In Victorian times, homes were taxed according to the number of rooms which makes sense. However, if a room had a closet then that closet was counted as a room! Therefore, many homes chose NOT to have a closet in the bedroom to avoid the additional taxes, and the home owners chose to use an armoire instead. I recently learned that there was a window tax in the 18th and 19th centuries also and a home was taxed according to the number of windows it had! The years that this tax was imposed varied from country to country, and based on the taxes charged, many home owners opted to install bricks where their windows once were!
However, all that aside, nowadays when I visit a home, and I see a great room, utilized as a bedroom but no closet, I look to see if there is a closet close by in the hallway. An appraiser once informed me that as long as there is a closet close to the ‘bedroom’ then you can call it a bedroom. I researched that again, and I am reading that it does vary from state to state and the respective building codes. The room must be at least 7 feet in height, and at least 7 feet x 7 feet in dimension, have 2 forms of egress and the windows must be between 24 – 44 inches from the floor and have at least a 5.7 ‘ square opening. It is always good to check with your local building department, but jsut also bear in mind there might a simple reason why there is no closet!
Westchester is GREAT
