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?

How do you keep your dog from running off if you’re not allowed to fence the garden? And rule against pegging out washing is stupid. Smells so much better dried on the line and is better for environment. Tumble dryers eat electricity.

Somebody has probably already said but kettles - they don’t use kettles in the US!

Waste disposals are now banned in some Canadian provinces/states because of the food waste going down the drains. I've always had them, I'm in the UK, although there is not much choice I think only one brand and two sizes.

Most places allow you to fence the backyard. You probably have to get permission from the city to make sure you're doing it according to proper lines, but a fenced backyard isn't strange. A high-fenced front yard is not done.

My sister is in Australia and also has the central Hoover system. There is a socket in the wall upstairs and one downstairs. A vacuum cleaner hose about 50 feet long lurks in the cupboard like a malevolent python taking up only about twice the amount of room as an actual Hoover.

To use, you wrestle the hose out like Tarzan battling a crocodile, plug it in to the wall and switch on. All conversation must then cease as it makes a noise like a jumbo jet on take off. She says the suction isn't great. But I guess she doesn't get the paint knocked off her door frames.

The dust gets collected in a central repository in the house. I think it takes about 20 years to fill up and can be emptied but it was so far in the future they weren't thinking about it.

Washing machine on upper floors - they are very heavy to carry up there (though maybe no worse than a wardrobe I suppose). And if you've ever suffered a leaking washing machine you might be less keen.

My son does have a kettle but I think it’s because he is English and loves his cups of tea! The wobbly wobbly loose plugs terrify me.
The fridges are massive! I could fit enough food in there for a family of 8 for months. Never seen a small integrated under the worktop one in any of their friends houses.

I was on a thread once on MN where an author was asking for help in what to call loos, toilets, etc. in the US. It got rather complicated. First of all, Americans don't like to say the word "toilet." Usually the only time you use the word is to refer to the actual bowl (when absolutely necessary); never to refer to the room that houses it. So we tend to use "bathroom" in a private residence, even if there is no bathtub in it (as in "half-bath") or "restroom" if in a public building, although bathroom can be used for that as well.

I always feel a bit challenged when in the UK about asking for the facilities. I can't bring myself to say "toilets" and I know there are class connotations to "loo" that I'm hesitant about; so I ask for the "ladies" but that just seems so twee. But I suppose that a citizen of a country where the entire population avoids the word "toilet" at all costs doesn't have grounds to complain about "twee."

Fridges are massive as everything is kept in there - bread, eggs etc - as in the summer it was too hot to leave stuff out on the counter, even with A/C

Kettles are more common than people think, electric ones are even seen as mainstream these days!

No washing lines - everyone has driers and in lots of places (developments etc) you can’t hang a line out

I lived in Virginia for over 4 years. The house we live in over there was huge in comparison to our house over here. We had a walk in closet the size of a room. The master bedroom was huge as well as also having a huge en-suite. Their shower enclosures were made of a plastic mould. I’m not sure how to describe it. Their furniture shops have dark wooden heavy traditional style furniture. My husband bought our bed over there. When we brought it back to the UK I thought it was a Super King size but discovered that the fitted sheets I bought over here in the UK were too small for the bed. It’s actually an Emperor Size bed. The back gardens didn’t have any fences which I thought was very strange.

Electric kettles are definitely catching on.

@mumof2exhausted I was coming to say exactly that. I’m south Manchester and you would NEVER get a house that cheap haha

I used to watch Supernanny USA (I was rather hooked on it but not any more) and was always shocked at how huge and beautifully furnished the family homes were, more so because in most cases the fathers seemed the main salary earners yet had fairly ordinary jobs.

Supernanny often seemed to go to very rural suburbs though, with not much around- the sort of place young families move for large, affordable housing. The houses are big, you wouldn't necessarily want to live there though! I rarely saw a city neighbourhood featured.

I love looking at houses in America! I watch a lot of decluttering/minimalism videos on YouTube and drool over the American houses.

Also I love a closet, I hate a wardrobe, always have. We’re in the process of buying a house and I want something with built in wardrobes. I’d take a smaller room with built in wardrobes over a bigger room with. standard wardrobe anyday.

