Architectural guessing game

We are going to play a little game here. The name of the game is snaps. Gotcha on that one! You thought you could win! Well, the real name of the game is guess what these people were thinking in the moment! I know, long name for a game, but it could be the next big TV game show! The object of the game is to take a stab at why someone would have thought these things were good ideas in the moment. Keep in mind, not all of these are necessarily bad ideas. Some of them show that a little thinking outside the box is a good thing while others show that taking shortcuts is not always a wise decision. Let start off with an easy one:

Hopefully you can appreciate how nice it is to have modern day furnaces in our homes (well, in most of our homes). Our new basement apartment is heated with old time radiators. The water, as you can see is brought in through a plethera of pipes in our ceiling. It makes for some chilly mornings because they are not as efficient at heating big spaces as a furnace is.
Next up:

This is a good one as well. Our new place has built in book shelves. Pretty handy for decorating. When we own our own home (hopefully within this decade) I would like to have a library full of built in book shelves and fill them all.
These next two go hand in hand with each other.

If you can't tell in the first one, that is a makeshift ventilation hole in our second bedroom. I'm guessing it is to help so that room (with no windows) doesn't get too stuffy and also to help with circulation in the house. The second picture is actually taken from our shower. If you so desired, you could crawl out this little space after getting all cleaned up and jump out and scare someone in the driveway. My worry, however, doesn't lie with creepy lurkers, but with the fury of nature. Let's hope that we don't get any big rainstorms.
We follow ancient ventilation portals with this:

 Who ever said electrical tape can't fix everything!? I thought only duct tape was good for stuff like this, but obviously I was wrong!
Not to be outdone, but this is the one I have been waiting to show you all! The mother of all, "What were you thinking!?"s.

Now, take a good look at those and tell me the steps going up Old Main hill are bad! These steps were the bane of our first apartment. I can only imagine what Jeff Foxworthy would come up with if he got a hold of these pictures! Honestly, I thought 2x6s were used for making swing sets and other things like that. I never knew you could use them to make the worlds most dangerous steps! Even the steps leading up to the temples in Chichen Itza are safer. Sad thing about that is people traversed those steps on the way to human sacrifice! Okay, so I'm being a little sarcastic here, but these steps were a little ridiculous. If you ever want the full story, ask one of us about them when you get the chance. I'm already taking up too much of your time ranting about them already.
Last of all, we have my favorite thing from either of our two apartments we have now lived in. When you see this picture, think of two things: Giselle and a little song that goes something like, "Ah ah aha ahh, ah ah aha ahh, ah ah aha hahhhhhh!"

See what I mean! I just wish I had a picture of the window open. It swing open to the inside and you can hang out the window and call the birds, rats, cockroaches and whatever other creatures are at your disposal to come and clean your apartment for you. Just be sure to sing a happy song while doing it, otherwise they will just trash your place (I think that was my problem while I was on my mission).
I hope you enjoyed our game. Since it wasn't really much of a game, I say go treat yourself to some ice cream to make up for the let down!