Althouse: "5 Totally Exposed Bathrooms."

September 3, 2015

"5 Totally Exposed Bathrooms."

Somehow, I love these.

41 comments:

rhhardin said...: Just keep a motorman's friend by the computer work desk.; 9/3/15, 2:13 PM
Nichevo said...: You would, Ann.; 9/3/15, 2:14 PM
YoungHegelian said...: No, just no. Talk about killing your resale value!

A bathroom is not like every other room in your house. It gets stinky on a regular basis. It has running hot water which generates oodles of water vapor that's got to go somewhere, and wherever it goes, it starts destroying what it touches.

Then, there's the questions of all the damn pipes. Potable water coming in to the sinks, toilet, and bath, and then the wastewater from all of them going out in a very large pipe. And, then, of course, there are the stack pipes which must vent outside the roof of the house because 1) they vent sewer gas & 2) if they ever get stopped up your waste water stays in you bathroom.

This completely ignores the issue that no one, but no one, looks sexy wiping their butt.

This is the creation of people who think FLW "Falling Water" is a kewl idea, rather than a cash pit disguised as a house.; 9/3/15, 2:20 PM
Larry J said...: Pass.; 9/3/15, 2:33 PM
Peter said...: I have a memory of a 5th floor walkup apartment with a claw-foot bathtub in the kitchen, next to the kitchen range. Although it did have a shower-curtain rail around it that went around three sides of it (the fourth faced a wall).

That apartment also had a high-tank toilet, with a chain pull to release a mighty whoosh!

The building style was what was known as a "new law tenement," and for all I know the tub and toilet were original equipment. So, perhaps the idea is not so new. Although I somehow doubt this place ever won any architecture awards.; 9/3/15, 2:36 PM
Mark said...: Similarly, I really don't understand the desire for "master bedrooms," i.e. bedrooms with interior bathrooms. Who really wants a toilet where they sleep? Sure, chamber pots were once all the rage, but time to move on, especially since it isn't all that cumbersome to go use a bathroom in the hallway.; 9/3/15, 2:43 PM
traditionalguy said...: Dormitory nudity is easy for guys who have been in that world all the way through camps and team practices. We wear a towel aroundd the waste if we feel a need for propriety.

But females want a closed door. Sensitivity to body exposure, thy name is woman. And close that door. Knock first please

The Professor is strong for a woman.; 9/3/15, 2:44 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Clearly, Althouse hasn't lived with kids or grandkids in years. No, Siree, you want the potty as far away and secluded as possible.; 9/3/15, 2:45 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/3/15, 2:47 PM
madAsHell said...: but a bachelor pad is one of them.

He probably can't understand why he can't get a second date.; 9/3/15, 2:54 PM
Curious George said...: "Mark said...
Similarly, I really don't understand the desire for "master bedrooms," i.e. bedrooms with interior bathrooms. Who really wants a toilet where they sleep? Sure, chamber pots were once all the rage, but time to move on, especially since it isn't all that cumbersome to go use a bathroom in the hallway."

I love the master bath, and frankly I don't sleep there. But it's nice to not have to contend with others. Or come in after others. Or have them come in after me.; 9/3/15, 3:07 PM
Jaq said...: Why spend all that time in the gym if you can't show it off?; 9/3/15, 3:13 PM
cf said...: I get the romantic bathtubs on display, but the toilet? Nyet.

This reminds me of a single Big-room mountain cabin I visited years ago, owned by a woman who had created two successful restaurants, one in San Diego, and another up here in the California Forest. You walk in to the long lodge and at the opposite end was all glass and a beautiful view. On that back space was stepped up, like a stage. A classic claw-footed bathtub stood alone in the center of that stage and that view. It was unforgettably delightful.

That restauranteur knew exactly what she wanted, and she had made it so.

Godspeed, America; 9/3/15, 3:14 PM
MathMom said...: We looked at a house in Alaska that had spectacular views and lake access - gorgeous in many ways. Then walked into the master bedroom - found a scenic view of the toilet, shower, tub, no doors on the closet, and a wall of windows to see the view, but no way to darken the room in the summer when the sun doesn't set.

