4 Ways British and American Houses Are Very Different 

Arguably, riots equate to all those disasters.

Sounds like in Australia, though we don’t have the riots!

@@margm4 the Kalgoorlie Mines riot Broome riot Crunulla riot

@@nathanlewis5682 Fair enough, but not the norm you’d have to admit

@@margm4 But the people here in USA enjoy rioting like it's a hobby, but they prefer to have an excuse even though they know very well it's bullsh*t. The media here also overinflates a crisis situation to stoke unrest, hoping it will spark up more.

People die from the heat down here.. it's pretty necessary

It’s a necessity here in the south!!!

Yes, with the high humidity and 90° to 100°+ heat from May through September, the heat really is dangerous without adequate air conditioning 😓

I don't know what I'd do without my life support. From May until Nov. I long to live in a place where there is no need for air conditioning. I never complain about the Winter anymore bc I'm so miserable with all the heat and humidity now days that I actually cherish the cold days after all they won't be here for long.

Here in Alaska the only thing that is “life support” is central heating or a fireplace. Hardly anyone has AC here.

Yeah, you usually have to have a closet and an egress window under most (pretty sure it's most and not just some having worked in housing renovations in the East Coast and lived in numerous states in the West and Midwest) building codes. As a landlord, you can actually provide a wardrobe, typically, but otherwise it's a "den".

what is boarding house effect

@@NithinJuneA boarding house is a place where, instead of a single family house or an apartment building, a bunch of single rooms are rented out.

And anybody that's grown up in the American south and moved elsewhere.

Amen!

I live in SC and don’t have a ceiling fan in my kitchen or guest room over the garage (low ceiling). Gotta have them going!!!!

Northwestern-ish desert dweller here with ceiling fans in most rooms--they run all summer and help the air from the AC move around better.

Even in the kitchen...especially in the kitchen.

Same here in central CA

We had a swamp cooler in the 90's. I wonder when they changed the law.

@@SistrWmn20 wouldn't a swamp cooler qualify as a cooling system?

That's because in Arizona gets to 122F !

@@SistrWmn20 A swamp cooler does qualify as a cooling system.

That is so cute!😊

lol that daddy pig *snort*

My daughter was hooked on I Love Lucy and Green Acres, and the looks she'd get for saying "Oh for corn's sake."

What do you call a boot up there?

US-based - I was an early/way above grade level reader and got hooked on the Redwall series at age 5. Cue confusion when I told my older cousin that I'd fancy a piece of cake and she told me I had a big vocabulary. (it was just a normal phrase to me and I didn't see how it was unusual!)

Usually townhomes are part of a homeowners association. Whereas row houses are not.

@@Nyx773 I live in a townhouse neighborhood in Virginia and three is not HOA here.

Having lived in the DC area for 45 years, there is a very distinct difference between townhouses and row houses. Modern townhouses cropped up in the suburbs during the 1980s when mortgage interest rates were sky high and there was a need for more affordable housing. These homes were usually 2-3 stories, with basements, and made from wood and siding, as opposed to brick. Each unit within a block of townhouses could be very distinct from an adjoining unit, such as having a ground entry vs. a second floor entry (having to climb lots of stairs), or different window styles and siding color. Units might also not be even with even other; that is, some stick out and some would be recessed. So within a row, two houses might stick out while the one in the middle is recessed. In the city, townhomes were usually brick, again 2-3 stories, but most basements were “English” basements that were usually separate living quarters for a renter or other tenet. Within a block, the units would all be the same style, such as same type of entry, even with each other (no stick out vs. recessed), and the same exterior features, like either a flat front appearance or curved where the living room and upstairs bedroom would be. These would be much older homes and quite expensive in the more fashionable parts of town. Row houses, on the other hand, could be equally as old, but were always in the outskirts of town or in older suburban neighborhoods and considered low income housing. They too, were usually brick, mostly just 2 stories, and usually with a large covered porch. They were all the same-kind of like making a foot-long Italian sandwich and then cutting it into even pieces. You could tell the width of the unit from where pillars separated one porch from the next. But basically, townhomes were upper- to middle-class, while row houses were decidedly low-income.

Row houses is an American term but usually reserved for true row houses built decades ago. They are usually seen in Eastern cities of the US...

Me too, and I've lived in a few.

Rowhomes are the ones that all look the same, it's sort of like a sub type of townhouse. Those are usually lined up in developments. Townhouses can just be whatever in terms of design, they're just attached to the neighbor.

Row houses are like a bunch connected. Town houses are only 2 or 3 connected

@@renroxhrd it's called semi-detached housing

Heck yeah.

