Differences between US and U.K. homes

[Youngatheart00]

Just a ponderous thread as it’s my day off and I’ve been thinking, mainly following the abundance of Netflix we’ve all watched over the past year, but also some of my travel experiences (not recently, obviously!)

Some of the differences I’ve noticed are;

• many more of the US homes seem to be fully open plan downstairs. Some don’t even seem to have doors between the rooms?

• the bathroom count / ratio to bedrooms is much higher! (Eg 3 bed / 3 bath or even 2 bed / 2.5 bath)

• heating systems, I don’t recall seeing radiators, instead vents in the floor, are these used to flip between hot and cold air depending on the time of year? How effective / efficient are they compared to our big radiator bars here?

• toilets - they seem smaller and the flushing mechanism is different

• baths - they also seem smaller, short and strangely blocky

• Space and size - all of the bathroom stuff is unusual when the overall size of homes, even cheaper ones, is so much larger. And some ‘back yards’ are absolutely huge! Obviously more land space in the US compared with the U.K. but still, notable but often not much privacy / fencing?

• waste disposal units - what ARE these?

• closets - I haven’t seen any free standing wardrobes. Are these just not used in the US?

Anyone got any others to add or any comments?

My older brother studied in the US for his PhD and has lived there for close to 30 years. He is well off by anyone’s standards. His house is huge and has 7 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms. He has a sort of miniature clock tower on the top of his house. There are man made drainage ponds round his house. He has a walk through wardrobe that leads to his gym which is above his triple garage. It’s an amazing house that his wife and him had designed and built.

On the development he lives on no one is allowed to hang washing outside. They have a laundry room.

In many areas it is against code to have a backyard clothesline.

@GeorgiaGirl52

I was amazed when I first came across this a few years ago.

Although in most places it seems to be HOA rules that prevent it rather than State laws.

For those that may not know, some states have now made laws that override these HOA rules but in the majority of states it is still legal to ban clotheslines

I lived in Canada for a while where the homes are very similar to the US.

I loved our pantry and kitchen island. Every home had one as norm.

We had a ‘furnace room’ in the basement which housed the boiler and water softener, a laundry room as well. Even just having the basement was amazing, a whole extra floor where we had a massive rec room, 2 guest bedrooms and bathrooms. Ours was a bilevel so the basement was half out of the ground so had windows and lots of light. No one dried laundry outside ever.

We also had a central vacuum system which was a vacuum cleaner outlet in each room with the debri and dust carried out through pipes in the walls directly into a container to reduce allergens in the air and a central air system which was air vents for heat in winter and cold air in summer (much more preferable to radiators!). Remote controlled garage doors as standard too.

The baths and showers had acrylic walls around the tub and in the shower units so there was no tiles and grout to get mouldy.

That was a pretty average lower mid priced house too.

Only thing that used to annoy me was having to walk to the mailbox to get the mail!

What happens with central vacuum systems when one of the pipes get clogged up?

Yes. "Right to dry" laws. My state has a law like this, but it has been years since I have seen clothes drying outside on a line.

To be fair I never dry anything outside here in the UK, even when the weather is nice. Much prefer my dryer.

I'm showing my ignorance here, but why is it illegal to hang clothes outside?
Is it actually enforced or is it like some of the weird UK laws about not being allowed to walk your herd of ducks through town on market day?

Maybe they just don’t want to see other people’s knickers?

@LolaSmiles

I'm showing my ignorance here, but why is it illegal to hang clothes outside? Is it actually enforced or is it like some of the weird UK laws about not being allowed to walk your herd of ducks through town on market day?

Guessing it is because it's considered untidy. It does happen in the UK as well. DS used to rent a ground floor flat on a small gated development which had patio doors onto a grassed area. Their contract went as far as to ban even folding clothes maids.

Great big two fingers up to the world left to the next generation . Oh well...

Oooo, hopefully someone from the US will be able to answer the following for me.

What is a HOA? Do they really have as much control over how you live as I've read?

