The Fixer: Homes with just one bathroom are a bother for buyers and those hoping for a moment alone
Many Aussie households struggle with a bathroom dilemma, and the issues that arise when trying to claim it as a private place. Here’s how to fix it.
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There are few places on this earth where you can feel secure in the fact that you can achieve ‘aloneness’ – not loneliness, but the chance to be enjoyably secluded, sheltered from the world and all the ensuing racket.
A place to sit. A place to relax. That place? The bathroom. However, in the family home, that place is guaranteed to draw a crowd.
Clear the air
Of course, the problem with claiming the bathroom as a private place is that you deny others. Better to explain and choose another space for privacy – walk around the block or even just sit outside on the stoop. The best way to claim a brief reprieve without aggravating the clan is to say out loud, “I need a bit of time alone.”
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“It’s critical to say this, so that (retreating) is not misunderstood, because behaviours can be interpreted a number of ways,” Shaw says.
“If you go to your room and shut the door, people can say you stormed off or feel you were rejecting them in some way. Whereas if you say, ‘I’m just going to go and have some time to myself for a bit, I’ll see you in half an hour’, there is no confusion.”
Loo Listings
For some families, the desire for that second bathroom – or even just that critical second toilet – becomes insurmountable. But is it worth it?
Richardson and Wrench real estate agent and author Geoff Grist says a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house is unlikely to wow potential buyers. “No one is keen to share a bathroom with their teenage kids,” says Grist, who has been there himself.
He suggests buyers check floorplans to see if there is a second toilet – which listing rules say cannot be called a “bathroom” because there is no shower – or at least space for one.
A second toilet, easily accessed by family and guests, relieves pressure on the main bathroom traffic for far less money than building a whole bathroom.
“I sold an apartment that had one bathroom with a laundry next to it,” Grist says.
“What the builder did was put another loo in the laundry and even though it was an apartment on the third floor, he ‘back-to-backed’ the loos and used the same plumbing.
“It went from a ‘one bathroom’ to ‘bathroom with extra loo’. It was nicely done, at a very minimal cost.” And after enduring the Arctic blast of the winter walk to the outside loo of my rural family home, I cannot say enough that any indoor bathroom is a good bathroom, even if you have to wait your turn to get into it.
Crowded house
During morning rush hour, nothing is more frustrating than someone hogging the bathroom – especially when there’s only one loo to be found. But for the person behind the locked door, the bathroom may provide a much needed retreat.
Relationships Australia chief executive Elisabeth Shaw understands the problems the bathroom’s oversubscription can raise.
“The reality of a lot of housing is that all the spaces are shared – the living spaces, even the bedrooms – so you may never be alone,” Shaw says.
“The thing about bathrooms is that it can, at least in your head, be the one place where you can be alone.”
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