No kidding.

And I wonder if Britain has the same high humidity we have in Southeast Texas, over the summer. Take a very wet towel, drape it over your face and breath. That is how breathing feels during the summer. Literally walking from your front door, down the driveway to the mail box at the road and back to the front door, you are dripping with sweat.

@Delta Fox Are you sure she's an actual a woman ?

@Delta Fox what are you on about, the UK is constantly humid. You're the one not familiar with British weather. You must have lived somewhere far up north and decided that the South of England, has the same weather as the north. We have very high humidity, we're an island surrounded by sea..How do you not know this? Where the hell did you live, the outer Hebrides? You do know how clouds are created right? Humidity! Lol In the south east of England including London we get at least 2-4 weeks of 90F a year and always get at least one or two days at 100F, that with 85% + humidity is absolutely unbearable. I bought a portable air con unit for this year's few days at 100F +, as working from home in lockdown in any heat above 75F is really hard when we're used to air con offices.

I have a kettle in my cupboard (boilerpot in my cabinet) that hasn't been used for years!

I’m born and raised in the US and I have a electric tea kettle, Love it for heating up water for tea, hot cocoa 😋

@@lornaphillips8501 I like my microwave for that. But it seems like hot drinks made with a microwave cool faster.

Does it include a tea cozy? ;-)

@@stefan-anamericaninrussiaa6683 Unfortunately it does not!

Retired architect, here: What you are calling a "wrap-around-around porch" is correctly a "veranda."

@@wallacem41atgmail True but it will always be a wrap-a-round to me!

@@wallacem41atgmail “Some of my finest hours have been spent sitting on my back veranda...”

They are called caravans across the pond.

I live in an older mobile home in a senior citizen community. I like new ones now, they look like a ranch house or a one-story house. You wouldn't know it was a mobile home.

Believe it or not, the name for those trailers originally had nothing to do with mobility. That's because the M was capitalized--as in, they originated in the town of Mobile, Alabama.

@@suicidesitter6527 Only if they have wheels else we refer to them as static homes

This reminds me of the movie "The Last Starfighter." The protagonist was describing where he lived to his alien co-pilot -- something along the lines of, "it's like a cave, but above ground. With wheels. Only, it doesn't move."

And/or hurricane fencing

Weirdo

Aka cyclone or hurricane

@@suecrosby481 Usually cyclone, I think.

Ha ha, me too, and I grew up in the UK!

Dan Wiebe ....when I visit my in-laws it is a one way distance of 556 miles,I leave a 4am and arrive at 2:30 pm plus minus due to traffic. Look on google maps, Auberry Calif 35 miles North east of Fresno via Bakersfield east to Barstow SE to Yucca valley south to Brawley / hwy 8 east to Yuma AZ. Most Across Mojave Desert, pronounced Mo ha vey. Btw that is plus minus 80 mph, if you go fast enough to outrun the heat in the summer

Please! Stop posting this on every one of his videos!

@@chazbaz4519 Wedgenut Tanker was referring to how long it takes to go a set distance, which relates to population density and thereby is relative to Dan Wiebe's comment, although only one sided. Presumably, Wedgenut Tanker probably assumes in England where it's smaller, you move about quicker.

My teenager came back from a trip 'across the pond' and kept telling us... Americans don't know what OLD is! Quite True.

Yeah, on of the most fascinating things to me about England and well pretty much the rest of the world is that you have buildings older than our country. I grew up in a house that was built pre-Civil War and was well over a hundred years old when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's. It about blew my twelve year old mind when my British aunt refered to it as a newer home upon first seeing it. Now my a British friends look at me like I'm some sort of crazy person when I mention driving 400 and some odd miles to visit my son and to go to the beach. The really get surprised when I tell them I live on the Virginia/North Carolina state line and I've only driven from the western end of North Carolina to the eastern end on coast about 50 miles from Wilmington.

Definitely and its the preferred way to do it here in the UK as well (my parents have both). You'd only buy a combi if space was at a premium like in my kitchen.

I used to have a combo and it was basically worthless. The drying took 3 hours for a load of towels. Whereas hanging them on a drying rack in front of a box fan on high took less than half that time.

I tend to just put my clothes into the one cycle on low temp wash and they come out fine

You can't really be a Canadian. Candaians would be too polite to pipe with a grievance.

Happy Poutine Day!!! 👍💖

*Commonwealth (IINM)

Don’t be telling Americans we have igloos…their dumb enough to believe it.

I do.

