A Private Toilet Room If You Please
I first started talking about converting the small awkward ‘L’ shaped bedroom adjacent to the master bedroom into an ensuite master bath and walk in closet nearly two years ago. I somehow had it in my head that after moving in last year in January, it would be my top priority and by the end of 2018 we would be all settled into our master bedroom, have a beautiful adjacent master bath and closet, and the world would be filled with rainbows, unicorns, and an honest president. None of that happened… Not even close.
[Image: This is the original configuration of our second floor of the main house. The plan is to make this entire floor our master suite.]
[Image: This is one corner of the future master bath. The closet was added in the 1980s (and a door to the adjacent room was closed off). On the far left side of the image there was once a coal burning fireplace. The chimney is still there, but it is otherwise sealed up.]
[Image: This is another angle in the future master bath. The tub was to sit by the window, but that is where the private toilet room is going to go now. The chimney breast is on the right side of this image and you can see where there was once a hook up for a portable gas lamp. Also, don’t freak out, those cracks have been resolved. 🤪]
The third floor was turned into a Master Suite, which is a fairly common tactic here in South Philly. Like the rest of the house, it was uninspiring, but one thing hit me the moment I saw the photo of the overly modern master bath. There was a shower, but no tub. My immediate reaction was that is a silly idea, you should always put a tub in the master bathroom, right? True, this bathroom was tiny, but there would have been enough room to make it bigger and add a tub. Suddenly I experienced part I of my enlightening moment… It dawned on me that perhaps we didn’t need to have a tub in our master bath.
[Image: Third floor master in a typical uninspiring and banal renovation of a classic Philly rowhouse. You would never know this house was built in the 1830s. There was enough room to make the bathroom larger and include a tub, but they didn’t. Source: Zillow ]
It has been carved deeply into my psyche that one MUST have a bathtub in the master bathroom. Amirite? But after seeing that master bath in our neighbors’ house I began to have doubts. And then I get hit with part II of my enlightening moment. What if? What if…. We skipped the bathtub altogether and instead, put the toilet in a tiny private room? That to me is true LUXURY! A private room to do my business… Privately, and just as important, a private room for Y to do his business… Privately. Who needs a tub? Or do we?
Immediately filled with even more doubt, I decide to post this question to my 112,000+ fellow Facebook members of the ‘Our Old House’ group in the form of a poll.
[Image: This is my Facebook Poll posted to the Our Old House group. The results were a pleasant surprise.]
Is a tub in the master bath a must?
We are in the planning stages of converting a small bedroom next to the master bedroom into an ensuite bath and walk-in closet. Because of space limitations, we are considering skipping the tub altogether and instead putting in a nicer and bigger shower as well as a small private room for the toilet.
Neither of us have taken a tub bath in the past decade or so, and skipping the tub will allow better use of space. (There is a tub/shower in the only full bath in our house which will become a future guest bath).
Thoughts?
[For clarity, I didn’t actually mean bigger shower, just fancier because we would be saving $$ on not having a tub. I should have checked what I wrote before posting. :P]
Over the next 24 hours I received more than 1,300 responses and 350 comments. The final tally is this…
- 258 people voted for: ‘You must have a tub in the master bath, even if it means a smaller shower and the toilet all in one space’
- 1150 people voted for: ‘Skip the tub and put in a roomy walk-in shower as well as an enclosed toilet room.’
So there you have it, four to one voted to skip the tub and have the private room for the toilet. The general consensus is that if you have a tub elsewhere in the house, it isn’t necessary to have one in the master bath.
Not what I was expecting. And neither were some of the comments. (Oh people of Facebook… Y’all are totally wackadoodle!) Here is some of what I heard back.
[Image: A selection of the comments to my poll about tub or no tub. Do most women want one? Really?]
[Image: Private toilet room in Victorian house. This is the general idea of what we are looking to add to our master bath. Source: Grand Finishes ]
[Image: The above image was posted to my Instagram in relation to this post. I am adding it here so you can get a better look. Source: Modern Plumbing, Sears Roebuck and Co, 1913]
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100% agree you do not need a tub, especially if you already have one somewhere else. I love the idea of a tub, but have not actually used one in 20+ years. . . a private toilet room is indeed luxurious! Go with that. And, keep the gas line – that is really cool! And what a fun thing to drop into conversation when you take people through the house – oh you know, they used to have portable gas lamps that you could just plug in like we do with our electric lamps today. . . blow a few heads right open with that mind bending thought.
