you all need to watch the 14 children special again...

[Closed Womb]

Chiming in to say that I distinctly remember Josh having his own studio (editing and such), but I was never under any impression that he had his own bedroom at the TTH or either of the rentals we saw on the specials.

When I attend scrapbook retreats, it is common for up to 5-6 people to share a room, as long as they each have their own twin bed. I think the offices and the storage areas could probably be changed into more rooms. There seem to be enough bathrooms to serve about 20 people for a weekend.

The location, though, if it IS so close to the dump: does it stink? How noisy is it, and when does the noise start in the day? And, more importantly, for my Scrapping friends: Is that a DRY county? We'd want to have a bit of the alcohol with our fun, you know?

This is also true of the scrapbook retreats I attend. Sometimes the houses are very modest (they're a very traditionally sized 3/2) and they'll still have sleeping accommodations for 10-12 people, usually accomplished with bunk beds. Except for the location, the TTH would make a much better scrap house than the ones I'm used to renting, as long as my scrappy pals and I can drink. :martini:

[imjustasteph]

Their biggest trouble with selling that house will be the serious lack of personal closet space. I mean, how many people are going to want to walk all the way downstairs and through the laundry room just to get dressed in the morning?

I imagine bedrooms built to house 9 people will have sufficient space for a free-standing wardrobe or dresser -- plus be big enough to build a closet in, if someone wanted. I say this, though, as someone who has rarely had a closet, so my views might be different from many.

[MatthewDuggar]

Keep in mind they custom-designed this house. Originally they ordered 2 of the kits, but one of them was shipped with some of the parts backwards and they sent them 2 more free kits and they ended up using all 4 to make the house this huge. (I may be wrong on the numbers of kits, feel free to correct me). I doubt JB even plans to sell this monstrosity, so who really cares about the odd placement of rooms and lack of closets at this point. If it ends up being sold for whatever reason, it can be gutted and made into quite a showplace.

Add me to the list that thinks a off the dining room bathroom is awkward.

[Feberin]

I agree, I think resale value never was considered when building the house. I think JB plans to die there.

[lostfemme]

Which room houses the long row of computers for the kids' ATI learning? Where do the kids get their schooling?

[lookinggoodforjesus]

Just wanted to say -

I grew up in a house that was built in 1912, and there was a little tiny bathroom that was in the kitchen. Not off of the kitchen. It jutted out in to the kitchen.

Our bathrooms upstairs were also crazy. We had a tiny bathroom with a toilet and a sink, and then next to it was a bathroom with a bath and a shower. Very odd, but supposedly not unusual for the era.

What gets me, is that yes, they CHOSE to have it built that way. This house was custom built. The only benefit I could think of for the kitchen bathroom is for changing a diaper privately and quickly, but the bathrooms looks too small for that. Not sure what the deal is with that. Because, seriously, those bathrooms are incredibly awkward for guests.

[mrs]

I live in a small town home. Thick heavy doors are great for reducing the bathroom sounds. I really want a custom made home!

[LiLSeaWitch]

I think the bathroom is where it is (right next to the dining table), so the sister moms can still teach their older "buddies" while potty training their younger "buddies". At one time school occurred around the kitchen table.

[ClaraOswin]

Which room houses the long row of computers for the kids' ATI learning? Where do the kids get their schooling?

I think that is in the playroom.

[lostfemme]

I think that is in the playroom.

Ah okay, thanks. I thought that was an actual playroom, it's where the slide is, too, I think.

[DeFrauder]

There's also a HUGE closed off box in the corner of boy's room. Wonder what that's all about? Perhaps that's another room?

http://www.kodiaksteelhomes.com/images/ ... orPlan.pdf

I was looking at that, too. All those storage spaces and I assume that square box would have a very low ceiling. The closer you get to the outside walls, the less usable space. I do not understand the big clothes closet on the main floor and the total lack of closets in the bedrooms.

[RosyDaisy]

I hope they have a safe room, basement, or storm shelter. That house is a tornado death trap waiting to happen. It would not even take an EF-5 tornado either.

[DeFrauder]

Here's the portion of the 16 kids and moving in where Josh talks about his AV studio and the "rugrats" and prior to that, it discusses the slide. Unfortunately, I cannot see where it is in the boys room. If it is in that corner of the room, their area is WAY bigger than the girls' room. Check out from 45 seconds in... I'm off to search for the last part of this special.

Hah! JB looks so young!

He is 46? 47? now? or something? More importantly, how old was he during this Josh crises?

Now for my snarky rant:

This house does not NEED a commercial kitchen. The Duggars do not need a commercial kitchen to reheat canned soup. Even if they are actually cooking real food, the "pretty Kitchen" is more than adequate with its 2 big fridges and 2 big stoves. The pantry and storage room I get. Although they are hoarding so much food people might mistake them for being Mormons.

