"Hibijibi" <km34@columbia.edu> wrote in message news:<c6m23n$chkhb$1@ID-149122.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> "Dave Fossett" <reply@via.newsgroup> wrote...
> > "Hibijibi"wrote...
> > > Yes, there are a couple nice things -- genkan, bath + toilet
>  separation...
> >
> > Maybe, but wouldn't it be nice to have the bath upstairs rather than on
>  the
> > ground floor? ;-)
> 
> Come to think of it, you're right!  I don't remember ever seeing a bath or
> even - heavens to betsy - a shower stall on the second floor, unless you're
> talking about a mansion.  Maybe it has something to do with humidophobia.
> 
Look at the shape of the houses. The trend seems to be towards a
smaller second floor in proportion to the first, so there's less room
for a toilet. I suppose this is also related to earthquakes over
aesthetics (sp).

I think you could build a nice house that combines the Western and
Japanese styles quite nicely. I saw a converted warehouse in a
magazine once that was really nicely done, and, IIRC, it cost less to
convert than to build a prefab house. If I return that's probably the
way I'll lean; get a nice, old brick warehouse of some sort (don't
want anything that might be hiding some toxic secret, of course) and
convert it. The pictures I saw also had plenty of room for parking
inside.

John W.