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Differences between US and U.K. homes

642 replies

Youngatheart00 · 24/03/2021 10:17

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?

OP posts:
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MotherWol · 24/03/2021 13:45

Timber-framed construction means you can hide cables inside walls, so wall-mounted TVs etc look a lot tidier than they do in this country, and it's easier to rearrange the internal layout of a home than brick walls.

Wood floors seem more usual than carpets - is it because the rooms are bigger so carpet would be expensive, or is it a hygiene thing?

Lazydaisydaydream · 24/03/2021 13:48

Finding this thread fascinating. Especially that link to the house plans!

One thing I’ve often noticed in American sitcoms is the big suburb houses seem to always have two staircases - is that actually common in the US or just a tv thing?

FlippinNoah · 24/03/2021 13:50

I'm addicted to the Zillow app, love looking at American houses, can easily while away an hour on there! Have noticed on the app all the points mentioned above.

Another one I was talking with my daughter about only the other day - a lot of the houses (in what I presume must be the 'suburbs') have no pavements - the grass of the front garden ends directly on road. I surmised this must be because: nobody walks anywhere/the houses are not near any amenities so you have to drive everywhere/too far to walk towards.

I wondered if there are any Americans who are addicted to our 'Right Move' app?! 🤣

StCharlotte · 24/03/2021 13:57

I've visited family in Canada and all their houses have been lovely. In fact one of them inspired my interest in interiors.

We've been watching A Place in the Sun (a lot) which has featured Florida a lot lately.
Without exception the kitchens - even in a new property - are hideous. As a pp said they are very oppressive. (Likewise I have yet to see a French kitchen I like).

I have a massive fitted modular wardrobe but I'd love a proper closet. Unattainable in a Victorian terrace though Grin

Zenithbear · 24/03/2021 14:07

I have a couple of relatives and a friend in different areas. I noticed that the bathroom had no windows and in the middle of the house (for tornadoes). Also the kitchens are always in the middle not tacked on at the end, and always open plan with the other rooms leading off. 2 bedrooms equals 2 bathrooms over there which is what we have here but we were lucky to find that.

BiBabbles · 24/03/2021 14:10

There are a lot of regional differences and even within the same metro area you can get different housing standards and regulations (housing code) before even getting into homeowner's associations rules on how houses must be kept. Just the UK, prices range widely and when discussing house prices in US, the property tax is an important to consider which is often a lot more expensive than UK council tax (the Midwestern area I'm from, it's currently over $5k a year), plus in some areas there are homeowner's association fees.

Most of the houses I knew growing up in the Midwest with family in the south were open planned on the main floor except bedrooms and obviously bathrooms. It's really common to just have big archways between rooms in those areas, no doors even on the kitchen.

Laundry is less often in the kitchen, but there isn't always a utility - in some areas, it's just generally expected for washing machines and dryers to go in the basement. This sucks, for many reasons, though sometimes there are laundry chutes which help with that but still have to lug it all back up.

Screens are great, though not everywhere uses them. Also, windows can be weird - in some areas they can be really long and skinny and sometimes with no parts that opened (and if they did, it was slide open) while others have big and open in like a door (which I took full advantage of as a teenager). Never saw ones like I usually see in the UK with the half fixed, half flap -- the whole windows open out was something that confused me when I immigrated here and I sometimes find it frustrating when the wind catches a window and opens them beyond what I can reach.

I find radiators more effective than the air systems I grew up with, but I find ceiling fans and box fans more effective than the pedestal fans that are normal in the UK - but the different house configurations may plan into that. Those open plan spaces can be hard to heat but moving air around them is easier.

Never had a wardrobe before coming to the UK, though I always had a chest of drawers for most clothes. As a child, closets were where we put the nice clothes that needed to hang and toys, we'd have a toy boxes in there and all our stuff had to fit into them other than stuff animals on the bed. This was really common for those I knew.

It wasn't entirely uncommon growing up to not always have fences between property - my grandparents and the house behind them had the 'property line' marked by a little tree - and chain link fences are quite common in many areas and it was entirely a thing for children to climb the fences and run through open undivided up yards to get from place to place.

For the sidewalks - yes in some areas, it's because it's expected everyone will drive, but in others it's generally expected for people to walk at the edge of the lawn or next to the curb on the road. I lived on a road that had no sidewalk in a school district that was so small everyone was expected to walk to school. There is a reason why 'get off my lawn' is a common phrase of cranky neighbours on US TV - sometimes it's the lawn or the street and some people get real protective of their lawns.

Also, a duplex (semi-detached-ish), triplex, quadplex - they're usually all owned by the same person with some-to-all being rented out and there is a weird thing now of 'house hacking' which is basically Americans telling everyone else they should buy these places to make money when it seems very few other places work like that.

One of the oddest things I've seen in a US home is a through bathroom - which means it had a door basically on each side so you'd need to lock both, but you could walk through the bathroom to get from the front of the house to the back. You could also get through on the other side via the dining room. It can feel at times in some parts of the US like they try to avoid hallways as much as possibly for non-bedroom areas so make through rooms instead, but the bathroom one was odd.

peanutbutterjimjams · 24/03/2021 14:22

They always seem to have big useful cupboards by the door, so don't have coats and shoes piled up in the hallway.

Also lots of microwaves built in in the kitchen, massive washing machines and never dry clothes outside.

I noticed the lack of doors downstairs. They have one or two steps instead. Or a post.

peanutbutterjimjams · 24/03/2021 14:23

Oh and they can plug in hairdryers in the bathroom! Lucky having low voltage.

