We have two elderly friends who are about to embark on a programme of home improvements, to ‘future-proof’ their property - in other words, to make it nicer for them to live in whilst still able to enjoy it, and presumably to increase its value when they’re gone or in need of cash for the interim in the nursing home. One of the improvements consists of removing the bath and installing a ‘proper, modern walk-in shower’, since, as they say, they haven’t actually used the bath more than four or five times in the ten years they have lived there, preferring a daily shower for environmental reasons. (They also book the sort of holiday cottages that have no Wi-Fi or TV because ‘it’s so good to have a real break from all that on holiday.’)
I couldn’t help saying that, when we book a cottage, it has to have a bath so we can have our daily hot soak together, good for Tony’s stiff joints so he says, and a sociable end to a day’s walking! I did refrain from saying that some prospective purchasers might actually require a bath, or be put off by the lack of one.