The ceiling is caving in

One of the classes I teach is in Eiseland Hall at West Virginia University. My classroom is on the top floor. After about a week of rain, the ceiling started leaking. Random ceiling tiles started disappearing, and garbage cans started appearing to hold the leaks. They also started repairing the roof…while I was in class.

 

One day, when the stench of mold and whatever chemical they were using to fix the roof was at its worst, I decided my first bathroom review would come from this building, especially when I walked in and saw the huge, gaping hole in the ceiling of the 5th floor bathroom. The hole is the first thing you see when you walk in the bathroom. It’s ugly and doesn’t instill the greatest level of confidence that your time in the bathroom will be private, especially after noticing the numerous workmen going up and coming down from the roof.

 

Even without the hole in the ceiling,  the bathroom really only meets minimum standards. It’s generally clean, which is an important characteristic of a bathroom. The size of it, however, makes it difficult for two adults to be in here at the same time despite there being two stalls. In the second picture, my camera was at one end of the bathroom pointed towards the opposite end. As you can see, there isn’t much space. It wasn’t possible for me to get a picture of the sink area because it was so tight. If one person is washing their hands, the other person needs to wait by the stalls because there is no room for two people by the sink, even though there are two paper towel dispensers (but only one sink).

 

The stalls meet the minimum requirements in that you can do what you need to do, however they aren’t the most attractive place to do your business. Like I said in my first post, bathrooms were a place where I could kill time if I needed or wanted to. The bathrooms in Eiseland make me want to get out as fast as I can. From the cement block walls, to the stall doors that slam shut behind you, to the gaping hole in the ceiling, this bathroom is one that will meet the basic requirements of a bathroom but will not allow you to have an enjoyable experience.

Overall Grade: C-

 

Why bathrooms?

For years now, I’ve wanted to do a blog that judges the quality of bathrooms both locally and regionally. I realize that may sound odd, but I’ve always had a strange thing with bathrooms. I can remember when I was little, being in church, and being so bored that I would go spend some time in the bathroom. It was better than what was going on during the mass, so…

As I got older, I’d always have to visit bathrooms of restaurants, shops, or parks just to see what they look like. I think you can tell a lot about a place based on the quality of their bathrooms. For example, there are some really nice restaurants with average, or even sub-par, bathrooms. They meet the minimum standards (e.g., they are clean, the facilities work), but are not welcoming places and don’t make you want to stay and hang out. Other fairly mediocre restaurants have really nice bathrooms, which make me reconsider the overall value of the place.

When I got my first job during my freshman year of college, I would kill time in the bathroom. It’s not that I hated that job, but I didn’t really like it. Standing around made me look lazy, and I also wanted to avoid getting assigned any extra jobs. A few years ago, my husband and I went to Seattle. I got to use the #2 best women’s bathroom in the city. I started thinking about the judging criteria as to what makes a good bathroom and how people came up with the idea to even judge various bathrooms around a city. Hence, the idea for this blog was born. Now, I am pregnant (31 weeks) and am visiting more bathrooms and more often. I figured now is the time to do this.

Once a week, I will feature a bathroom around Morgantown, WV. Once a month, I’d like to feature a bathroom in the surrounding area. I doubt I’ll be traveling much, but when I do, I’ll also update you all on bathrooms around the country.