8 commercial washers and dryers is overkill. They could have very easily made do with 2 sets. JB has worn the same golf shirt all summer.

I bet the communal closet looks like a hoard when they are not in there filming. The idea of a communal closet for 18-20 people is mind boggling.

The toilet in the diningroom would have been in a much better place if it was where JB's office is. That toilet is the only one that is readily accessible to guests. It is pretty awkward.

How many times have JB and Michelle hit their heads on the ceiling in the nursery?

Their bedroom is crazy small in relation to the rest of the house. The floor plan shows a closet but I missed it in the video. Michelle's "finally we can be alone so we can have more sexy times" was hilarious. Did they conceive all those kids in public?

Giant house yet the kids are still cramped up in their beds. Not much room in there.

Was that Jessa going to bed FULLY CLOTHED in a crisp white blouse and frumper? Is that one of the measures they took to protect them from Josh?

In a few years when they are bankrupt they may have to sell. It is going to be tough.

[DeFrauder]

Just wanted to say -

I grew up in a house that was built in 1912, and there was a little tiny bathroom that was in the kitchen. Not off of the kitchen. It jutted out in to the kitchen.

Our bathrooms upstairs were also crazy. We had a tiny bathroom with a toilet and a sink, and then next to it was a bathroom with a bath and a shower. Very odd, but supposedly not unusual for the era.

What gets me, is that yes, they CHOSE to have it built that way. This house was custom built. The only benefit I could think of for the kitchen bathroom is for changing a diaper privately and quickly, but the bathrooms looks too small for that. Not sure what the deal is with that. Because, seriously, those bathrooms are incredibly awkward for guests.

Your house may not have had indoor toilets when it was built. A lot of homes back then used chamber pots at night and outhouses in the back. They took baths in the kitchen in washtubs. That would be the norm for a modest "working class home". Wealthier people had fancy indoor bathrooms.

Bathrooms were added later and put inside an existing bedroom, or in closets, which is why these older houses have a really huge bedroom sized bathroom, or tiny separated bathrooms like yours. I love old houses.

but yeah, the Duggars chose to design their house this way. I assume they saved money by laying out the floor plan themselves, but its really hard to do. That tiny bathroom was an afterthought and squished in there.

[Ethdyl]

Remember when JB and M went searching for Josie's old cot for Jill and Derick and it was in this weird storage place? I think that's what the box rooms are.

[metheglyn]

This playroom tour video makes it pretty clear that part of the playroom has a two-story ceiling which would account for that box-space. It also points out that yes, they do use the playroom for schooling.

[bBvideo 560,340:2xysyw51]

[/bBvideo]

Similarly, this boys' room tour video shows that the passage to the tunnel connects to the side of that space as well. It also provides a walkthrough of the studio, now classroom, etc. You can actually see something that looks like old cctvs in the old studio too, which would be...odd...if that was where Josh used to spend a lot of time. It's a weird room.

[bBvideo 560,340:2xysyw51]

[/bBvideo]

[MatthewDuggar]

Thanks for the vids. That rock climbing wall next to the window seems so unsafe. A child springing off of it just a bit too far and could crash right through the window.

This also proves the sinks are outside the bathroom, at least in the boys room.

[metheglyn]

There's a similar tour of the girls' room that shows their external sinks, though interestingly it contains far more beds (and just overall more pieces of furniture) than were present in the room by the time they did the remodeling. But it too is still missing Joy's sleigh bed that she was given in the Moving In special when she was still the youngest (non-infant) girl.

[bBvideo 560,340:3j1lnpwo]

[/bBvideo]

A bunch of house tour videos can be found on youtube by searching "duggar house tour". They did a swath of them a couple years ago. They also did the pantry (https://youtu.be/igT5TNfnOIA), laundry room with "closet" (https://youtu.be/jIjGw6DTIyw), and the "Music Corner" (

).

[halcionne]

Hah! JB looks so young!

He is 46? 47? now? or something? More importantly, how old was he during this Josh crises?

Now for my snarky rant:

This house does not NEED a commercial kitchen. The Duggars do not need a commercial kitchen to reheat canned soup. Even if they are actually cooking real food, the "pretty Kitchen" is more than adequate with its 2 big fridges and 2 big stoves. The pantry and storage room I get. Although they are hoarding so much food people might mistake them for being Mormons.

8 commercial washers and dryers is overkill. They could have very easily made do with 2 sets. JB has worn the same golf shirt all summer.

I bet the communal closet looks like a hoard when they are not in there filming. The idea of a communal closet for 18-20 people is mind boggling.

The toilet in the diningroom would have been in a much better place if it was where JB's office is. That toilet is the only one that is readily accessible to guests. It is pretty awkward.

How many times have JB and Michelle hit their heads on the ceiling in the nursery?

