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?

@Youngatheart00

Finding this all fascinating.

I’d love a laundry chute and thinking about it, it is a bit strange we tend to have washing machines in the kitchen too. We don’t have a utility room but I’d like one.

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

And never fully realised that ‘gas central heating’ was a British thing.

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

Hilarious, love it

@mathanxiety

I would vote tooth and nail against taxpayer funded or mandated maternity leave. Pregnancy can be planned and saved for.

One of the big problems in the US is that people who are doggedly determined in their opposition to paid maternity leave for women are also opposed to abortion and contraception. Not saying this is you, @PerveenMistry, but there are big voting blocs holding the idea that in effect women should be punished for pregnancy.

America needs to sort out what it wants. If there is not to be natural increase and women are to be put off reproducing, then immigration of large numbers of people will be necessary. Voters who are opposed to immigration tend to be opposed to abortion and contraception. Again, not saying this is you, @PerveenMistry.

I've donated annually to Planned Parenthood for 35 years, sometimes thousands of $$ per year.

I just think victims of involuntary misfortune should be helped first. Like people who care for disabled relatives.

I lost $15,000 in wages taking care of my cancer-stricken 65-years-old dying mom on unpaid leave. At the exact same time a coworker in the same job as me, same salary, was on 12 weeks fully paid maternity leave for popping out her fourth kid.

That was our employer's choice and so be it. But I'm damned if I'll support that inequity with my tax dollars.

@mathanxiety

I would vote tooth and nail against taxpayer funded or mandated maternity leave. Pregnancy can be planned and saved for.

Specifically on that topic though - how do you plan and save when a pregnancy could result in twins or higher multiples?
An unexpected C-Section?
A NICU stay?

What about hospitalisation for hyperemesis, bedrest for placenta previa? Induction because of pre-eclampsia?

A friend of one of my DDs cobbled together six weeks unpaid plus her entire two weeks of paid medical leave after a C-section performed because induced labour didn't progress at 36 weeks following a pre-eclampsia diagnosis, with twins, having had treatment for kidney stones and also a tumour during pregnancy, which ate up her medical leave. Oh and she had gestational diabetes too.

This woman was the picture of health before she got pg.

Six weeks is brutal after such a hellish experience. Even with a night nurse, she and her DH are shattered.

And though they are both on very decent salaries, they have nothing left at the end of the month after paying the might nurse (necessary in order the get the sleep they need so they can work.)

Then they should have saved for the worst-case scenario, not the best. Not my problem. Would they want to support my expensive lifestyle choices? I doubt it.

This may be limited to massachusetts but you can only sell food and few other non food items like flowers in supermarkets. Liquor is sold on a different floor or building (though this does seem to be changing).

Not the rule in NE Illinois.

Though there are some dry suburbs, hangovers (so to speak) from a time when mainstream protestant denominations were more straight laced.

They're on the decrease.

Then they should have saved for the worst-case scenario, not the best. Not my problem. Would they want to support my expensive lifestyle choices? I doubt it.

What a horrible attitude

I lost $15,000 in wages taking care of my cancer-stricken 65-years-old dying mom on unpaid leave.

I’m sorry to hear about your mum, but by your own reasoning, you / your mother should have saved / planned for care costs?

Then they should have saved for the worst-case scenario, not the best. Not my problem. Would they want to support my expensive lifestyle choices? I doubt it.

Bollocks to that.

It's uncivilised.

Plenty of people fund your lifestyle choices.

You are familiar with the concept of infrastructure in all its varies manifestations?

Private health insurance?

I lost $15,000 in wages taking care of my cancer-stricken 65-years-old dying mom on unpaid leave. At the exact same time a coworker in the same job as me, same salary, was on 12 weeks fully paid maternity leave for popping out her fourth kid

Yeah, what LostToucan said in response to that, including the expression of sorrow.

