I am a lover of small houses. I wrestled with my passion when I was younger—in my late twenties and it seemed every upwardly-mobile professional couple I knew was moving into bigger and bigger houses. I thought that I should want to move into a bigger house, but I finally had to accept that I am absolutely drawn to quaint little cottages and small, cozy houses. They enrapture me. I can easily see myself living happily-ever-after in a little house with a pointed roof. Ah, but the problem is, I love large families too! My love of small houses and large families has prompted me to come to terms with the clash between fantasy and reality. And the reality is that even in a small house, you’ve got to have enough bathrooms…
We live in a townhouse that many would consider small—about 1300 square feet, three bedrooms—BUT—we have three bathrooms. Okay two and a half bathrooms, but that’s three toilets and three sinks and three big mirrors. Even so, in a family with one middle-age mom and three teens, three bathrooms are not always enough. 1300 square feet and a two-story home feels just fine to me, when the kids are gone, it’s downright too big. But, the bathroom issue is an entirely different matter.
I used to say (when my kids were little and we all seemed to always be in the same bathroom at the same time anyway) that more bathrooms just meant more work for me—cleaning, straightening and managing. But, that was before make-up and hormones and shaving and multiple baths/ showers each day per person. That was just…before. Now I wish we each had our very own (and a lovely housekeeper to clean them) because inevitably I am the one left waiting as I scale the floors of my house and face one locked bathroom door after the other (fortunately there is a very clean gas station about a block and a half away—either that or the bagel/coffee shop).
I haven’t had my very own, don’t-have-to-share-with-anyone bathroom since I was eighteen and had just moved into my own tiny apartment to go to college. Some day…when I have my little cottage with the pointed roof…I’m going to have my very own bathroom and maybe I won’t have to share it with anyone (except maybe my grandkids!)