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?

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

Compared to the UK, bathtubs are just not used much. I too am of the opinion only kids take baths. I had a friend who grew up in an old house with no showers—we all though it was incredibly weird

lots of smaller terraced houses have front doors straight into the living room in the Uk.a hall is posh.

A house without a shower would be really weird and hard to sell in the US.

I'm not sure where the idea that most houses have only one bathtub comes from. Maybe that's true in some parts of the country, but I live in a relatively new build with 2.5 bathrooms. Both bathrooms have a tub. I think that's pretty standard for a house the size of ours. And soaking in the tub is one of my favorite pastimes. Again, that's true for most of the women I know. DH even has a soak every now and then. It feels good on sore muscles and aging bones.

@FortVictoria

UK bedrooms would have loads more space if only architects/developers would embrace built in cupboards. Free standing wardrobes are heavy, often ugly, and take up loads of space!

but they wouldn't have more space if there wasn't the space in which to put these built-in closets.you are not comparing like with like. people here have the choice to use all the, small, space allotted for a bedroom as they choose, to have a wardrobe or not, maybe a hanging rail, maybe throw all clothes on back of chair or in a trunk that doubles as a window seat. a built-in close would make most bedrooms just about big enough for a double bed. and many inter-war semis have built-in cupboards put either side of a chimney breast. not walk-in, but good use of space.

We only have one bathtub, with a hand shower. The other two bathrooms have tiled shower stalls.

@WaterBottle123, the requirement to have a closet or it isn't a bedroom stems from concerns about overcrowding back when most people lived in cities or their original/ oldest suburbs There are usually bye laws about maximum occupancy of rental residences too, also from that era. The closet requirement was to prevent landlords from cramming properties with tenants, which was a fire and sanitation hazard. City code officials could determine how many people should occupy any given apartment based on the number of bona fide bedrooms it had.

WRT the big, 'dated' looking American cookers (aka stoves) that don't look sleek like British fitted ovens - many Americans use gas ovens and stove tops. Hence the big units with burners and grates on top.

American electric stoves are like newer British ones.

WRT not flipping houses into flats - yes, that's a big No No. The reason is to prevent overcrowding, and strain on the sewer system which is paid for and maintained by the municipality. It also prevents parking problems and increased traffic.

Back in the immediate postwar era when there was a serious housing shortage many larger homes where I live were divided up by bodger-type builders.

You can still find attics with gas pipes ( for stoves), plumbing in odd rooms, old, disused WCs and floral wallpaper in basement rooms, and other signs of multiple households living in what were often relatively small subdivided houses.

Dividing up a larger house into flats nowadays requires a huge number of permits, provision of adequate parking, protection for existing trees and green areas - it's more profitable to simply rehab and sell as a single upgraded residence.

by the way, a bit off topic but someone describing their decking at the rear of their house, made me smile; in uk the word, backside, refers to a person's bottom, and nothing else.
possibly an animal's bottom, but you get my drift.
i'm never sure whether to mention this or not, guess if living in uk would need to know.
an arrogant austrian once told us about a marvellous old fish monger's where they smoke the fish in their own backside.
we said nothing. but raised an eyebrow, being so impressed.
if he had not been so generally arrogant we would have said something.

...individual cabinets, worktop etc. in the States. They’re designed and made bespoke, hence the hefty price tags. Absolutely crazy!

You can absolutely buy stock cabinets in the US. Every single kitchen I have ever cursed here has had stock cabinets, bought at rock bottom price, and poorly installed by people who did not believe in measuring.

Tumble dryers eat electricity.
Not if they're run on gas, which they tend to be.

Also Americans power is so low voltage they cannot power a kettle in most states, would make it very hard to have a cuppa.
It seems there are many misconceptions about American electricity, and also whether Americans would make or drink a cuppa.

110v can easily power household electrical gadgets, electronics, electric lawn mowers/strimmers, etc.

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

I check the laundry instructions on the garment tag.
If there's a circle with an X through it, I hang it to dry.

I take items out of the washing machine, check newer items for instructions, throw dryer safe clothes into the dryer and schlep wet clothes back upstairs to my apartment to dry on racks. They are usually dry in a few hours.

I tend to only buy dryer safe clothes.

An interesting difference in the US is that you only pay annual property tax if you own. Renters don't pay it.

The cost of the owner's non-resident property tax is usually included in the rent, just as water and sewer bills, cost of snow removal, painting and maintenance of common areas, etc., often are.

@ItsReallyOnlyMe, online/phone banking is definitely alive and kicking in the US. Maybe there are certain demographics who tend to prefer older methods?

I don't know much about America but on a trip to Cairns in Australia I put washing out and it baked in next to no time. I used the dryer after that. Maybe it is the same in America.

Yes it is.

