OT - Quirky Features of Your Home

GrateEggspectations

You all have them - strange or unique aspects of your home. Perhaps they are of your own device; perhaps they are relics from previous owners. 

Show us what you’ve got. I’ll get the ball rolling. 

First, a small closet converted into an ensuite bathroom. Measurements are 2’3” by 5”. Anyone venturing to sit down on this toilet risks cracking their skulls on the vanity. Tight, but very convenient. 

Up next is a functional panic room/emergency safe. Unlocking mechanism well hidden in the adjacent room. Haven’t loaded in my files about Area 51 just yet. 

Legume

No bathroom or guest bath on the main floor.

FarmingPhD

The quirky people that live in my house outweigh the quirks of the house.

paqman

You guys all have bathrooms?

TEXASBGE2018

Can’t really take pictures but we don’t have a light switch for our livingroom lights in the livingroom even though there is plenty of wall space for one. The switch is in the hallway around the corner. Just kinda odd. Also all of our bathrooms apparently were prepared for giants because the showerheads are all about 7.5ft high. I’m a relatively tall guy at 6’1” but they are even odd height for me.

GrateEggspectations

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Can’t really take pictures but we don’t have a light switch for our livingroom lights in the livingroom even though there is plenty of wall space for one. The switch is in the hallway around the corner. Just kinda odd. Also all of our bathrooms apparently were prepared for giants because the showerheads are all about 7.5ft high. I’m a relatively tall guy at 6’1” but they are even odd height for me.

Does the higher source of the water cause a lot of splash back?

TEXASBGE2018

GrateEggspectations said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Can’t really take pictures but we don’t have a light switch for our livingroom lights in the livingroom even though there is plenty of wall space for one. The switch is in the hallway around the corner. Just kinda odd. Also all of our bathrooms apparently were prepared for giants because the showerheads are all about 7.5ft high. I’m a relatively tall guy at 6’1” but they are even odd height for me.

Does the higher source of the water cause a lot of splash back?

Haha, it’s just weird. Not so much a problem in our master bath because the shower is larger
but the other bathrooms are all shower/tubs and yes even when angled all the way down they barely spray into the tub. I could change the sprayers out and make it a little better but not much.

SonVolt

Garage light switch isn't in the mud room that leads into the garage, but in the living room. It's so inconvenient I installed smart outlets on the ballasts to turn them on with Alexa. 

Master bedroom door slams into the closet door if both are open at the same time. The doors are heavy wood with solid bronze knobs so it's quite jarring (BAM!!!) and infuriating. 

saluki2007

2 unique aspects of our house are the stairs and pantry. The stairs my dad and I built. The treads are made with the trusses from the house my wife’s grandmother was born in. A buddy and I plained them down and lagged them together. Then dad and I milled and placed all the metal. The pantry has two entrances. One is in the back hallway where we enter through the garage. The other is from the kitchen.

GrateEggspectations

SonVolt said:

Garage light switch isn't in the mud room that leads into the garage, but in the living room. It's so inconvenient I installed smart outlets on the ballasts to turn them on with Alexa. 

Master bedroom door slams into the closet door if both are open at the same time. The doors are heavy wood with solid brass knobs so it's quite jarring (BAM!!!) and infuriating. 

Don’t know why, but your second paragraph gave me visual that made me lol. 

GrateEggspectations

saluki2007 said:

2 unique aspects of our house are the stairs and pantry. The stairs my dad and I built. The treads are made with the trusses from the house my wife’s grandmother was born in. A buddy and I plained them down and lagged them together. Then dad and I milled and placed all the metal. The pantry has two entrances. One is in the back hallway where we enter through the garage. The other is from the kitchen.

Beautiful home. Amazing about the trusses. Are those concrete floors? Where are you located?

saluki2007

@GrateEggspectations Yes they are polished concrete floors.  No epoxy anywhere.  My whole main floor is concrete with a full basement under. We used ICF to do it so we didn't have to have a sh*t ton of poles down there to support it.  The floor also provides radiant heat. Having two young children and two big dogs they can do a number on hardwood so went this route. 

SonVolt

How's the grip on those floors? They look beautiful, but they're so smooth and shiny I'd be worried about slipping and busting my head. 

FarmingPhD

@saluki2007 very cool steps.  Clean, simple, and beautiful.

Gulfcoastguy

A bathroom 5 feet deep by 5 feet wide. Shower head a bit low for my 5’ 11”. Also what genius didn’t take the tile all the way to the ceiling?

saluki2007

SonVolt said:

How's the grip on those floors? They look beautiful, but they're so smooth and shiny I'd be worried about slipping and busting my head. 

They are less slippery than hardwood. Of course if you put the right pair of socks on you can slide if you want. Kids run around like maniacs and no one has busted their head...yet. 

blind99

TEXASBGE2018 said:

GrateEggspectations said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Can’t really take pictures but we don’t have a light switch for our livingroom lights in the livingroom even though there is plenty of wall space for one. The switch is in the hallway around the corner. Just kinda odd. Also all of our bathrooms apparently were prepared for giants because the showerheads are all about 7.5ft high. I’m a relatively tall guy at 6’1” but they are even odd height for me.

Does the higher source of the water cause a lot of splash back?

Haha, it’s just weird. Not so much a problem in our master bath because the shower is larger
but the other bathrooms are all shower/tubs and yes even when angled all the way down they barely spray into the tub. I could change the sprayers out and make it a little better but not much.

same problem at my place. shower was so high, the water cooled off by the time it hit my vertically-challenged self.  luckily they had made it super high by using a goose neck piece, so it was pretty easy to bring it down considerably. 

nolaegghead

The driveway through the alleyway from the street to the front of the house to the garage is too narrow to drive a car down.  Maybe a narrow horse carriage? 