They lost a sale. Put up a freaking wall, with a door, not an arch, put the toilet in its own little room with an exhaust fan, and call me back.; 9/3/15, 3:21 PM
john said...: Until I was 15 my summers were spent at a cabin with no indoor plumbing, just a 2-holer with a window looking toward the lake. Never minded the company much, until puberty when I started insisting I could go alone.

Thinking back, my best craps have always been outside.; 9/3/15, 3:33 PM
Amexpat said...: Not a good idea to shit where you eat or sleep.; 9/3/15, 3:39 PM
chuck said...: I knew something like #3, except the shower head was over the toilet instead of the sink. A cheap student apartment it was.; 9/3/15, 3:52 PM
Birches said...: @ Mark

Obviously you don't have any kids...; 9/3/15, 4:09 PM
clint said...: " cf said...
I get the romantic bathtubs on display, but the toilet? Nyet."

Yep. That exactly.; 9/3/15, 4:09 PM
Scott said...: "Boundaries, unlike psychological defense mechanisms, are conscious and healthy ways to protect ourselves from emotional harm.

"Some persons, however, have great difficulty setting boundaries—they may even believe that setting boundaries is rude—and this difficulty usually derives from child abuse. But let’s be clear that abuse can range from subtle emotional manipulation to severe sexual and physical abuse. To the unconscious, though, any abuse, no matter how mild or severe, is an insult to personal dignity. It’s precisely this insult to personal dignity that explains why adults who were abused as children lack the ability to set appropriate boundaries. Why? Well, their not having boundaries served them as a defense mechanism in childhood. Most abused children know intuitively that if you try to do anything to resist the abuse, you just get hurt all the more. So setting aside any resistance means less hurt."

--Some web page on psychological boundries

So, if you go to a dinner party at an upscale loft apartment in New York City, and the place has an open-plan bathroom where you can see the host take a shower and barely shields the dinner guests from watching one take a shit, then it's a good bet that the host was beaten or molested as a child.; 9/3/15, 4:13 PM
rehajm said...: Well, Mom, remember my dream of owning a big house on a hill... and how I used to wish for a living room with a plaster lion in it from Mexico? And how I always wanted a large 24 seat dining table... in a dining room with original paintings by Michelangelo and Rembrandt? And remember how I always wanted a rotating bed... with pink chiffon and zebra stripes? And remember how I used to chitchat with dad about... always wanting a bathtub shaped like a clam... and an office with orange and white stripes? Remember how much I wanted an all red billiard room with a giant stuffed camel... and how I wanted a disco room with my own disco dancers... and a party room with fancy friends? And remember how much I wanted a big backyard with Grecian statues... S- shaped hedges, and three swimming pools?...Well I got that, too!; 9/3/15, 4:26 PM
Nichevo said...: A history of abuse would explain a lot about the good professor. Ann, do you realize how weird you actually are?; 9/3/15, 4:31 PM
Static Ping said...: So what's the proverb for people who poop in glass bathrooms?; 9/3/15, 4:32 PM
The Godfather said...: Sort of off point, but do you remember when you were young someone saying that if so-and-so intimidates you, just think of him sitting on the pot, and he won't be intimidating anymore? (This presumably only applies to guys.) When I was 14 I went to a YMCA camp in which the 14-16 year olds were assigned to the "wilderness village", where we slept in tents and cooked our own breakfasts over a wood fire, etc. The "director" of the wilderness village was a grizzled old guy (of probably 40) who was VERY intimidating. So when I found myself seated in the multi-hole crapper (sorry: outhouse) one day, and the director entered for the same purpose, I was able to test that advice. The grizzled old bastard was just as intimidating on the crapper as off.; 9/3/15, 4:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Nice to look at, but I wouldn't want to actually live that way with the hygiene issues. What I do like are the showers with no glass door or shower curtain, but rathe a really nice high tile wall labyrinth entrance like you might see at the beach.; 9/3/15, 4:45 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: Wow, talk about rich rednecks:
http://www.dirtybutton.com/media/db1058-porch-toilet.jpg; 9/3/15, 4:48 PM
JCC said...: In the military, one of the joys of basic/boot is defecating to commands, in groups, by the numbers...to wit:
ONE!...drop your pants
TWO!...sit
THREE!...defecate
FOUR!...wipe
FIVE...reattach pants

Oh geez, I hated that. It does cure one of any lingering modesty. But still, glass walled bathrooms? Cool maybe when I was single and 22, OK even now in the right vista, but never the commode. Really.

