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?

The bus service in Houston was really limited, we were there pre Uber and taxis were pretty unreliable, so you did have to drive. We thought we might take the train to San Antonio for a weekend away, only to find the passenger service only ran about twice a week.

I think it’s maybe a southern states thing about being chatty? Plus you can’t beat a Texan wanting to tell you all about Texas.

@mathanxiety

There is constant revaluation here.

Appealing your property tax raise is a cottage industry.

I think ours only revalue when they sell.

We've appealed ours twice in 17 years. The first time they went down 18%, and the second time another 10%. This has saved us a massive amount of money. The attorney who does them takes half of your first year's savings, so it's painless too, and his incentives are aligned with ours. We owe him nothing if he's not successful. He's trying it one more time this year.

@09:12Chemenger
Causeway St?

I just did a little research on my county's property tax system. The county is divided into three sections for the purposes of assessment, with one section assessed every year; each property is assessed every three years.
www.cookcountyassessor.com/your-assessment-notice-and-tax-bill

When you buy a home, the last known property tax bill amount is included in the realtor blurb.

[quote choli]@09:12Chemenger
Causeway St?[/quote]
Yes, above North Station.

It is a good supermarket. A great addition to the neighborhood! I love being able to get wine with the food shop!

choli It was exciting when it opened, no more Wholefoods with its eclectic mix of expensive stuff and inexplicably missing staples. Now we are in a pickle with that apartment though, because we're currently trapped in the UK, DH's visa has run out and the embassy is shut. We need to move out of the apartment to come home permanently, but we can't get there to do it. Meanwhile its costing a small fortune. If you could make use of a complete set of furnishings for a two bed apartment let me know!

we're currently trapped in the UK, DH's visa has run out and the embassy is shut. We need to move out of the apartment to come home permanently, but we can't get there to do it.

@Chemenger

I'm not too sure from the context but it appears that perhaps DH is a US citizen and you are not? Also that "home" is in the US?

Non US citizens can still travel to the US but it is a bit of a pain in the arse - and expensive. But probably nowhere near as expensive as renting a flat in London.

US citizens and green card holders or other permanent residents can return from the UK without any problem (however, if you're just going on holiday then you're not actually allowed to leave the UK at the moment - but returning home permanently is no problem)

So I assume from your comment that one of you is not a US citizen or green card holder.

It's expensive, but there is a legal way to get round this.

You need to spend 14 days outside of the UK and the EU. Once you do that, then you can travel onward to the USA.

The absolute cheapest way of doing this is going to Turkey for two weeks but there are problems with this. First, there are no direct flights from the UK (you'll need to change flights in eg Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt) and then you will need to spend 10 days quarantining in Turkey.

The other way is to fly to one of the Caribbean countries that accept travellers at the moment (for example Barbados or the British Virgin Islands) then spend two weeks on a Caribbean beach before flying off to the States.

So, what you need to do to get back to the States at the moment is this:-

1. Get a negative covid test
2. Fly to the Caribbean (eg Barbados or BVI)
3. Spend 14 days lying on the beach.
4. Get another negative covid test
5. Fly directly to the States

My very unscientific view on Americans & alcohol (based mainly on DH's family) is that

EITHER they drink shedloads, all the time, starting with a 'mimosa' at breakfast

OR they drink hardly anything and can make a bottle of red go around 6 people for dinner...

we're currently trapped in the UK, DH's visa has run out and the embassy is shut. We need to move out of the apartment to come home permanently, but we can't get there to do it.

@Chemenger

Sorry for posting twice, but I just suddenly thought - if one of you actually is a US citizen and the other is married to them then there is no problem at all about returning to the US.

This is from the actual Presidential Declaration from the Whitehouse website two months ago:-

Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Non-Immigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease

The relevant part of it reads:-

Section 1. Suspension and Limitation on Entry.

(a) The entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of noncitizens who were physically present within the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), the Republic of Ireland, and the Federative Republic of Brazil during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States, is hereby suspended and limited subject to section 2 of this proclamation.

[...]

Sec. 2. Scope of Suspension and Limitation on Entry.

(a) Section 1 of this proclamation shall not apply to:

(i) any lawful permanent resident of the United States;
(ii) any noncitizen national of the United States;
(iii) any noncitizen who is the spouse of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident;

There are more exceptions but these seem to be the ones relevant to your situation.

If the only issue is that the relevant person doesn't have a US visa or green card then, assuming they're British or European, they can still get an ESTA and enter the US at the moment although only for 3 months before having to do a quick exit and then re-entry.

