CheerfulYank, have you never been to the UK? 
I do hope you get the chance, it's worth a visit! I just assumed you must have been there, how silly of me!
Now, who was saying about the boringness of UK houses - seriously, they are amazingly varied when you compare to what I have to look at in semi-rural Australia. And ours aren't even cheap! DH and I have a game we play when we drive somewhere, usually around the edge of the lake (mahoosive salt water lake) - in among all the posh developed/new built houses, there are usually still some old-fashioned fishing shacks and we try to find the best and shackiest of them. (ok, I admit it's sad but it amuses us! 
). But because they're waterfront properties, they are worth stupid amounts for the land.
I have just come back from 3 weeks in the UK and I have to say, one of the joys of being there was driving around and seeing all the lovely brick houses, as opposed to the clapboard bungalow/houses that prevail where we are. Some of them are lovely - especially the ones with the round-the-house verandahs that were built around 100 years or more ago - but many of them just aren't. In the cities, there are lovely old brick houses - but any brick stuff out here is usually quite modern and (IMO) soulless and naff. But then I'm living in a (probably) 1920s-ish clapboard house that hasn't been renovated much (still has original open fireplace, for e.g. and shit insulation), so modern brick doesn't really appeal to me (old brick does though!)