Regarding the private toilet room… It’s a total luxury! And ours will be windowed!
I remember visiting a friend in San Francisco (back in the 90s) who lived in a two family Victorian from the early 1890s near 21st and Castro. In addition to many of the amazing original Victorian features still extant, was the toilet room. It was completely separate from the adjacent room which had a sink and a clawfoot tub. The door to the toilet room opened into the hallway. I remember the room had a window and the door had textured glass to allow light to flow into the interior hallway. Initially I thought it creepy for the glass to be there but then realized that the window was high on the wall and the glass was in the upper third of the door. There was no way anybody could see anything going in in the toilet room. This was also a thing in NYC tenement buildings where there was only a single toilet on each floor shared by four families.
As for the gas pipe. There are a couple of others in the house including this one in the former servants room in the back of the house (now the only full bathroom). My plans for the master bath will include enveloping the chimney breast in floor to ceiling beadboard (to hide a multitude of sins) and that will require the removal of the gas pipe. The scary thing is, I have no idea where the source for this is coming from (or if the the source still exists).
The gas is probably off, but you never know – that is true! I have heard one apocryphal story of someone cutting into one and getting a surprise – fortunately just the gas smell, not a bang. I might clean it off and tack it back up over the wainscoting, just for the fun of it. I like to keep the gas stips coming out of walls too – I just think they are fun. Either way! This new bath plan sounds really great!
Devyn, I agree that a private room to do one’s business is a very nice thing. Looking at the floorplan of the future bathroom, I am curious as to how you intend to lay it out. It is definitely an awkward space. Are you planning to do all of the work? I know your kitchen in your last apartment was a huge undertaking, but this seems to be even bigger in that there is no existing water or waste lines. Anyway, knowing how you transformed the kitchen in NYC, I am looking forward to what you do here.
Thanks Wayne, You can be sure I will be ‘posting-a-plenty’ about plans for the master bath. I plan to hire out the majority of the work, but plan to do all of the finish work. I don’t want to deal with the plumbing or tile work for the shower.
The kitchen in NYC was a lot of work, but it was simplified by the fact that we didn’t move the sink or stove locations. I used that as a challenge and based my design on the limitations of the one cabinet wall.
How nice it is to know that I am not alone in “camping” for two years in my own home! I suspect that it’s a lot more common than most would guess. Someday, I predict, it will be unusual to live in a place that does not need lots of work! Progress does happen, but not as quickly as desired. Just remember: The end result will make all of the inconvenience worthwhile (at least that’s what I keep telling myself)!
Regarding the tub question, bathtubs definitely seem to be on their way out. In my renovation of a 1960’s split level, I’m replacing the only tub in the house with a spacious shower. Tubs are so unappealing; who wants to soak in one’s own filth? Congratulations upon your decision to ditch the tub! I seriously doubt that you’ll regret it.
Finally, in answer to your question, I don’t know if everybody peruses real estate listings for houses in one’s own neighborhood, but I certainly do! 🙂 Looking forward to following the evolution of this space!
I grew up in a house with 2 bathrooms about 5×8. The master bath has a stall shower only, and the hall bath a tub. I thought that was completely normal because 90% of people only use bathtubs for little kids. Some people criticized me for putting a bathtub in my one bathroom here.
I also grew up in a two bathroom house (1,380 sq ft, built in ’72) with the tub in the hall bath and only a shower in the master. But then the 1980s arrived and the trend of giant master baths with separate tub (usually a giant tub, often with jets) and shower became standard in new construction for all but the most basic of houses. That trend has now been around for more than 30 years. A quick look at the listings for larger (1,800+ sq ft) renovated rowhouses in the hood will show that master baths with tubs is fairly common.
Fortunately, I have come to my wits and realized I don’t have to follow that trend.
Another vote for skip the tub! I’m female and I never take baths – who has time or wants to soak in dirty water? Tubs, for me, are for bathing the dogs and catching dust. Showers are the way to go. When we were house shopping two years ago, nothing turned me off faster than the “tract home” setup in having a useless, shallow bathtub taking up too much valuable space in the master bath. I think for resale purposes, having one tub/shower combo in a second bath is more than sufficient – mostly because many people have kids to bathe. Showers are better for aging-in-place too, especially ones large enough to accommodate a seat.