"Bathroom fittings are the same size, but most American houses will only have one bathtub. Because only children take baths. A McMansion might have a fancy standalone bathtub for the lady of the house to take long indulgent bubble baths in, but it will be mostly decorative."

Not sure where you get this. Many homes of all eras have multiple tubs and many adults enjoy soaking in the bath.

As to vacation, I've never had less than 5 weeks plus week between Christmas & Jan2, at various employers, and no hassle for using it. My primo Blue Cross health insurance costs me $150/mo; employers pays about $800/mo on my behalf.

I have three weeks sick time available and in case of longer-term illness a year at full pay, plus employer paid insurance tgat would pay 66 percent of my salary for life if disabled. Men and women get parental leave.

We're not all miserable. But there is vast inequality in the US.

We recently returned from Houston back to the U.K. and I think everything you wrote is true.

I really hated the heating system, it’s basically blowing dry hot air which made us feel a bit ill lol

Houses are enormous. We had a 4 bed but some of the ones we viewed were just ridiculous. But also built really badly. Every house has the exact same decor as well it’s really weird.

The salary thing is hard to compare, we found Houston very expensive but then salaries were very high. Food shop per week was upwards of $350 unless you are really badly .

It’s the norm to eat out all the time. So many drive through sand every food you could imagine is available to take away.

The waste disposal is something we didn’t think we’d use but is actually really handy but we did find it quite smelly and gross to clean.

@Lovely13 Lots of people have invisible fences. They are basically electric fences underground. The dog wears a collar and gets a shock if he tries to cross it

Waste disposal units encourage rats. Just saying...

SenecaFallsRedux class connotations for the word 'loo'?
I thought 'loo' was pretty universal nowadays.

I was really surprised to see a plug socket in a friend’s bathroom in the US. Isn’t the electrical system different in the US too?

@PerveenMistry "*As to vacation, I've never had less than 5 weeks plus week between Christmas & Jan2, at various employers, and no hassle for using it. My primo Blue Cross health insurance costs me $150/mo; employers pays about $800/mo on my behalf.

I have three weeks sick time available and in case of longer-term illness a year at full pay, plus employer paid insurance tgat would pay 66 percent of my salary for life if disabled. Men and women get parental leave."*

We don't pay anything for health insurance at all - company pays all of it - but DH was senior management in a huge company and his holiday entitlement of 3 weeks was more than some of the EVPs. Five or six weeks sounds like academia or something. I have also NEVER heard of any woman getting more than 3 months of maternity leave, unpaid, and men nothing at all. Maybe this was specific to your company, or your state?

Kitchens! My husband sources building materials from around the world so understands costs but was shocked to find out the price to install kitchens in the US. It turns out, that unlike the rest of Europe, you can’t just go and buy a new kitchen - individual cabinets, worktop etc. in the States. They’re designed and made bespoke, hence the hefty price tags. Absolutely crazy!

Here's a picture of the front of the house and garden and the deck that runs along the backside of the house. The odd device in the foreground in the deck picture is my weather station. The house has what's called a passive solar design. The sliding glass doors that run down the side let a lot of sun in during the winter. There's an 8" concrete wall that runs down the centerline of the house that provides structural support and gets warmed by the winter sun during the day, then helps keep the house warm at night.

We're the second owners. The house was built by a builder as a wedding present for his daughter.

@C0mm0nsense

Kitchens! My husband sources building materials from around the world so understands costs but was shocked to find out the price to install kitchens in the US. It turns out, that unlike the rest of Europe, you can’t just go and buy a new kitchen - individual cabinets, worktop etc. in the States. They’re designed and made bespoke, hence the hefty price tags. Absolutely crazy!

Lots of people do get custom cabinets, but it's easy to buy stock ones too, and much cheaper obviously. The ones in my kitchen now are standard sizes so when I replace them I'll buy stock, not bespoke ones.

www.homedepot.com/b/Kitchen-Kitchen-Cabinets-In-Stock-Kitchen-Cabinets/N-5yc1vZchbp