The property line is right down the center of that alley.

The original back garage/shed is split over two properties, however, the property line runs through some of the neighbor's side of the shed.

One of our closets is built on the outside wall.  So the closet space literally hangs off the side of the house.

We have a coat closet.

Can't open the bathroom door and bathroom closet door at the same time.

The neighbor's house caught on fire (before we bought this house) and because the roofs are maybe 2 feet apart, set our attic on fire.  The fire was extinguished before it could damage more than a quarter inch of the rafters so they were deemed "structurally sufficient".  Remediation was painting them silver.  No problems, however.

The drain plumbing with the trap under the sink in the bathroom (maybe 100 years old) is a weird size.  It's all metal.  We developed a leak in the bottom of the p-trap and could not find replacement pipe.  So we taped it with a silicone tape.  That was over 10 years ago and it hasn't leaked since.

Only 1 bathroom (very small 1450 square foot house).  Can be inconvenient when you have guests.  Dumps are discouraged at diner parties, bathroom is 10 feet from dinner table.  I plumbed out a bathroom when I built the shop, but decided it would take too much space away I could be using for tools.  Thankfully, the yard is hidden from neighbors.

Foghorn

The previous owners turned the 2 car garage into a dance studio for their daughter - using the cheapest construction possible.  There is a full length mirror on one wall, the floor is covered with cheap linoleum, and there is a bathroom that is just surrounded by some paneling - because, you know, 3 1/2 baths weren't enough in a 4 bedroom home.

GrateEggspectations

Foghorn said:

The previous owners turned the 2 car garage into a dance studio for their daughter - using the cheapest construction possible.  There is a full length mirror on one wall, the floor is covered with cheap linoleum, and there is a bathroom that is just surrounded by some paneling - because, you know, 3 1/2 baths weren't enough in a 4 bedroom home.

Pictures please! 😁😁😁

ColtsFan

No exhaust fans in any of the 3 bathrooms. (Top item on “to do” list)  My crawl space access is in the attached garage. No formal dining room. 

nolaegghead

ColtsFan said:

No exhaust fans in any of the 3 bathrooms. (Top item on “to do” list)  My crawl space access is in the attached garage. No formal dining room. 

PU!

Cornholio

My house is in California 

mEGG_My_Day

Our house was built in 1926 - there isn’t a single closet on the first floor.  Maybe that was common back then, but i don’t know. When we have a party in the winter, we have to take coats upstairs to a guest bedroom (not gonna be a problem this year unfortunately).

But we do have a built in bar on the first floor, so someone had their priorities correct. 

Oh - we also have a pet cemetery in our back yard.  Prior owner lived there for 50 years and buried her dogs there complete with tombstones.  I’m not messing with it for fear of bad karma. 

WeberWho

This story only loosely relates to this thread but it's kind of quirky. 

My wife and I met my sister out and my uncles farm a few years ago. She brought her friend out to the farm with her. My sisters friend was going to be her made of honor in her wedding that up coming summer. We were just doing the usual small talk when you first meet someone. We found out my sisters made of honor was from the same city my wife was from until she and her family moved in 5th or 6th grade. Which really wasn't that big of a surprise as we still reside 15-20 miles from there. My wife than asked, What part of the city?" Made of honor says, "Independence" (Or whatever the Township it was. I can't recall) My wife says, "So was I". Then my wife says, "What street were you?" Made of honor says, "Anderson Circle". My wife said, "No way. I grew up on that street!!!". My wife says, "What house were you?" Made of honor says the house number. Wife, "Noooooo wayyyyyy!!!!! That's the house I grew up in!!!!" Wife, "Wait, what bedroom was yours?" Wife, "Noooooo wayyyyyy, that was my old bedroom!!!!!"

Small world. 

RRP

Quirk by my own design here.

I have always wanted/needed/preferred LOTS of light, whether natural or electrical.

if you ever saw our home then you would understand why we have so many HUGE windows and sliding doors! 

So when I was designing and building my basement wood working shop you would know why the walls are painted bright white. Besides that you would understand why I have so MANY 2 bulb florescent light fixtures! Trust me there are NO shadows in my 600sq foot shop.

BUT...the weird thing and at 35 years later I don’t recall why I insisted that the two light switches to turn on.those lights that would blind people be 66” off the floor!  

caliking

We’ve lived in this house for 10yrs. 

The first 4 of which were spent trying to figure out what the switch on the left operated. Still no clue. 

Canugghead

caliking said:

We’ve lived in this house for 10yrs. 

The first 4 of which were spent trying to figure out what the switch on the left operated. Still no clue. 

If that switch is anywhere near the stairs leading down to the basement, I can relate. ..to be continued.

saluki2007

caliking said:

We’ve lived in this house for 10yrs. 

The first 4 of which were spent trying to figure out what the switch on the left operated. Still no clue. 

We have one of those as well. We do not have a light over our dining room table but ran all the electricity to a spot where one could be. So the switch will turn that on if/when one gets added. 

ColtsFan

caliking said:

We’ve lived in this house for 10yrs. 

The first 4 of which were spent trying to figure out what the switch on the left operated. Still no clue. 

We have one too. No clue what it does

JohnInCarolina

23 foot ceilings in the billiards room.  So strange as most of our friends have ones with at least 24 foot ceilings.