I live in Texas US. No basements because it's too wet. AC a must. When it's hot outside, a heat advisory, you sweat when you move even in the AC and changing clothes because you moved. I love it here. I like other places, even visited some but, I like it here.

KonFess ........where do you live? There are southern states where you don't need AC.

I live in tx and here ac is a must. I have central ac but since my second floor doesnt get as cold as my first floor so i also have a window unit. So i guess im spoil because there are days when i have a central ac, windows ac and even a fan going at the same time. I like to sleep cold.

I live in SC, originally from MD--definitely need AC in both states, though for a LOT more of the year in SC!

We call those screens "window screens" here in the US.

@@lodragan I've never heard anyone specify, in my area we just call them "screens".

They need them in Costa Rica too but you rarely find them

@NotJo Born and raised in WV, and you have way more than 3 kinds of flies. Yeah, I know you're partly kidding, but if you're breaking species down into general more-annoying "types", you also have fruit-flies, and biting midges, AKA no-see-ums, which may not pester you too much unless you live pretty far up a holler (hollow) somewhere.

@@brianloper6669 I agree, but instead they added bars to prevent burglars

It's a matter of space. And in the UK that really matters ! Such semis are cottages.

@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 space in the middle of nowhere? (As indicated) That is, there is literally not another house for miles, and that you are sharing a wall with another family

@@GregCocks_kiwi Usually becuase the developer bought the the plot of land to build on and it's more profitable to have two houses to sell than one and just builting one structure instead of two separate ones is the cheaper option.

Don't really have the space for garages here. And a lot of houses were built before most families owned a car.

A few more ways garages are used- pool tables and ping pong tables, man caves, workout rooms and the doomsday preppers love them for hoarding food and supplies. But their hoarding is generally extremely organized. 😀

I always envy the housing spaces of US. You guys always have big garages and backyards. In Asia, it is considered super luxurious to have big backyard and a garage and even the spaces between houses are so small, some even fused with another house.

@@Cakalank It's common in the US to have homes close together side by side, for example both of my neighbors are about 15ft away. Yard size depends on the house though usually the newer the home, the smaller the yard. Personally, I'd be happy with no yard at all, it's more work than it's worth!

@@mrspurrfectcat The houses of the 50s and 60s don't tend to have more than one bay. There was a time when families didn't have two cars. Newer houses have two, and in California, they seem to have garages for storage because they don't have basements. No one puts the car in them like they do in New England.

I live in Manchester England. Every three houses I have lived in (And my Mothers 1971 house) Have Garbage Disposers. Also Target in USA sells electric kettles.

Show him an episode of the "Flintstones" to answer that one.

---Did you tell him the disposal eats when y’all do??

🤣

Flintstones joke ha

I put some stuff out for a garage sale, while my friend in Atlanta worked. I could not, believe how much junk there was in the basement that she had kept. Get shot of it as soon as you can.

David LaFerney That goes for big fridges too I guesss. All sorts of things can be forgotten in the rear of them

Most people we know not only have a huge fridge/freezer in the house but they have a second one in the garage! We don't as we're better organized than most Americans.

@@kathleenm6347 the one in the garage is typically for beer and extra freezer space especially for those of us that harvest wild game. :)

Not really. Our houses are bigger because England is very small. The whole country is the size of Louisiana. Just think of 55 million people in that state.

Mines a living room diner. Separate kitchen. Would of made sense to eat in the kitchen not the living room. But my kitchens too small.

Maybe you are watching young people living in NYC. Oh wait, friends, jobless people living in a spacious NYC apartment.

@@mrspurrfectcat Same here, wish I had a separate dining room but it feels like an optional extra these days.

Yes. I like watching the Dabl network renovations in England - tiny rooms, all!!

Global warming is expanding the areas around the world where air con is needed, when l grew up the summers were bearable and an open window would do, the winters are cold and an open fire would do. Now summers are getting unbearably hot even with open windows and due to air pollution open fires and even most enclosed fires are becoming banned so in comes air con.

Because without air conditioning, we would have mold.

@@janicejettsitter2097 yeah have the same problem

Southwestern Ohio too!!!

I love mid century ranch houses!

I have called it both. Townhome for me is a little more wider but a rowhouse is taller, narrower and sometimes has more floors. I have lived in FL now since '07 but grew up near DC. Suburban areas outside of DC were townhomes and DC were rowhomes (million dollar 3 or 4 floors). My great grandpa had a home in DC. I'm sure if I tried to find it now, it would be crazy expensive.

