Bedrooms

Home descriptions are notorious for overstating the number of real or legal bedrooms. What constitute a bedroom is clearly defined in local building codes. Usually that means a legal bedroom must at a minimum have an egress window. An egress window in my area is 3’x4’, determined as the minimum size opening required for an emergency responder to be able to come in with an oxygen tank strapped on their back. The bedrooms must also have a closet, electrical outlets and a way to heat the room.

Typically, I have found that four bedroom houses are really three and sometimes only two. Rooms that are utility or storage areas due to a lack of legal windows and usually in the basement somehow become bedrooms. It is true that a person can sleep in those rooms but you can say that about anyplace. I can sleep in the hallway but that does not make that hallway a bedroom.

The ad, for a house we saw, touted a “guest bedroom quarter” that turned out to be a hastily converted tool shed by the garage with a lawn mower still in it. The lesson I learned was to be skeptical.

Typically a home will have a master bedroom, implying room enough for a king or queen sized bed and others that are smaller, big enough for a single or a twin sized bed. Try to picture the beds in those rooms.