how much privacy do you need?

Growing up and even now we have the same rules. The only doors with locks are exterior doors, and the grown ups bedroom.

We never use them heck we rarely even shut the bathroom door (unless company is over) but my wife is an RN & Im a Paramedic so bodies are just that bodies. They have functions so it's not a big deal. I'm sure we're odd and in the minority on that but it is what it is.
 
Haha, @Nyboy I'm the same way about "discussions" while I'm in the bathroom. You will NOT get an answer if you're talking to me from outside the closed bathroom door. Actually, I have a pretty firm rule that we be in the same room when speaking. Our place is small but I hate yelling from room to room. On rare occassion I'll call downstairs to remind him of something, but no real conversation.
 
hum this thread went from privacy to bathroom etiquette......
our house might not be a live in museum, but we keep it clean due to 5 cats and 2 dogs....the washing machine and vacuum has an workout every week .

if it was just the dw and i ...oh heck you get it.....
 
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Nyboy said:
Now I have 2 bathrooms and am much happier !! Anyone have a outhouse ?
Click to expand...

I have an outhouse. Had one at the last place I lived and also grew up with an outhouse...one time we even had a two holer. THAT was pretty useless, as the only people who would want to use the outhouse at the same time were my parents.

As for privacy...I'm the youngest of nine kids, so pretty much grew up without any privacy. Got used to that. Sometimes I really like my privacy and will go off in a room and vegetate in the silence...I've grown to love that feeling more and more as I age.

Privacy on the land. LOVE my privacy on the land and hate to have near neighbors. I don't like having to have shades pulled down, doors locked, etc. at night...makes me feel like I'm hiding from folks and I've nothing to hide, really. I say, if someone hiked this far back in the holler at night to gaze at my middle aged flab, they deserve what they get. I don't lock doors because I have nothing worth stealing, nor any money on hand...but if I did, someone that desperate is welcome to them both.

I don't like seeing the neighbors and I don't like hearing them either...and I don't like them seeing or hearing us~I try to be a quiet and considerate neighbor and I enjoy the same level of consideration from others. I LOVE that level of privacy and could easily live way out in the bush of Alaska or Australia and not miss civilization at all.

I don't like hearing their chained up barking dogs or when they wean their calves~totally NOT necessary to do that as close to the neighbors as possible. I don't like hearing them revving their engines over and over and over and over and over, nor shooting their guns endlessly on a Sunday...if they aren't sighted in by now, they ain't ever gonna be.

In short, I'm both a private person and also a very laid back and open book sort of person...just depends on the space I'm in. I've learned to be content living cheek by jowl with family and no privacy to speak of, but I've never really gotten used to doing the same with neighbors and strangers.
 
Yep, bathrooms definitely need doors. And Jared, I respect where you're coming from, but even though I know a body is just a body, and they have functions, there are some things I don't care to share or have shared no matter how much love there is between us. :eek:

Speaking of privacy on the land, Bee reminded me of a conversation with two female neighbors I had recently. They were commenting on how irritating the guy is who flies an ultralight super low just over the treetops above our neighborhood.
One neighbor said she didn't want somebody crashing and dying on her property, and I said I didn't want some idiot flying around snooping on us.
Yeah, the cute, youngest neighbor gal said, you could be sunbathing!

So I said, if he comes back I'll yell a warning to him. "If you don't stop snooping I'll take my clothes off!"
With a threat that serious he will probably be afraid to fly again for fear of the irreparable damage to his retinas.
 
I've related this on TEG about once living in the sticks and having an outhouse ... with no door! It opened onto a little thicket of Douglas fir trees. I'd built the thing without considering the size of my big feet and didn't want an outhouse with a vestibule.

For my home, I like for there to be a separation between outdoors and in. It's especially true when the weather is inclement. I close the heat out, also.

Indoors, I will close closets during the day but open them at night. All interior doors are open overnight, unless someone is in the bathroom. And no, I'm not interested in sharing bathroom moments.

Bathroom etiquette ..? Mostly, I was curious about how open a floor plan could be to meet folks' need for privacy and whether bathroom location really means anything beyond convenience.

Steve
 
I go in the bathroom sometimes just to hide or read a book. :hide Only quiet time I get, LOL.

I get no privacy anymore. Bathroom door has a lock, but the kids know how to take a thin paintbrush handle and pop the lock. Usually I am run out by my preschooler doing a little tap dance while she threatens to pee on the floor or the oldest coming in after the hairbrush. I do have a lock on the door to my room. They haven't figured that out yet though.

I had a friend in school, we'd be in the bathroom doing our hair or such, and she'd just plop down and do her thing without any warning. She was an only child. I'm starting to understand that a little more now, how you get to be like that. My mom is very prim and proper. We always exercised the utmost respect for privacy. I have never heard my mom make any unladylike noises or seen her without her bathrobe. I'm a little more laid back myself, but we do try to keep a certain level of modesty going. The 3-year-old will eventually learn...

We do have neighbors much closer by than I'd like. They are a bit nibby, but they do help keep an eye on things, so I don't worry too much about locking my door either except at night. Sometimes I remember to pull the blinds, sometimes I don't. No neighbors to the back of the house, so you wouldn't see in unless you had binoculars. One house sets high on the hill above us. I've been up on their porch before, so I know they can see everything in our backyard. We have a barn between us and the neighbors on either side of the house, so that does help block some of the view. Nothing much to see from the front as you go by on the street. The sunroom precludes most of the view into the front of the house.

I remember my great-grandmother looking out at the neighbors with her binoculars. I guess as your vision goes, you need a little assistance... ;) She had lots of neighbors close by, so lots going on.
 
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