YR226 Just Like a Lesbian Amsterdam at the Bicyclemark house with Amy Abdou’s music on yeast radio

Hi Madge,

Mixing the bathroom and the watercloset is an American thing (hence the use of a single word for the two seperate things), we only started to take over that habit in the last twenty years or so.

Traditionally, in single family homes, the shower is on the second floor, just like the bedrooms. The toilet generally is on the first (ground) floor, generally in the hallway. The showers (mostly small L-shaped rooms) traditionally did have an indentation in the floor marking the shower area (de Douche), keeping water from flowing to the area featuring the sink (Wastafel), which is closer to the door. This may have been remodelled.

This showerroom traditionally does not have room for a toilet, so even in appartments it tended to be in it’s own closet.

For the modern Dutch solution look for something called the Douchecabine. The ‘portable’ showerhead may also be placed above the bath.

All Dutch homes do have a hallway, that’s been part of the buildingcode for ever, you’ll never see a place where you walk straight into the livingroom, upon entering the home.

The traditional closed off kitchen did have a backdoor to the garden or balcony. Starting in the 70’s the (semi-)open kitchen became en vogue, helped by the introduction of the afzuigkap or wasemkap, sucking the fumes and smells out of the kitchen. So, people started to break through the walls between living room and kitchen.