Dumbest AskMe ever.
July 23, 2024 8:37 AM Subscribe
Fellow real estate looky-loos, why do super expensive houses have more bathrooms than bedrooms?
I am an avid ogler of real estate listings in my area and across Toronto, and I have to ask: every $3 million plus home seems to have x amount of bedrooms but often double or more the amount of bathrooms. Why? Is it for guests who must come to lavish parties thrown by the kind of people who can afford this real estate? Is it so one can poop in a different bathroom on a whim?
I just need to know. Why do plush properties have so many toilets??
I am an avid ogler of real estate listings in my area and across Toronto, and I have to ask: every $3 million plus home seems to have x amount of bedrooms but often double or more the amount of bathrooms. Why? Is it for guests who must come to lavish parties thrown by the kind of people who can afford this real estate? Is it so one can poop in a different bathroom on a whim?
I just need to know. Why do plush properties have so many toilets??
Best answer: I'm shopping for a smaller house. I want two bedrooms, two full baths (so there is a guest and a homeowner bath) and a lavatory for the living area. 2bd/2.5bath.
For larger houses, I'm guessing a combo of bathrooms in living areas, entertaining areas, remote areas like basement, maybe if the house has live-in staff, another bathroom, or bathroom for a home-office area that may have clients.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 8:42 AM on July 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
For larger houses, I'm guessing a combo of bathrooms in living areas, entertaining areas, remote areas like basement, maybe if the house has live-in staff, another bathroom, or bathroom for a home-office area that may have clients.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 8:42 AM on July 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Every bedroom is going to have its own bathroom but then you're going to have more than one bahtroom that is not attached to a bedroom. So you'll have a bathroom for the pool area, a bathroom in the basement for the theatre, a bathroom near the kitchen convenient for any staff, of course a bathroom in the entertaining areas (living room etc.) etc. I mean if you have a bathroom for each bedroom and then ONE powder room for guests, that's already more bahtrooms than bedrooms.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:43 AM on July 23, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:43 AM on July 23, 2024 [6 favorites]
Best answer: Why do plush properties have so many toilets??
Because rich people don't want you using their toilet. Kind of kidding, but also not. As others have said - if you entertain a lot (and people want fancy homes to entertain in) you want bathrooms that are not attached to bedrooms for several reasons - you probably don't want guests snooping through your bathroom / drug cabinet, seeing your bedroom, etc.
posted by jzb at 8:49 AM on July 23, 2024 [5 favorites]
Because rich people don't want you using their toilet. Kind of kidding, but also not. As others have said - if you entertain a lot (and people want fancy homes to entertain in) you want bathrooms that are not attached to bedrooms for several reasons - you probably don't want guests snooping through your bathroom / drug cabinet, seeing your bedroom, etc.
posted by jzb at 8:49 AM on July 23, 2024 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! Essentially rich people have a lot more guests than I would ever want and those guests need to use the facilities somewhere.
I appreciate you answering my dumb AskMe.
posted by Kitteh at 9:05 AM on July 23, 2024 [6 favorites]
I appreciate you answering my dumb AskMe.
posted by Kitteh at 9:05 AM on July 23, 2024 [6 favorites]
I agree that many of these houses are a combination of a residence and a reception hall. The main level of this house in DC has one bedroom, but two bathrooms and two powder rooms (along with the "formal dining room and reception room"). But the top floor has three bedrooms but only two baths.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 9:06 AM on July 23, 2024
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 9:06 AM on July 23, 2024
Some other potential reasons are mentioned in here: "Why are there so many bathrooms in the houses on Selling Sunset?"
posted by unknowncommand at 9:15 AM on July 23, 2024
posted by unknowncommand at 9:15 AM on July 23, 2024
Toilets are handy, esp. having one on the main floor even if there are no bedrooms. Americans are wealthy and many can seem to afford a bathroom connected to every bedroom, because sharing a bathroom would be horrid. In some cases, the master bedroom has 2 bathrooms. My son rented a house where the master bedroom had a toilet with a door in the spacious master bath so one could use it while the other showers and have some privacy.