Their bedroom is crazy small in relation to the rest of the house. The floor plan shows a closet but I missed it in the video. Michelle's "finally we can be alone so we can have more sexy times" was hilarious. Did they conceive all those kids in public?

Giant house yet the kids are still cramped up in their beds. Not much room in there.

Was that Jessa going to bed FULLY CLOTHED in a crisp white blouse and frumper? Is that one of the measures they took to protect them from Josh?

In a few years when they are bankrupt they may have to sell. It is going to be tough.

JB will turn 50 on July 18. He was 37 when Josh went to carpentry counseling.

[TuringMachine]

There's a similar tour of the girls' room that shows their external sinks, though interestingly it contains far more beds (and just overall more pieces of furniture) than were present in the room by the time they did the remodeling. But it too is still missing Joy's sleigh bed that she was given in the Moving In special when she was still the youngest (non-infant) girl.

[bBvideo 560,340:bx3jquaj]

[/bBvideo]

A bunch of house tour videos can be found on youtube by searching "duggar house tour". They did a swath of them a couple years ago. They also did the pantry (https://youtu.be/igT5TNfnOIA), laundry room with "closet" (https://youtu.be/jIjGw6DTIyw), and the "Music Corner" (

).

I never understood the bed situation in that house. The most recent look into the boys room had what looked like 15 beds for the 9 boys while the girls room has 4 beds for 7 girls. Why don't the girls get to have their own beds?

*edit: I actually went back to the episode I was talking about and I saw that there was one single bed in the boys room, so that makes 16 beds in there. I wonder who's the lucky one to get the singe? I hope it's JD

[DeFrauder]

BTW that poster on the wall in the kitchen with the map of the world and the caption "one race" sort of puts to rest the discussion in the rebel flag thread about whether JB is a racist.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

I never understood the bed situation in that house. The most recent look into the boys room had what looked like 15 beds for the 9 boys while the girls room has 4 beds for 7 girls. Why don't the girls get to have their own beds?

*edit: I actually went back to the episode I was talking about and I saw that there was one single bed in the boys room, so that makes 16 beds in there. I wonder who's the lucky one to get the singe? I hope it's JD

There's 1 sleigh bed for the each of the first 5 girls (I thought it was the first 4 until I rewatched the 16 and moving in episode when they showed Joy-Anna's bed; unless there are 4 and Jana shares a bed). Then there's the bunk bed with 3 beds. Though, I never can find that 5th bed in any of the shots of the room. Maybe it's moved around and always out of the shot when the crew is in there to make more room for said crew? Or, maybe Jana's bed isn't actually kept in the room? Maybe Jana sleeps somewhere else, like Michelle's office? Maybe she bunks with Mary? Or maybe she and JD moved out, and she brought her bed along? Who knows.

Anyways, There have been many episodes that have shown the little girls sleeping in bed with the big girls. Or in other random places throughout the house. I think I remember seeing them sleep in the boys room once or twice. Or at least one of them napped in there or something. I also seem to recall Johannah taking a nap in a closet or something like that.....

ETA about the boy's beds: the boy's room is used as the guest room and the boys sleep in the bus when guests are over. That's probably the reasoning for the extra beds.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

BTW that poster on the wall in the kitchen with the map of the world and the caption "one race" sort of puts to rest the discussion in the rebel flag thread about whether JB is a racist.

It's a christian saying, explained by this:

There is really only one race—the human race. The Bible teaches us that God has "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26).

christiananswers.net/q-aig/race-definition.html

I heard it a lot when I was growing up. Of course, it's stupid, it's about as useful as pretending you're not racist by saying you're colorblind.

[ClaraOswin]

I never understood the bed situation in that house. The most recent look into the boys room had what looked like 15 beds for the 9 boys while the girls room has 4 beds for 7 girls. Why don't the girls get to have their own beds?

*edit: I actually went back to the episode I was talking about and I saw that there was one single bed in the boys room, so that makes 16 beds in there. I wonder who's the lucky one to get the singe? I hope it's JD

Where are you seeing 16 beds? In the video above, I count 9 beds in the boys' room.

[DeFrauder]

It's a christian saying, explained by this:

christiananswers.net/q-aig/race-definition.html

I heard it a lot when I was growing up. Of course, it's stupid, it's about as useful as pretending you're not racist by saying you're colorblind.

Belief in "one race" and in Acts 17 is actually an anti-racist statement.

Consciously racist people believe that different races is a thing, but more importantly, they believe that these different races have biological differences that affect cognition, morals and abilities. As horrifying and incorrect as this idea is, up until the second world war this was considered "science".

However, I will give you that not being consciously racist does not preclude someone from being unconsciously racist. Racist ideas are entrenched in our culture and they often get repeated by people who are genuinely not racist (just uninformed).