In your north hat 🇨🇦 we also call them "townhouses"

Ive grew up calling it a townhouse or "twin home" same concept though.

Townhouses are what we called them in South Dakota, and in Washington state where I currently live. I think I've only heard "row houses" in the east, and especially in connection with New York City.

I always assumed that townhouse were condominiums, owned. Row houses were rented, apartments

Priscilla Emerald I just bought an old colonial that was built in 1858- it used to be 7br home, it’s now been converted to a two-family and both of the apartments are over 1400 feet. There are LOADS of houses in New England (and the US in general) like this, it’s not just a new-built thing!

Not all Americans live in houses. Unfortunately we manufacture all too many Trailer homes, which in the event of any number of disasters we have here in america they tend to be totally destroyed.

Oddly enough, we’re going through this tiny house movement at the same time Marie Kondo is a thing, so I wonder how much longer that’ll be a thing. Add in the fact millennials can’t afford large houses like many of their parents and are now buying what Boomers used to call “starter” homes and the effects Coronavirus is likely to have on the economy and I bet we see a reversal in this belief all houses need to be huge.

jaimejouelapiano exactly!! Ours is huge!

@@tanyakristeen trailer homes are built to high standards now and are secured to meet wind and earthquake requirements now. If a trailer home gets wiped out, so would any other.

Yes, and where is the toilet located? I've lived all over the place, and it seems to me that in both the US and the UK, the toilet is part of the bathroom. But here in Australia, we often have our toilets in tiny little rooms of their own. So when Americans visit and ask to use the bathroom, it can cause some confusion.

@@Jen.K They feel awkward about asking, so bathroom became a polite word meaning needing the toilet. Public ones we say restroom, though we aren't taking a nap in there.

Don't forget W.C.!!!😆😅🤣😂

And in Canada, our equivalent of restroom is washroom.

​@@treetopjones737: language needs to be clear. There is an apocryphal tale of a snobbish old dowager who sent a young American guest to a room without a lavatory when she had asked to use the "bathroom".

Row house is a term that is used in east coast colonial cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore

True but American cities used to utilize the term ‘terraced houses’ too..There are still a few standing. In Manhattan, laGrange Terrace (aka Colonade Row’) is still standing for the most part. Rhinelander Gardens.is another. Older NYC townhouses also include what’s known as an English basement, but Brits seem not to have ever heard that term in the UK. It just means it’s partially above ground.

@@clarebebbington9984 Yes - from many years of reading National Geographics and Smithsonian magazine. This Texas has never seen such in this state.

@@clarebebbington9984 And in Queens, NY, where there are heaps of them!

We used to live in a townhouse. That's the term for a run of 6-8 (usually) 3-storey houses. There are two other types of housing which haven't been covered yet: maisonettes, which are basically a 2-storey house sitting on top of a 1-storey, or (in our area) 2 x 2-storey houses sitting on top of each other in a terrace; and 'link detached' which are basically detached houses which are actually separated from the next by a garage. We technically live in a link detached house - next door's garage is the other side of our lounge/dining room wall but upstairs is an outside wall, and sometimes when our neighbour is clanging around inside his garage we can hear it through the lounge wall. Our garage is on the other side of our house and is bordered by a side alleyway to our back garden. Our house also partially wraps around this garage so we have a separate utility room behind it.

It can be quicker though. You pop your clothes in before work and they are washed and dried when you get home. Doesn't require the need to be there to take clothes from one machine into the other. Having said that I prefer to hang clothes out to dry when I have the opportunity.

@@jpw6893 Does not help me, when i do a wash day, it is clothes(whites and colors separately), and towels. That is three loads, four if i do bed sheets.

@@jorgejefferson8251 more fool you. It's not the 60's lol. I pop colours in with everything, modern technology eh.

@@jpw6893 To each their own, which is why i said "does not help ME"

Does he have a whole separate video on the differences in refrigerators? It's a big topic. American fridges are the size of wardrobes and British fridges fit under the counter like dishwashers.

holly c you mist be closer to the gulf. Where I am, summer is hot from May (not this year)/June through first part of October. At most, 5 months.

dsatt57 haha. Yes. Closer to the gulf. Makes it hot but tolerable in the shade now but it will last into November often. That’s the end of Hurricane season.

Yep. Even cold winters have random hot days down here

Having lived in Arizona most of my life and moving to San Francisco, I was surprised to find no air conditioning. Then I learned that a "hot day" in SF was one where I turned off the furnace and opened the window. BTW a home in Arizona without a cooling system is legally not inhabitable.

