendering into 3-D. OK, maybe you do have a great imagination, but 95% of the people on House Hunter’s seem to wonder how to use space that is already existing. If you can’t imagine it when you are physically walking through the space, how are you going to imagine looking at a floor plan?

There is no getting around it–it is hard! And finding out the design isn’t all that and a bag of chips when you’ve gone through the architect, then engineering, and are in the middle of the build is not only disappointing, but also makes you change your mind at the most costly time–impacting schedule and cost–in your build.

We are looking forward to using the services of Constructability3D for this purpose and more.

More on this in a future post because a service like this is not just about visualizing the space. It is much, much more…

Let’s build better and design a house for real people!

We are all real people. We all share some of the same basic needs and activities. Relieving ourselves, taking baths, and rolling into bedrooms are basic necessities.

As new home buyers, new home builders, remodelers, architects and engineers, let’s make spaces for real people! Are we designing places for people to enjoy and want to stay, or are we asking them to move?

Moving the space around is an option when it is still in the cheaper paper and pencil phase. In a 2,349 square foot house, there should be enough space to enter–and want to lounge in–every single bathroom.

Please use the comment section for any other scenarios that should get added or any other suggestions / lessons learned for making sure your space works for you!

*If your door swings all the way to 180 degrees you have the full width of the jam, but in these cases, the door is still taking up some of the doorway.

**This is fine tuning this post: Must-Have Home Features: Dealbreaker or Compromise? For instance, you know you want a split floorplan and at least two bathrooms, but if grandma comes over to visit can she get through the doorway of ANY bathroom?