posted by theora55 at 9:27 AM on July 23, 2024
posted by theora55 at 9:27 AM on July 23, 2024
One other thing that's probably less of the explanation but maybe also worth considering - folks who have bought a big home where they're planning to age in place, or have aging and/or disabled family or friends likely to visit, may be thinking about accessibility issues as well. So you're looking at, at least a bathroom on every floor so no one's dealing with stairs when they don't have to. At least one that's wheelchair-accessible. etc. That's the kind of thing that wasn't on my mind when I bought my current place as a relatively spring early-twenty-something, but here in my forties I'm thinking a lot more about my house as an accessible space for my loved ones. The next place I buy will probably be the place I plan to stay in until I can no longer live alone, and "a bathroom on every floor, including something that can be renovated into wheelchair accessibility on the ground floor" is now on the must-have list.
posted by Stacey at 9:31 AM on July 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 9:31 AM on July 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
Also, expensive houses will often have two separate bathrooms for the master bedroom.
posted by Hypatia at 9:39 AM on July 23, 2024
posted by Hypatia at 9:39 AM on July 23, 2024
Response by poster: I dunno, Stacey, the aging in place thing makes sense to me, but not for the kind of people who can spring for houses in the high seven to eight digits. Something tells me that they aren't thinking of generational living and aging in place when they buy them!
posted by Kitteh at 9:43 AM on July 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 9:43 AM on July 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have some family and friends involved in higher-end real estate, and I can assure you that aging in place is absolutely a concern. The venn diagram of "people who can afford 7-8 figure houses" and "people who not very young" has a lot of overlap. This is also why high-end homes increasingly have elevators - it's not (just) a sign of luxury, it's also a highly practical consideration for aging knees. Generational living probably less so, but the people who actually buy very very expensive houses are very likely to be highly aware of accessibility concerns for the simple reason that rich people are usually pretty old, especially right now with retiring boomers riding the wave of record high stock markets. "I will live in this house until I die, supported by hired help" is the explicit expectation of many buyers of large expensive homes.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:54 AM on July 23, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:54 AM on July 23, 2024 [4 favorites]
I used to work for an architectural firm that designed ridiculously expensive houses for very wealthy clients. AMA. People here are on the right track, here's what I've seen:
- Every bedroom is actually a suite, so you're starting off with full baths equal to bedrooms.
- Primary bedroom has his/hers bathrooms.
- At least one powder room or half bath (sink and toilet but no tub or shower). Possibly more if it "makes sense" somehow.
- Have a pool? Might have a pool building with a bar or something - that building will probably have a full bath and maybe something extra like a sauna.
- Same deal as the pool if there's some dedicated workout area in the house.
posted by LionIndex at 9:58 AM on July 23, 2024 [5 favorites]
- Every bedroom is actually a suite, so you're starting off with full baths equal to bedrooms.
- Primary bedroom has his/hers bathrooms.
- At least one powder room or half bath (sink and toilet but no tub or shower). Possibly more if it "makes sense" somehow.
- Have a pool? Might have a pool building with a bar or something - that building will probably have a full bath and maybe something extra like a sauna.
- Same deal as the pool if there's some dedicated workout area in the house.
posted by LionIndex at 9:58 AM on July 23, 2024 [5 favorites]
It's also the case that a lot of people buying big homes are also buying them for their parents to move into with them. Many many many of the people able to afford enormous houses are from cultures where there's a multigenerational housing norm, and they are lucky enough to have the means to buy a place big enough that mom and dad can live under the same roof with the grandkids without stomping on each other constantly. This is also why a lot of high end homes have 2 full kitchens. They may sell it as a kitchen for your servants in the listing, but it's absolutely going to be used by parents or other live-in family in a lot of these homes.
Also, it's very hard to sell an extremely expensive house. If you pay more than most people can afford to pay, you better plan on not being able to offload it quickly. Most people paying millions of dollars for a house are in fact "just" millionaires, and it's a significant percentage of their net worth tied up in real estate. So yeah, they do have to think about whether this is a place they want to age in.
