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?

@mathanxiety

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.

My sister lives off Kingshighway in St Louis; miles and miles and miles of 100-year-old brick homes extremely well-crafted and with an extensive all system behind all the rear gardens -- all gardens fenced btw.

Generalizing about American dwellings is pointless. It's a huge country with vast regional differences based on climate, terrain, culture, local industry, available natural resources, etc.

@Ifailed

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

Waste disposals are merely meant to grind bits that incidentally fall in; they aren't meant to shove all food garbage in as a substitute for your bin. Absurd and hard on the municipal sewage system. Those of you doing that, think about it ffs. Where do you think it ends up?

[quote Nandocushion]**@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?[/quote]
No, I've worked for numerous companies- a newspaper, a medical research firm, a computer hardware firm, etc.

Hourly and service workers in areas like restaurant, retail, etc have it bad but those in manufacturing, white collar office hobs etc get pretty good benefits here. My dad worked for Ford for many years as an engineer and had copious vacation time available to him; same for my mom who was an admin at a big corporation.

A lot of generalizations are bandied about regarding America that really don't apply to everyone.

Oh and my manager just returned from four months paid maternity - third kid, third leave paid for by this same employer. Every woman I know has had three months paid leave at least.

Depends on the employer; we do not have taxpayer funded maternity leave and I'd be vehemently against it. We don't need government to subsidize breeding on an overcrowded planet.

@MissConductUS

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.

Great porch!

A lot of generalizations are bandied about regarding America that really don't apply to everyone.

That's par for the course on MN, I'm afraid.

Great porch!

Thanks. When the weather is nice it's our favorite place to hang out. I go out and have my coffee there most mornings in the summer.

Clearing the snow off of it in the winter is a bit less fun.

That porch is beautiful as is the setting MissConduct.

A lot of generalizations are bandied about regarding America that really don't apply to everyone.

Depends on your personal experience as well though - when we moved to Texas, DH had to argue to retain his UK 25 days holiday allowance instead of it being reduced to the standard US company employee's 14 days, and the family health insurance cost was definitely several hundred dollars per month.

@LostToucan

A lot of generalizations are bandied about regarding America that really don't apply to everyone.

Depends on your personal experience as well though - when we moved to Texas, DH had to argue to retain his UK 25 days holiday allowance instead of it being reduced to the standard US company employee's 14 days, and the family health insurance cost was definitely several hundred dollars per month.

Well, that's why i said generalizations don't work. There is a wide range of employment benefits here.

@MissConductUS just catching up, your porch is amazing, I’d love to have a setting likes that (looks woefully at my London concrete slabbed front ‘yard’ 🤣)

House not apartments here -
Kettles are rare (electric).
Basements are standard and that’s often where the boiler room is which runs the vented heating and air con.
Post boxes on pavement or outside with flag to show when something has been delivered or needs to be picked up.
Postal services picks post up from your house as standard.
Fly screens.
Ovens are often not built in but often free standing with controls on panel at the back.
Washing drying machines often top loaders.
Bigger fridge freezers (still)
More colour generally than U.K. (until recently where U.K. uses more colour now). Flags outside do not necessarily mean you are a right wing tosser.
Flags to show killed or wounded lice officer are flown also vets and wounded vets etc.
Small flags showing location of lawn watering systems everywhere.
Flags in gardens ready for snow (to show boundaries et).

Seems small but house numbers often painted on kerb. And in house they are often at a jaunty angle and kind of 50s font - this in houses of all ages.
Rubbish collected by contract so one street could easily have 3 or 4 companies meaning lots of different collection days and bin colours.

I love that you have vets for flearidden dogs. More of them should be thanked for their service.

Washing drying machines often top loaders.

Tumble dryers here have always been front loaders. Front loading washing machines are rapidly replacing top-load machines as they are more efficient and more good quality brands are selling them here.

Flags outside do not necessarily mean you are a right wing tosser.