When you buy a house, what is escrow? When I watch US real estate shows, homes seem to be already vacant when being sold, is this always the case?

@murbblurb

Great big two fingers up to the world left to the next generation . Oh well...

Great big two fingers up to you who has no idea of any disabilities I may have that make pegging washing on the line fucking difficult.

The reason you don't really see electric kettles in US homes is because the supply is 110v and it's not powerful enough iirc.

@IstandwithJackieWeaver

I used to think that as well - until I saw this youtube video a few months ago that explains that isn't really the case:-

They do actually have 240V electricity to their homes but then at the main consumer unit it changes it so that all the sockets etc just have 120v - but big things that still need 240v have special circuits separate from the rest to power them.

As he says in the video:-

You've heard about our obsession with air conditioning, right? Did you really think we're cooling our gaudy Mc Mansions with a machine we just plug into a regular outlet? - No!

It's actually really interesting to find out the differences.

HOA stands for homeowners association. And depending on the state, they can have a lot of power including the right to assess fines and file liens against your house for not paying the fines or not paying required dues.

Escrow is holding funds in a neutral account, until certain conditions are satisfied in a property transaction. The down payment is always put in escrow and then the funds for the house purchase will be deposited before the closing when the purchase and sale is fully consummated. The word closing refers to closing escrow, meaning that the funds will be dispersed to the seller.

I'm showing my ignorance here, but why is it illegal to hang clothes outside?
Is it actually enforced or is it like some of the weird UK laws about not being allowed to walk your herd of ducks through town on market day?

Yes, these rules really are enforced.

It's often done by what are called "Home Owners Associations" (HOA) or "Neighborhood Associations"

In some parts of the country these HOAs are quite common. If you buy a house in that particular area covered by a HOA then you have to follow those rules.

Basically they enforce neighbourhood rules and regulations on things like the colour of your front door and the height of your grass or not parking a pickup truck in front of your house etc.

If people break these rules they can be fined and if the fines are not paid then the house ultimately can be taken to pay the fines!

These rules are supposedly designed to maintain property values in the area.

It is very common indeed for HOAs to ban any sort of outdoor clotheslines as many Americans appear to believe that they lower the tone of the neighbourhood.

However, some states have, as a PP said, brought in "right to dry laws" or have existing laws on their books to do with using solar energy which override these HOA rules and so allow anyone in that state to use a clothesline if they wish.

One thing I’ve noticed in tv shows is that it seems to be common to have two ovens. Is this really a thing?

On thé retirement villages mentioned U.K. thread - my grandparents and then aunt and uncle lived in one in South Africa. I think it was modelled on the USA idea, but it’s great. Basically this poor town has now been taken over by a massive retirement villages where they have a gym, on-site restaurant, hospice, nurses etc. My aunt and uncle live in the newer build area of the retirement village and they have zebra wandering around every now and then.
On open plan living rooms - I’ve seen this a lot in London. We had one flat with it and I quite liked it having small kids. I could keep an eye on them while cooking, but then you do lose the ability to close a door on all the mess when you have guests.

Isn't this against environmental concerns though. Are people not discouraged from using a tumble dryer

@BillyIsMyBunny

Is there an American version of Rightmove? Feel like I’d love to have a nosy on there’

To add to the previous suggestions, I would also say Trulia

www.trulia.com/

which has a very similar feel to Rightmove indeed

HOA rules cover a lot of the same things that restrictive covenants cover in England and Wales.

or www.realtor.com

@nickymanchester - but kettles aren't large appliances and as you say, all the sockets are 110v

I remember a friend pulling up loads of plants in her front garden as she kept getting HOA complaint letters about "weeds" and she had no idea what was a weed and what wasn't.

If almost everybody tumble dries clothes and linens, how do they not shrink everything?

Our clothes definitely shrink a lot!

@woodhill

Isn't this against environmental concerns though. Are people not discouraged from using a tumble dryer

No.

I'm American and sadly the average household could give a shit about the environment. I line dry many things and am considered eccentric.