Anyone with an elderly parent should be saving for worst case scenarios, surely, if the elderly parent was short sighted enough not to save and Medicare (taxpayer funded...) didn't cover costs?

We lived in the US for two years when my children were small, with DH transferred from UK job. Was probably the biggest house we'll ever live in - 4 beds, 4 baths, huge basement utility, walk in closet in 2 bedrooms, double drive and garage etc We had radiators and a boiler for part of the house, but that's not so unusual in the Boston area. I loved the air conditioning and having a plug in the bathroom, hated getting post from end of the drive - just put it through the door!

I can see that you feel passionate about this particular thing, but it's a huge derailing of the thread, and has transformed what was something fun and interesting into a hostile and frankly intimidating conversation between a small minority. Can we not get back on topic, or is it beyond saving?

Tbh, I don’t need a link to Talk Guidelines because I know how women should be addressed.

And that’s not my problem.

But feel free to delete this post as well.

In a desperate attempt to get us back to fun American home facts, can I suggest a look through this gorgeous house of Daveed Diggs and Emmy Raver-Lampman? www.architecturaldigest.com/story/step-inside-emmy-raver-lampman-and-daveed-diggss-colorful-southern-california-home

I am not, and never will be, someone who desperately wants to live in California. Not my vibe. However, I now want a teak lounger and an under-stairs record den.

It isn't a home fact but the number of bars in the supermarkets is fun.
Pre covid there were lots of people drinking a glass of wine while shopping on a Friday night.

Which state was that in? We were surprised to find you could only buy wine or spirits in a liquor store in Massachusetts and there were only two of them in Philadelphia city centre.

You can buy alcohol in supermarkets in Massachusetts, at least some of them. We lived above a Star Market in Boston which had a huge wine section. It opened towards the end of our stay there, before that we bought our booze in a liquor store which looked incredibly dodgy from the outside but was actually really nice inside. Far more salubrious than the local 7-11. I haven’t seen a bar in a supermarket though.
Most people in our apartment block (which was predominantly young professionals) seemed to buy their evening meal hot in the supermarket on the way home. The selection of hot food available is amazing and pretty good quality. I think that’s why ready meals to microwave are much less of a thing there than in the U.K.

Interesting - something I'll look out for next time we visit.

Liquor is sold on a different floor or building (though this does seem to be changing)

Every state has wildly different liquor rules. I used to be in a place where you couldn’t sell a 24-pack of beer, so supermarkets would have to cut the packs from suppliers in half 🤪

I think that’s why ready meals to microwave are much less of a thing there than in the U.K.

I had never heard of ready meals until I got on MN. Also, the way alcohol is sold varies a lot from state to state and even county to county. In some states, the state government actually owns and operates them and they're referred to as "state stores".

Yes some supermarkets and big outlets like Costco in Massachusetts sells booze but when we go we go go a liquor store - it’s like the ones you see in the films (a bit grubby, tonnes of beer and tequila and a few dusty bottles of wine), flags and discount messages for people in the forces. Makes me feel like I’m in a movie...

Lived in the US for a while.

Wooden floors everywhere.
Showers not baths. Bathrooms did have a tub with a shower over it but no-one ever took a bath, you had to buy a bath plug!
No electric kettles
Big closets
You couldn't control the central heating so it was usually too hot (lived in apartments though).
Big houses, small gardens which they call the 'backyard'.
Block layout meant you always had neighbour nearby - every house on a similar size plot.
Decks on apartments.
Free food samples always given out in supermarkets. I was a poor student and often relied on these for a meal!
Spinach dip & tortilla chips - yum.
Proper margaritas were an everyday drink.

Maybe electric kettles are regional or for expats? I have family (from U.K. and ME and they all have kettles and buy them over there).

Biggest shock was IKEA - don’t know why but it’s funny the see the same furniture in someone’s house !

When we were furnishing our apartment we all went to IKEA, two of us in our local U.K. store and DH and DD were in the US one. We FaceTimed our arguments about which cups to get!