The trouble with seeing sunshine on tv is that you don't appreciate just how hot it is, or how humid.

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

No more than they are encouraged to do without hair dryers, TVs, fridges, or anything else that uses electricity.
www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/07/why-our-hairdryers-are-ruining-the-earth/

Many Americans (millions of them) live in multi unit housing. They don't have outdoor space or indoor space to hang a whole load of laundry. Many live in climates that are not conducive to hanging out laundry - freezing in winter and so humid in summer you can't sweat effectively. This accounts for the entire middle of the continent.

Re the voltage does that mean that our appliances all use twice the electricity that American ones do when used in the US?

No our appliances won't work in the US and things that do work take longer which is possibly why so many people talk about not having a kettle but using the microwave to boil water, I wouldn't have the patients for that.

An interesting difference in the US is that you only pay annual property tax if you own. Renters don't pay it.

That used to be the case in the UK when we paid 'rates' rather than council tax.

www.chicagobungalow.org/chicago-bungalow
Brick as far as the eye can see.
Plus some frame and stucco.

I'm not surprised nobody has mentioned alleys. They tend not to feature in TV families' lives. Older suburbs and residential areas of northern midwest and rustbelt cities, including St Louis, tend to have alleys behind the houses, with detached garages opening onto the alleys. Alleys house the bins, and the garbage trucks ply them weekly. They are also the place where people put basketball hoops and kids congregate to play.

Older housing, even the bungalows, tends to have high ceilings and oak floors. Carpeting used to be fashionable, which saved many a lovely floor.

Many bathrooms feature claw foot tubs or other older, deep tubs with shower plumbing as well as bath fixtures. Depending on the taste of the owners over the decades, you might also find old hexagonal floor tiles in bathrooms.

American homes vary so much. My house is a great big 1908 Craftsman Four square that my husband's grandfather picked out of the Sears catalog in 1908. They delivered every thing the builders needed to construct, including the blue prints of course.

It has a porch the width of the house and we have big front hall, lovely panels of woodwork in the hallway, tall ceilings and large windows, including walk-out bays. The bedrooms are huge with walk-in closets. When we remodeled about 30 years ago we turned one of the upstairs bedrooms into a large bathroom and separate upstairs laundry room.

The house has the original woodwork - doors, trim, beams etc. I spent two years stripping off old paint and varnish during the remodel.

We have a full basement and a very small attic space. Walk- in pantry, walk- in showers that we made big enough for a wheel chair if needed. Our bath tubs are extra deep and long, one is jetted. I hate the normal bath tubs American houses often have, too shallow, so during our remodel we got the big bath tubs.

We gutted the house during the now famous remodel so we could have central heating and air conditioning, which comes through vents in the walls. It's silent btw. I also have central vacuum system which runs inside the walls. There's a big canister for the dirt in the basement.

Our upstairs is carpeted except the bathrooms and laundry room. Down stairs living room, dining room, hallway, guest bedrooms carpeted. Everything else tiled.

We have a garbage disposal but I don't use it much. I have chickens. We have two sinks in the kitchen. One big one and one small round one.

We have electrical outlets in the bathroom. Use electric kettles. I even have a small electric kettle in the upstairs bathroom for my hot water bottles. I love my hot water bottles.

I grew up in the UK and so my pantry is well stocked with stuff like marmite and Yorkshire/Irish tea. I keep an electric can opener plugged in the pantry and a few other small appliances to save counter/work top space in the rest of the kitchen.

We have ordinary clear glass in the bathrooms, so you can sit on the toilet or lay in the bath and look outside. The bathroom windows are tall and come almost down to the floor. We were younger and thought it was funny at the time. Luckily we live in the middle of nowhere.

I used to visit my Dad in Georgia and noticed more of a home related behaviour than layout too. Despite the weather being amazing, ours was the only house with washing on a line! Apparently the habit was to use tumble dryers even in perfect drying weather!
I loved the huge top loader in the bathroom, numerous en suites & massive gardens.
No one seemed to have a garden fence though.

Youngatheart00

• waste disposal units - what ARE these

They fit under your sink, you put your leftover food, turn on the tap, press the button and the waste is liquidised and flushed down the pipe. I’ve always had one, no smelly bins at our house!

The price!!!!
US hoes are places to live, not the means to fleece poorer people with ridiculous rents, typically the majority of their earnings. What else can we expect from this failed political system that has created so many of the inequalities whilst making the rich much richer. To all young people starting out in their lives, EMIGRATE to somewhere you will be appreciated and not taxed to foodbank levels to support others spending your weekly wage on one bottle of wine.

My PIL have a waste disposal in the U.K. lol, it's amazing

As you are not supposed to put fat or oil down the sink, how do people separate if off before using a waste disposal?