dulciusexasperis

When we designed our kitchen renovation in our current house deniah, my wife wanted a convenient workspace next to our built in wall oven. What she decided to do was leave a space under the countertop in one part of the kitchen, empty. In other words, not have a kitchen cabinet under the counter top in that space. She then bought an all stainless steel 'kitchen trolley' similar to the one you show, that fits in that space under the counter. She wheels it out when needed and otherwise it sits tucked away under the counter. It's like have an 'island' you can place anywhere in the kitchen you want it at a given time. I think it is a very smart idea indeed.

deniah

Friend of mine built a modern house in Germany. Has a freestanding glass shower with rain/overhead head. However the shower is only enclosed on 3 sides, even though there is adequate space for a hinged door. The floor within the shower slopes for drainage, but he has to keep a commercial-kitchen floor squeegee in the room to sweep the inevitable puddles that spills out the shower after every use

UKtravelbear

Last weekend I stayed (again) in a newly refurbished hotel in Amsterdam.

The taps in the bathroom sink were still separate hot and cold taps. Same with the hotel I stayed in in June. Both were aimed at the North American market.

Both hotels had undergone multi million refurbishments in the last couple of years but neither felt the need to install mixer taps over the sinks.

GUWonder

In Scandinavian countries, the showers tend to be enclosed fully in modern homes and often are still set to be wet-rooms even with the fully-enclosed showers. But whether the bathrooms are or aren't meant to be wet-rooms, it seems like those floor squeegees are popular sale items for purchase by the owners of such modern homes too. Ventilation systems in European home tend to be less elaborate than in the US, so maybe in large part that is why they feel more of a need to open bathroom windows for giving "air" to the place and to use those squeegees to wipe down the floors and walls of showers/tubs and more manually direct the left-over water into the drains?

WilcoRoger

This. Using a squeegee lowers the air humidity, as the water guided to the drains will not evaporate inside the house. Most bathrooms have tile or PVC floors, the floor is heated and bathtubs are regarded as "weird contraptions in southerly latitudes" Smaller bathrooms usually would have a shower cabin, while larger ones are often totally open, wet room style.

GUWonder

Thanks for the clarity on that.

manda99

I was specifically describing 'Chicago-style bungalows' in my post. Hence, why I said, 'Chicago-style bungalow'. It's a specific type of home prevalent in the Chicago bungalow belt: https://www.chicagobungalow.org/chicago-bungalow

Aspen

Australian Building Standards require all bathrooms and laundries to have a drain in the room in case a tap is left running in a basin or bathtub or if the shower recess floods.

nightowlgirl

The half shower door is really common in European bathrooms. They are an irrational stupid design but I have learned to use them. Since the doors are hinged you need to tilt the door slightly inward toward the shower. Then water hitting the door will run down into the tub. If it's not tilted inward the water will run to the location of least resistance which is probably the floor. You also have to be careful where you aim that handheld shower head.

Other unpredictable things....

• certain countries give you washcloths and others don't. It seems to be dictated by country. I'm a washcloth person so now I bring dollar store washcloths which I can just leave behind.
• there probably will not be any outlets in the bathroom other than one marked "shaver only". This plug may not allow you to plug other things into it. This is more of a problem for women who use a hair dryer or styling tools with a mirror. You can't plug these devices into the bathroom and there may not be any other mirror in the room. I have used the turned off TV as a mirror. Far from ideal but it worked.
• bidets are occasionally present in European bathrooms. You can google how to use it but it's a great addition.
• It's pretty typical that there is a handheld shower head that is mounted on a long bar. These are height adjustable. You can loosen it, slide it up or down, and tighten. Great idea!
• Temperature controls on the shower are also common. It usually stops or clicks at 38 degrees celsius then you may have to depress a button while turning to get it hotter. This is a nice safety feature when the water temps are consistent. There will likely be two knobs; one for temperature and one to turn on the water.

kipper

I usually sort through my washcloths at home and take the older, thinner washcloths with me. I then just throw those out and buy new once home.

GUWonder

Wash cloths in European hotel bathrooms have been seeing cutbacks. The excuse is that people don't use them like they used to do so and that this is a way of saving the world/environment. Welcome to hotels green-washing their cost-cutting ways to pad their bottom line.

Also Northern European bathrooms seem to have more of a visible mold-development issue than US bathrooms at properties of comparable age with rather comparable climates. Ventilation approaches are part of the issue, but there are other issues where it's a material-sourcing/use issue. For example, I would say that Northern European home-building quality has taken a fall as cross-border commerce within the EU has increased. For example, Northern European home builders sourcing material from and/or for application in southern/warmer/dryer parts of Europe and instead using them in parts of Northern Europe that are not as warm/dry.

socalflying

RE: the half-shower doors. I don't mind if they are properly executed and maintained. However, I was in a hotel in Milan this past September that had the half-door. The vertical pole that the shower head was attached to was centered along the long wall of the tub, and the support for the hand-held shower head was so weak the shower head just tipped down and over until it was pointing at the wall. Also, they had put the half-door at the end of the tub opposite the tub spout, where one's head would be if lying down and taking a bath. Unfortunately, that end of tub was steeply angled to accommodate lying down, so you couldn't stand next to the half door. This, combined with the floppy shower head, made for a very wet floor!

stut

Hello all, welcome to nightowlgirl and a hello to an old friend (this thread).

I've deleted some posts. A perennial reminder to keep the tone light and civil, and avoid any personal comments.

stut
Moderator
Europe Forum

LondonElite

Better a half-door than a full curtain.

DeeGee26.2

You see, for me, from the UK, the presence of an outlet somewhere where there's water and wet hands is a recipe for electrocution. I don't know if 220v is any less safe in this regard that 110v. In many hotels I go to in Europe, now, there's a well lit mirror outside the bathroom close to where the hairdryer is. Not all of them, though.

UK law bans outlets in a room with a shower unless it can be sited more than 10ft from the shower. Our bathrooms aren't that big.

And, of course, with our half-doors acting as inadequate shower screens causing water to get everywhere, you wouldn't want live electricity in such a wet environment anyway