I think you are assuming anyone buying a high end property is a billionaire with a vast real estate portfolio. But just by the numbers, most people buying high end real estate are spending a big chunk of their wealth on it, and they have many of the same concerns you do.
posted by potrzebie at 11:23 AM on July 23, 2024
Also, it's very hard to sell an extremely expensive house. If you pay more than most people can afford to pay, you better plan on not being able to offload it quickly. Most people paying millions of dollars for a house are in fact "just" millionaires, and it's a significant percentage of their net worth tied up in real estate. So yeah, they do have to think about whether this is a place they want to age in.
I think you are assuming anyone buying a high end property is a billionaire with a vast real estate portfolio. But just by the numbers, most people buying high end real estate are spending a big chunk of their wealth on it, and they have many of the same concerns you do.
posted by potrzebie at 11:23 AM on July 23, 2024
IMO the answer is far more banal, although all the reasons listed are valid:
More bed and bathrooms = more cost, and architecturally what else are you going to do to fill 10k sq ft of interior space? At some point, just making the rooms larger is pointless. At least bedrooms and bathrooms portend to be useful.
For some of the answers, 'entertaining' seems less valid. What do places that entertain a lot of simultaneous guests have: big bathrooms, with multiple stalls and urinals and whatnot.
And master suites are relatively common in modern houses of all sizes, with it separated and a separate bathroom away from guests. No need for a big house (I mean, relatively) for that.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:50 PM on July 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
More bed and bathrooms = more cost, and architecturally what else are you going to do to fill 10k sq ft of interior space? At some point, just making the rooms larger is pointless. At least bedrooms and bathrooms portend to be useful.
For some of the answers, 'entertaining' seems less valid. What do places that entertain a lot of simultaneous guests have: big bathrooms, with multiple stalls and urinals and whatnot.
And master suites are relatively common in modern houses of all sizes, with it separated and a separate bathroom away from guests. No need for a big house (I mean, relatively) for that.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:50 PM on July 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
This is also why high-end homes increasingly have elevators - it's not (just) a sign of luxury
An elevator in a home only costs about $50k, assuming you have the space. It's no longer something that signifies unattainable luxury. Modern tech has made them relatively affordable.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:51 PM on July 23, 2024
An elevator in a home only costs about $50k, assuming you have the space. It's no longer something that signifies unattainable luxury. Modern tech has made them relatively affordable.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:51 PM on July 23, 2024
I think it is an expected norm for higher spec houses that every bedroom will have an ensuite bathroom, or maybe a Jack and Jill. Sharing bathrooms is easy for families when kids are young but as they grow older and want bathroom privacy, take more time in the bathroom, and use more specific products, the whole personal bathroom think makes some sense. You'll still need some common bathrooms so that people aren't going through bedrooms in order to get to a bathroom.
My house has a full bathroom in the basement for when people are staying over, a full bathroom on the main floor where my mom's rooms are, and then on the upper floors in our living area we have two bigger ones with sinks and showers and two powder rooms with only a toilet and sink that are accessible from common areas. Separating two full bathrooms as we've done it takes up a bit more space but allows for more simultaneous use so hopefully we're not going to feel like we're short a shower or toilet. My kids are still young and so the shower by their rooms is taken up by our cat's litter box (so easy to clean!) and they just come up and use our shower. Our cat only has a couple of years left and after he passes our older kid will probably want to have their own shower so the timing will work for that.
Of course when I visit my in-laws' house in Japan with a separate bath, sink, and toilet, and that arrangement worked for my spouse growing up and for all of us now it does make me feel like we're still wasting space over here.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:59 PM on July 23, 2024
My house has a full bathroom in the basement for when people are staying over, a full bathroom on the main floor where my mom's rooms are, and then on the upper floors in our living area we have two bigger ones with sinks and showers and two powder rooms with only a toilet and sink that are accessible from common areas. Separating two full bathrooms as we've done it takes up a bit more space but allows for more simultaneous use so hopefully we're not going to feel like we're short a shower or toilet. My kids are still young and so the shower by their rooms is taken up by our cat's litter box (so easy to clean!) and they just come up and use our shower. Our cat only has a couple of years left and after he passes our older kid will probably want to have their own shower so the timing will work for that.