MintyMabel · 24/03/2021 14:57

Waste disposal units are environmentally poor: can you imagine what it would be like if everyone's food waste were going down the drain and had to be processed at water treatment works? Much better to compost it that add water to it and flush it away.

6 and half a dozen really. The alternative is what we do here, and send the vast majority of it to landfill to sit and rot away over a period of decades rendering large swathes of land unusable without expensive and ecologically damaging remediation. Not all food waste can be composted. Our waste disposal gets rid of most of the non compostable food waste. Virtually nothing goes in to the waste bin. The only issue I have with our waste disposal is the use of water to flush it away, but that's the same issue I have with the WCs. We should have a far better grey water system in the UK.

MintyMabel · 24/03/2021 14:59

The only think I'd like to be more common over here is the use of basements. It would be good if we could use less foot print to provide more floor area in a property.

One of the oddest things I've seen in a US home is a through bathroom - which means it had a door basically on each side so you'd need to lock both, but you could walk through the bathroom to get from the front of the house to the back

These "Jack and Jill" bathrooms are quiet common in new build properties in the UK, giving 2 bedrooms access to an en-suite.

MrJollyLivesNextDoor · 24/03/2021 15:04

No kettles 😮

BiBabbles · 24/03/2021 15:12

This wasn't a "Jack and Jill" bathrooms between two bedrooms, it opened up right next to the archway into the kitchen that was on the back of the house and the area right next to the bedrooms and the staircase upstairs at the front of the house - without the doors, it was basically (and was treated like) a hallway -- just with a toilet, sink and tub.

Lantanacamara · 24/03/2021 15:26

I used to watch Supernanny US and I assumed property must be so cheap. You would have a SAHM and a dad working as a postal worker and they would have this massive detached house with a pool in the back garden. All kitchens whilst seemingly all dark wood and quite oppressive all seem to have an industrial sized cooker, which I love.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 24/03/2021 15:30

My sister has a whole room for laundry - it’s massive and she keeps her ironing board up! Cousins have the same set up too - a room with massive washer and drier!

I don’t think you get a lot of ‘hallways’ into homes.

Any you definitely do get kettles and toasters. Nice big fridges too.

I don’t know if there are changes in the age of properties though - I’ve only really been on very new and relatively old.

Harryo · 24/03/2021 15:39

I absolutely love ‘The Property Brothers’ and ‘My Lottery Dream Home’. The latter has some amazing humongous houses for sale. The former although all the do-ups are a bit samey, they can make a huge difference just by knocking down a dew walls.

I still don’t get the three side by side eating areas in one house though. Oh and the shallow and small baths.

Harryo · 24/03/2021 15:39

*Few
Not dew. Sorry.

WildRosie · 24/03/2021 15:48

I've not been to the USA but pictures of houses I've seen all seem to be white clapboarding and white stake fences. Bricks and hedges don't appear to be popular. Also, even the suburban streets have lots of overhead cables which isn't attractive.

StCharlotte · 24/03/2021 15:51

@Lantanacamara

I used to watch Supernanny US and I assumed property must be so cheap. You would have a SAHM and a dad working as a postal worker and they would have this massive detached house with a pool in the back garden. All kitchens whilst seemingly all dark wood and quite oppressive all seem to have an industrial sized cooker, which I love.
I think it's partly the cookers I don't like in US kitchens - they are lovely and big but they all look really dated like our (UK) cookers looked in the 1970s.
Drinkingallthewine · 24/03/2021 15:51

I saw a dog shower on pinterest and will be adding it into the utility when we extend. We don't actually have a dog but for things like rinsing off oven racks, fridge drawers, muddy veg from the garden, muddy football kits, muddy family members, muddy anything really - it's going to be used frequently. I live in Ireland after all.

Gertie75 · 24/03/2021 15:55

I've stayed with my friend in Kentucky a couple of times and it was the gardens that fascinated me, a lot of them had no boundaries so you couldn't tell where one ended and the next one started and those who did have fences just had low wire ones so there was no privacy at all.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 24/03/2021 15:55

As in shower to clean a dog - or to announce the sex of puppies?

awaynboilyurheid · 24/03/2021 15:56

They have a lot of communities for over 55’s where people move to before or when they retire, my aunt lived in one and it had a club house and pool. Some people still worked but most were retired it was quite a nice community feel to it, there’s a famous one in Florida called the villages, it’s huge over several estates, several golf courses, shops, their own doctors and dentists , cinema etc but for over aged over 55 only. Lots of Canadians and Americans move there when they retire.

PickAChew · 24/03/2021 16:04

Cellars seem to be so much more common over there. No doubt a combination of drier ground and tornadoes making it more advisable to build down than up.

Nancydrawn · 24/03/2021 16:13

It's considered really antisocial to have large fences or even hedges in front of properties. Fenced backyards aren't strange, but front yards, if fenced, will usually be low. This is the white picket fence idea—very few are more than four feet high.

There are exceptions to this with some very fancy estates in relatively crowded spaces — so, for instance, you might get high fences in parts of LA — but most towns and suburbs won't have them. Privacy is created largely though space from the road.

If you were to create a standard suburban new build and then put a giant privacy fence or hedge in the front it would be considered unneighbourly and a bit suspicious. In some subdivisions, it would be against housing association rules. Big fences in the backyard are considered much less problematic, though most places have some permits/regulations to install them.

Cookerhood · 24/03/2021 16:14

We had warm air central heating in the UK when I was growing up (my parents had it until their house was sold a few years ago). It was great for wall space but terrible for blowing dust, food smells & cigarette smoke around (I dread to think how much passive smoking I did in the 70s).

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