This week’s question (Have your own? Submit it here.):

I just bought a South Philly house with a pristine 1950s bathroom. Everyone who sees it says I MUST keep it, pink toilet and all. But I want radiant heat flooring, marble, and a moody paint scheme. Am I a monster?

Earl Hopkins

NO, you are not a monster! As a homeowner, you have free will to do whatever you want with YOUR property. I’m all for architectural character, so a 50s-style bathroom sounds beautiful. But if you want to scrap it for a more modern style, who am I — or anyone for that matter — to tell you differently? Go for it!

What do you think, Stephanie?

Stephanie Farr

As someone who has pink tile in her bathroom and initially hated it when I moved in, I’d urge this reader to sit with it for a while (beyond just sitting on the toilet). My pink-tiled bathroom has grown on me over the years and now I kind of love how it feels anachronistic. I’m in the modern era in the rest of my house, but when I go to the bathroom I’m transported back to the 1950s. It’s a bathroom time machine!

Earl, how much do you think you should let others influence your decisions with your house? Do you take input from guests? Should guests even be offering input on someone’s bathroom?

Earl Hopkins

No! This reader shouldn’t let any guests sway their opinion or steer their vision.

No. 1: buying a home is hard.

No. 2: what may be odd or strange to one person, may be the very quirk that convinced them to purchase the home in the first place. In this case, they may have fallen out of love with the bathroom, or knew a remodel was in the cards. Either way, it’s their business.

Stephanie, I feel like a bathroom is such an intimate place in someone’s home? What do you think?

Stephanie Farr

I totally get that. I think complimenting someone’s bathroom is fine but criticizing it — or the homeowner’s style preferences — is rude.

I agree that if this person wants to renovate it they have every right to make their bathroom look like something out of the Beetlejuice house instead of out of 1950s South Philly. But, in case they feel like these comments from guests are coming out of nowhere, there is a deep appreciation for old Philly places stuck in time, particularly in South Philly. There’s an entire Instagram account called South Philly Time Capsules that features houses that haven’t been changed in decades and the first pinned post is of a pink bathroom.

Earl, do you think there’s a way to pay homage to the old bathroom if and when it is completely modernized? Should this person take a photo of the bathroom now, frame it, and hang it up in the redone bathroom or is that just asking for more criticism?

Earl Hopkins

Oooh, that would be a nice touch; a great way to pay homage to the home’s roots. Plus, it could make for a great story to share with new visitors.

Stephanie Farr

And maybe they should save a few pieces of the tile to incorporate somewhere in the new bathroom or home too. And before the remodel, they should definitely throw a bathroom potty to send off their old restroom in style.