Is Your Bathroom Stuck in the Past?
When you look at homes today, having a bathroom in the floor plan is a non-negotiable—most homes have 2 to 4 bathrooms. However, that wasn’t always the case. The modern bathroom is still a relatively recent invention. Bathroom Stuck in the Past Quantity over Quality—Higher Demand for Construction Led to a Decrease in Craftsmanship After World War II, the government subsidized many mortgages with programs like the G.I. Bill. For the first time, homeownership was a possibility for many. Before long, over half of Americans were homeowners. With all that development came the need to build faster than ever to meet the growing demand. The real estate bubble drove builders to experiment with faster, cheaper methods of production. So, rather than innovating, craftsmanship decreased in favor of efficiency and lower costs. As a result, nearly 75 years after the bathroom became standard in single-family homes, our bathrooms still look much the same as those built in ...