Okay. Help me, people. Somebody has to know the answer to this conundrum.
I've been house hunting for lo these many weeks in preparation for moving to Ft. Wayne. And I've noticed an interesting trend in the older homes I've perused online.
A bunch of the houses have outside doors in upstairs bathrooms that lead to ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE.
Weirdest thing.
One of the houses I actually looked at in person...and I asked the realtor about the mysterious door. She didn't know the reason for it - other than perhaps it was an escape route in case of fire.
I tried googling, asking Jeeves, and every other option - and came up with NOTHING.
Today I looked at a house that had a door out of the bathroom that actually did lead to a little deck, and in the house description, they called it an "airing porch."So I googled "airing porch" and the best I could come up with was that older homes sometimes had airing porches.
Um. Not helpful.
So. Anyone? Anywhere? Why the bathroom doors????
1 hour ago
10 comments:
The best I could find is that an "airing" porch is also referred to as a "sleeping" porch, and here's what the ever reliable wikipedia says about those: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_porch
It would be my guess that there was a porch, but it fell off or was removed, but no one bothered to wall in the door. Maybe it's always off the bathroom so that if you were sick you could sleep outside and still be close enough to the throne should it be necessary.
It could be the old time version of an exhaust fan in the restroom. i.e., to remove offensive (ahem) bathroom odors? They didn't have lysol spray back then. :-) It's just a guess, though.
Here's a thought - maybe there originally were airing porches on these houses, and there were NOT originally bathrooms in these houses. At some point the porches were removed and the "hallway" out to the porch was turned into a bathroom. Total guess!! Still think I would take the door out!
I think I agree with Kristen. I know in the south there were such things as "sleeping porches" so that in the days prior to air conditioning, the homeowners could sleep outside where it was a bit cooler. Weird that it would be off a bathroom, but perhaps the bathroom was added later?
To air it out when someone is having some major bathroom issues? haha :)
Good suggestions!I especially like the "airing the bathroom" thought. But man - woudln't you think a window would have been a lot less work?
But a window wouldn't have as much airing power as a whole door, and sometimes a bathroom just needs a door's worth of airing. My roomie's 4 year-old grandson told her once:
"Sometimes I eat a big dinner, and then I poop a LOT!"
He needs a door...
HUGE LOL!!!!!!!
If these are REALLY OLD houses, maybe the put the commodes outside if they used them in the night...so that air wasn't inside, it was on the airing porch....a guess.
oooh i like that theory too!!!
Post a Comment