Phew. The picture I posted of the front of my house shows my flag out and I can assure you that I am not a right-wing anything. It's to honor my family members who serve or have served in the armed forces. It's quite common here and apolitical.

Rubbish collected by contract so one street could easily have 3 or 4 companies meaning lots of different collection days and bin colours.

This varies by location. In my town, the town picks up garbage rubbish and recycling, and the cost is covered in my property taxes.

Well, that's why I said generalizations don't work. There is a wide range of employment benefits here.

Sure, but then your benefits are pretty gold plated and not necessarily the norm either.

It's still a fact that US statutory maternity leave is 3 months unpaid for companies with more than 50 employees, and the US is the only OECD country with no national paid maternity leave.

It's still a fact that US statutory maternity leave is 3 months unpaid for companies with more than 50 employees, and the US is the only OECD country with no national paid maternity leave.

That's likely to be addressed by the Biden administration.

Phew. The picture I posted of the front of my house shows my flag out and I can assure you that I am not a right-wing anything. It's to honor my family members who serve or have served in the armed forces. It's quite common here and apolitical.

Same for me. Flying the flag in the US is about the only thing that's not political these days. We fly ours mainly on national holidays, including the protocol of flying it at half-staff until noon on Memorial Day.

@mathanxiety

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.

I still would still rather reduce my electricity bill. Never thought about hairdryers but aren't they on less time.

I think a TD shouldn't be used constantly when there is good sunny weather or on a windy day

A lot of UK dwellings lack outside space too

missconduct - we agree. Should have said on the flag issue it comes as a surprise to many from the U.K. and the characterisation of right wing/nationalism etc isn’t helped by depictions in media from which it’s hard to understand quite how commonplace it is (even if only flown for flag days/Presidents’ Day/4th July etc).

@MissConductUS

It's still a fact that US statutory maternity leave is 3 months unpaid for companies with more than 50 employees, and the US is the only OECD country with no national paid maternity leave.

That's likely to be addressed by the Biden administration.

Good - about time too!

I wonder if all these people who pay thousands of dollars to knock down walls so they can keep an eye on their toddlers ever come to regret it?

Well my home in the uk, would’ve tucked nicely into my Florida villa two and a half times and that’s not including the swimming pool and double garage
My home in the uk is worth more than the price we paid for the villa...I still think you get more bang for your buck over there.
Plus I live in a semi and that was detached.
Yes there was no radiators and only vents which weren’t very efficient when we were there in the winter as it got cold at times.

Cathedral vaulted ceiling’s were quite common place there and gave a lovely airy feel compared to more traditional ceilings.

Apart from bedrooms and bathrooms it was very open plan.
My living room for example was huge. I had 4 large sofas in it and two coffee tables, 4 side tables , I also had two 6 seater dining tables

There was still masses of space.

You came from the front door straight into the lounge. And the staircase opened out into a a big wide arc at the bottom. Great for little ones to sit and play on.

My kitchen was open plan off the lounge

There were two sets of patio doors leading onto the pool deck, one from the lounge and the other from the master suite.

I loved how a lot of the villas had downstairs master suites.

The washing machines were could easily stuff a duvet in ther.
You could hang washing in your garage and it would soon be dry.

Roofs were quite often shingles although pan tiles we re becoming popular.

I loved the way if you got sick of something, you just put it down on the kerb near the road and someone would very soon come by to relieve you of it..be it sofa, dining table, bed etc
I loved the palm trees.

Oh Dowser, we used to joke that nobody would collect junk left on the sidewalk/pavement, but if you put a big sign on it saying £50, it would mysteriously grow legs when your head was turned .

Also Americans power is so low voltage they cannot power a kettle in most states, would make it very hard to have a cuppa.

Lol, what? I have a kettle and find it very easy to make a cuppa. Yes, it takes a little longer to boil than back home, but it works

Wellllll I disagree that flag flying is entirely apolitical. I think it's a bit like in the UK -- for some people, yes it is apolitical, but some people fly the US flag out of very right-wing feelings and some people on the left are very much against having the flag up everywhere.