If they are the spouse of a US citizen then they can enter directly or if not a spouse then after spending 14 days in the Caribbean.

@UntamedWisteria

My very unscientific view on Americans & alcohol (based mainly on DH's family) is that

EITHER they drink shedloads, all the time, starting with a 'mimosa' at breakfast

OR they drink hardly anything and can make a bottle of red go around 6 people for dinner...

Quite a few Americans don't drink at all, myself included.

@UntamedWisteria

My very unscientific view on Americans & alcohol (based mainly on DH's family) is that

EITHER they drink shedloads, all the time, starting with a 'mimosa' at breakfast

OR they drink hardly anything and can make a bottle of red go around 6 people for dinner...

What an ignorant and ill/informed opinion.

Neither of us is a US citizen or a green card holder. DH is in the process of renewing his L1 visa. You can enter on an L1 with special permission at the moment, he did that back in August, but his visa has now run out and renewals are glacially slow. I came back to the U.K. permanently a year or so ago and now it looks like he won’t go back for very long, if at all. They are not issuing ESTAs at the moment.

What an ignorant and ill/informed opinion

Probably garnered from watching too much TV. That said as a kid I firmly believed all American children called their Fathers ‘Sir’ from watching US Shows. I was quite surprised to find when I first went that that didn’t.
I was also really excited to cross a state line was was devastated when I did and found it wasn’t painted on the road. Th Dukes of Hazzard lied to me!!!

Maybe with drinks people are mistaking beer - it’s stronger here (my poor BIL didn’t realise this when he went out with my brother). So people will sit and have a beer as a drink - not necessarily to get drunk.

And I do like having conference calls with some of my colleagues in the US (southern states) who call me ‘Muss-Taff-eeee’. My colleagues think it’s hilarious.

I'm very fond of my Texan student who, after nearly 5 years in the UK has learned not to call me ma'am.
I think its quite common in the US for teens to call unknown adults sir and ma'am, I like it.

As to beer, draft beer and mainstream brands like Bud might be weak, but anything with a "craft" beer label is likely to be surprisingly strong. You learn to look at the strength of beer quite quickly. I do miss sour beer, the ones in the UK are not the same at all.

Mixed drinks (cocktails) in bars tend to be very strong, measures are not used and some pours are very generous, in my experience.

I'm in the UK on the edge of a town and we have a big garden (and a wrap-around deck). I haven't seen many houses like it in the US unless you move out into the sticks. They all seem to have titchy yards. I wouldn't mind a basement rec room though!

We're also open plan downstairs with floor heating vents. Sadly, they only work with warm air (at the moment)! Not terribly efficient, but lovely for cold feet and the cats love it.

Didn't mean to offend!

I did say my view was unscientific - but it's not based on watching TV, I lived, studied and worked in the USA for 3 years and DH has an extensive American family who we spend a lot of time with.

PerveenMistry should I add lack of sense of humour to the list? Certainly many Americans struggle with the concept of irony (again, based on my direct and personal experience).

who call me ‘Muss-Taff-eeee’

Muss? I think you may have "mussheard." It's Miss Seneca or Miz Seneca. No "musses" here.

Also it's not just teens that use Sir and Ma'am for people they don't know. If we need to address someone whose name we don't know, adults also use those honorifics, especially if we need to get their attention, as in "Ma'am, you dropped something back there." Or "Sir, there's a snake in those bushes, be careful."

@Jaxhog

I'm in the UK on the edge of a town and we have a big garden (and a wrap-around deck). I haven't seen many houses like it in the US unless you move out into the sticks. They all seem to have titchy yards. I wouldn't mind a basement rec room though!

The size of the yards is controlled by local zoning, which specifies a minimum lot size. I'm on a two acre plot, which is about half wooded, so we have quite a large yard. I think our neighborhood is a one acre minimum.

If I drive two miles to the next town the yards are very small. They must have a much smaller minimum lot size.

I had to google "titchy"

My spell check kept changing the last word to "itchy".

@SenecaFallsRedux

who call me ‘Muss-Taff-eeee’

Muss? I think you may have "mussheard." It's Miss Seneca or Miz Seneca. No "musses" here.

Also it's not just teens that use Sir and Ma'am for people they don't know. If we need to address someone whose name we don't know, adults also use those honorifics, especially if we need to get their attention, as in "Ma'am, you dropped something back there." Or "Sir, there's a snake in those bushes, be careful."

That was my attempt at ‘Miss-Toffee’ in the accent! It does sound very Gone with the Wind. I love it - makes me feel like a southern belle...

Thing I always notice is the amount of dark wood even mahogany which is to the most part very dated in the uk.