Of course when I visit my in-laws' house in Japan with a separate bath, sink, and toilet, and that arrangement worked for my spouse growing up and for all of us now it does make me feel like we're still wasting space over here.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:59 PM on July 23, 2024
I am an avid ogler of real estate listings
Me too, but in the US, and one thing I've noticed is that this bathroom situation might not be the same in England? They seem to have far fewer bathrooms than I'd expect. I presume it's because their houses are, on average, decades older than in the US, but it seems to be true for newer fancy houses, too.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:40 PM on July 23, 2024
Me too, but in the US, and one thing I've noticed is that this bathroom situation might not be the same in England? They seem to have far fewer bathrooms than I'd expect. I presume it's because their houses are, on average, decades older than in the US, but it seems to be true for newer fancy houses, too.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:40 PM on July 23, 2024
Me too, but in the US, and one thing I've noticed is that this bathroom situation might not be the same in England? They seem to have far fewer bathrooms than I'd expect. I presume it's because their houses are, on average, decades older than in the US, but it seems to be true for newer fancy houses, too.
This is purely anecdotal but my impression from both living in the US (as an immigrant to that country) and by spending time on social media, is that people from the US are more likely to be concerned with 'germs' and hygiene. For example, showering twice a day even when your day has not been particularly strenuous or sweaty seems to be very normal for people who live in the US, but this would be outside of the norm where I am from (NZ). So it also makes sense to me that sharing toilets is not something that people who are especially concerned about personal hygiene would want to do.
posted by BeeJiddy at 6:19 PM on July 23, 2024
This is purely anecdotal but my impression from both living in the US (as an immigrant to that country) and by spending time on social media, is that people from the US are more likely to be concerned with 'germs' and hygiene. For example, showering twice a day even when your day has not been particularly strenuous or sweaty seems to be very normal for people who live in the US, but this would be outside of the norm where I am from (NZ). So it also makes sense to me that sharing toilets is not something that people who are especially concerned about personal hygiene would want to do.
posted by BeeJiddy at 6:19 PM on July 23, 2024
having lots of bathrooms is a sign of luxury. You never have to wait, regardless of the number of people in the house.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:24 PM on July 23, 2024
posted by bluesky43 at 6:24 PM on July 23, 2024
Also, I feel like I should add that although I'm the one who started talking about pools and theatres and staff, assuming we're talking about actual Toronto, not the suburbs, a $3 million house is not actually THAT nice a house. $2 million dollar house is basically a non-fixer-upper starter house. A $3 million dollar house a is a nice house. But not a mansion by any stretch. Here's what I get for between 2.5 and 3.5 million right now:
4+1 bedroom 5 baths 3600 square feet, semi
5+2 bed 5 baths semi next to a subway construction zone, semi
2+1 bed, 3 bath, condo
"Attention builders and investors"
Three million dollars isn't really the luxury market in Toronto. I think the answer at this price point is bedrooms plus main floor powder room plus basement.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:17 AM on July 24, 2024
4+1 bedroom 5 baths 3600 square feet, semi
5+2 bed 5 baths semi next to a subway construction zone, semi
2+1 bed, 3 bath, condo
"Attention builders and investors"
Three million dollars isn't really the luxury market in Toronto. I think the answer at this price point is bedrooms plus main floor powder room plus basement.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:17 AM on July 24, 2024
Three million dollars isn't really the luxury market in Toronto.
Location is a luxury item, especially since the median household income in Canada is less than the median household income in the US, and both are far higher than the UK, which is a potential explanation for the lack of bathrooms in the UK.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:44 AM on July 24, 2024
Location is a luxury item, especially since the median household income in Canada is less than the median household income in the US, and both are far higher than the UK, which is a potential explanation for the lack of bathrooms in the UK.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:44 AM on July 24, 2024
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