I still shut the door now, even if I'm home alone, just in case. Plus it keeps the dogs out, them wanting to check out all those great smells and all. It's just not a dignified passtime to share.

Maybe we can look at it as one of the last great refuges of absolute privacy and total reflection. No phones, no interruptions, no dogs, no kids. Leave me alone. So, no picture windows either.; 9/3/15, 5:51 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: ""5 Totally Exposed Bathrooms."
Somehow, I love these."

Just to clear: that is Althouse stating that.

Me -- Laslo -- thinks it is a horrible, horrible idea.

Decorum.

Again: Althouse's opinion. not mine.

No.

I am Laslo.; 9/3/15, 6:07 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: cf said...

I get the romantic bathtubs on display, but the toilet? Nyet.

It's absolutely perfect for reclusive people who are somewhat germophobic. Anyone who visits you isn't going to want to use it and announcing that you need to use it will certainly get rid of any unwanted guests.; 9/3/15, 6:21 PM
Michael K said...: Gender neutral pressed down and running over.; 9/3/15, 6:39 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "At a loft in San Francisco, a bathroom is sited in a shipping container behind a wall of glass. With the flick of a switch, it can go from clear to opaque."

Interesting technology. I'd like to have windows that could become opaque by flipping a switch.; 9/3/15, 7:21 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: NorthOfTheOneOhOne:
Hmm. 101 runs, more or less, north-south. (CA 101, that is. Is there another with the same "cachet"?)
So where DO you post from? (If that's not too privacy-invading to ask...); 9/3/15, 7:28 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Re: electrically-opaquing windows. At my last company but one, the boardroom interior wall was one of these. Amazing while it worked. Not reliable. When it failed, it was pretty much transparent, i.e. not ideal for a bathroom wall.; 9/3/15, 7:31 PM
Rusty said...: Toilet time is me time.; 9/3/15, 7:45 PM
JCC said...: "...windows that could become opaque by flipping a switch."

There is no end to the number of things I wished I had that worked by flipping a switch....; 9/3/15, 8:02 PM
sinz52 said...: Kohler's webpage for their state-of-the-art electronic toilet, the Numi, shows the toilet as right in the corner of the penthouse apartment.

http://www.kohler.com/numi/

(It's that white box-shaped thing on the floor.); 9/3/15, 8:16 PM
jr565 said...: Why would you love these bathrooms? Who would ever go to the bathroom in these bathrooms.
The only thing worse would be a transparent toilet.; 9/3/15, 9:25 PM
jr565 said...: "could you please look away? I'm trying to wipe my ass. Yes it was diharrrea. Thanks for noticing that you heard it and that it stinks.; 9/3/15, 9:28 PM
Nichevo said...: No, even better. The smallish bed lies atop a largish bathtub with the toilet built into one corner and sink in the other like a prison/French SF setup.

In a tiny house.

Can you imagine the smell?

For bonus points, the sink is large and doubles for kitchen. Could fridge and stove be crammed into? Only other furniture is drop down rings of coffee tables and benches. Maybe 10*10 with tub centric in room?; 9/4/15, 12:11 AM
Anonymous said...: We have an open-bathroom with the exception of the toilet which has its own wc.
The shower has two large glass block windows to the outside that make up 2 of its sides. We don't have any problems with water vapor. We use 2 exhaust fans and our master suite is large(about 800 sf)so it dissipates well.
At night the glass blocks take on a jewel-like aura as the moonlight passes through.
Quite lovely.
I also get to see my beautiful buxom wife take her showers.
What's not to like?; 9/4/15, 11:15 AM
Megaera said...: The clear/opaque windows can be found in ambulances -- I believe it's a coating that reacts to a limited electric current, but can't swear to that, check on an ambulance supply website. Not, as noted above, 100% reliable.; 9/4/15, 1:54 PM