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Not long ago, we were told by RE pros, that a windowless room could be a study, den or have some such name OTHER than a bedroom. Then we heard that IF a windowless room had a glazed opening - either fixed or operable (like a glass door), then it could be called a bedroom! Many new condos have bedrooms without windows, and no orientation to the outdoors. These rooms are primary bedrooms, and second bedrooms.

When did these standards change?
Why do these rules only apply to new construction?
Should I not be able to list my "den" on my resale condo as a bedroom?
Who makes these rules? Tarion? The city....
 
Unless you're a vampire, I prefer to wake up (on weekends) to the sun shined through my bedroom window. To have a (bed)room without windows means using the lights almost every time you are in the room. Unless the room has a skylight.
 
I would not want to be in a bedroom without a window, and in my experience they are frequently used as a home office. But I'm not aware of any "rules" made by Tarion or anyone else in this regard. Developers can label rooms as they see fit. The trend I see increasingly in the most recent couple of years is the use of words like "sleep" and "eat" on floor plans, rather than "bedroom" and "kitchen".
 
This is just a con used by developers to sell what really are tiny units for insane prices. A bedroom by the true standard used to not only have a window but also a build-in closet structure. Those two elements combined made it a bedroom. My real beef with indoor rooms without any light is that they are ultimately quite useless except as a storage room or maybe an office. Although, even as an office, I like having natural light in there as well, saves on always needed to have a lamp on (which in the most cases , the builder does not provide a ceiling fixture). I use my 2nd bedroom with a window as my office when I work from home. It's great. I use my den for extra storage space.
 
actually, I believe technically, to be a bedroom there must be a closet and natural light, whether from a reduced wall height (say 6 feet witha 2 foot gap allowing light from another room ora glass door etc. Personally, when I looked at some projects and the sales people said it was "2 bedrooms" where the 2nd bedroom had the above, I simply stated this was a glorified "1 bedroom/den". I feel this is very misleading since the developers use it to sell but the reality is that the public views this as inaccurate when they actually see the layout or the unit. I believe it will create a lot of confusion in the rental market (as 30% of the supply of new condos usually quoted figure) goes up for rent with this latest marketing ploy and will result in alot of angry renters as well as would be owners who waste their time looking for a unit which is not what they are expecting. the question is in 3-5 years when this has been around like this, will the public grow to accept these "bedrooms" as bedrooms vs. dens just as we have been conditioned to accept smaller and smaller places as what constitutes livable space.
 
lead82 said:
This is just a con used by developers to sell what really are tiny units for insane prices. A bedroom by the true standard used to not only have a window but also a build-in closet structure. Those two elements combined made it a bedroom. My real beef with indoor rooms without any light is that they are ultimately quite useless except as a storage room or maybe an office. Although, even as an office, I like having natural light in there as well, saves on always needed to have a lamp on (which in the most cases , the builder does not provide a ceiling fixture). I use my 2nd bedroom with a window as my office when I work from home. It's great. I use my den for extra storage space.
Click to expand...

This is the most annoying to me. I prefer natural light, but since I'm away most of the day, it's annoying not to have ceiling light in the bedroom and living room. Table and floor lamps just aren't the same.
 
I hope some Real Estate Brokers and Legal people contribute to this thread. There must be a legal definition of a bedroom...What do agents and brokers use as a guideline when listing properties? Could I buy a two bedroom today, and end up with a resale that is a one plus den by TREB's definition of a bedroom Also, in granting permission to build, the city classifies projects by mix of units (studios, 1 bdr, one plus etc...), and prescribes parking requirements accordingly. So there must be some means of defining a bedroom.
 
Apartments and condos in the rest of the world sometimes can come without a closet in the bedrooms. They may use a wardrobe or wall unit to be a closet instead. When moving, they take the wardrobe with them.

My own parents, when they moved, took the refrigerator and stove with them, from one home to another.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Apartments and condos in the rest of the world sometimes can come without a closet in the bedrooms. They may use a wardrobe or wall unit to be a closet instead. When moving, they take the wardrobe with them.
Click to expand...
When we moved into my house in Cabbagetown in 1998 there were no closets anywhere on the first floor (did they have coats back in the 1910s when it was built?) and the the bedrooms had only very small, 3ft wide closets. I thus suggest that they used wardrobes and armoires. You can do the same in your closestless condo.
 
I may be mistaken, but I don't think there is any code for closet size either.

My contractor tells me that closets can be any depth you want, but recommends a minimum of 21" for non-coat closets. After doing some measurements, that seems like a reasonable minimum, although a 24" minimum seems more appropriate if you can spare the extra few inches. Winter coats seem to do much better in 24"+ closets.

BTW, closets require no structural changes and are easy to put in. Basically all they are, are a bit of framing and drywall, with some sort of door. Even if there were code for closets, my vote would simply be to remove that requirement, since such code would simply be overkill. However, like I said, I'm not sure there is any such closet requirement.
 
On the other extreme, there are walk-in closets that are so big, a cot or single bed will fit in and still leave room to walk around.
 
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