Summer in FL is 50 weeks out of the year 🤣

{laugh!} dryers take space that many don't have and they eat electricity so are expensive to run. We line dry in the summer and hang the laundry in front of the radiators around the house in cold weather.

😂

NotRllyJoey but aren’t jokes supposed to be funny?

NotRllyJoey why did u think that? Are u From America?

NotRllyJoey well where in the world is completely free and independent.? That’s not even logical. We are ok over here in the USA...in spite of the last 4 years. In spite of the pandemic, in spite of all the rioting and things in some areas literally running amuck. When it came down to it we voted..we got a different guy in...hopefully the next four years will be better. I think we r all involved in a huge world wide change ..I think all the turmoil and the sickness ..are the death cry’s of an old way Hopefully we will eventually be on a higher level. We are evolving...if we don’t we will die away. That’s my theory. You will get no argument from me that my country is perfect. But I think we are still in the running. I hope we can get back on track to a better place. Now tell me about your country.

It’s cos a lot of our humour is witty, sarcastic or ironic humour or just taking the piss and if you laugh at it yourself it ruins the effect whereas Americans just make shit jokes

I'm southern, and we call those townhouses also. I'm thinking maybe Chicago/east coast calls it row houses.

From my prospective row houses, townhouse is more the era and location they were they are built. Row houses, first half of the last century, prominently near the urban core of large incorporated cities. Townhouse, second quarter of the last century to present, close in suburbs of large metropolitan areas and or randomly placed suburban high density housing developments. Townhouse is a euphemism to describe a row houses without the gritty urban rundown connotation.

Town houses in UK usually 3 storey terraced.

As with many other aspects of a "massive" country, what almost anything is called depends on where it's being named. All part of the fun of "moving house" to someplace else. Which, if one may point out the obvious, is nearly always impossible, given foundations and that generous American square footage. It's the people and the stuff that go elsewhere, not the house itself. Unless, of course, one's housing is mobile on purpose. ;-)

spacedout Row houses is the old na,e for townhouses today. I guess it sounds more swanky? Certainly costs more.

I've lived in the UK for 7 years and that still throws me off lol

Don't they also address house differently? Both sides of the street aren't odd/even running the same way?

@@aodhganmerrimac I don't pay a ton of attention to street address numbers honestly, but in the neighborhoods I've lived in so far the numbering system works basically the same as in the US. Odd on one side, even on the other side, increasing as you go along the road. So, across the street from 30 you'll have 31 and 33. The big difference is that the numbers are generally lower. Not every single street starts with number 1, but lots do. Especially in London. That's actually part of the reason the US generally has such high numbers for addresses. When the first settler towns were being built and house numbers were needed the colonizers felt that having higher house numbers was equal to higher status... because in England higher house numbers generally equate to being at the end of a very long road, which historically is where the bosses, factory owners, etc. lived. (Further away from the muck and grime that used to be in the middle of town.) Of course, that has changed over time and now some of the most desirable places are at addresses with low numbers (looking at you 10 Downing Street lol) It's extremely rare to have 4+ digit addresses here. One of the bigger issues with trying to find a particular address when you're not familiar with the area is that street signs can be dang near anywhere and there doesn't seem to be any rules about how often a street needs to be labelled. It's not at every corner/intersection here the way it is in the US. Sometimes street signs will be right on the side of a building, sometimes they'll be attached to a pole on the corner, sometimes they'll be overhead, sometimes they'll be painted on the pavement. I can't figure out any rhyme or reason for why street signs are put where they are lol

In Austria the first floor is the one above too. So confusing

@@crazywoollady9325 San Francisco is that way, every street starts out fresh and many of the streets are pretty short and not at right angles either -- hills you know -- so the address doesn't give you any idea of the real location. I grew up in Tucson which is absolutely on a grid with major streets 1 mile apart and everything pretty much is is readily locatable (until you get into the foothills anyway) and streets and roads are E-W and Avenues run N-S making it easy to know where the intersection of 6th St and 5th Avenue is as distinct from 5th St and 6th Avenue. Except for downtown, "the Old Pueblo", the city was founded in the 1700's and the roads are not too straight nor wide in that area.

Not quite so in Chicago. The term flat is used to describe the whole building, but not the individual units. The units are referred to as apartments. Whereas the number of units in a building is part of the description as in: 2-flat, 3-flat, 6-flat, 12-flat. Used in a sentence: "There is an apartment for rent in that owner-occupied 3-flat building"

But a combo allows you to put a load in and go to work or shopping and when you get home it's washed and dried.

@@jpw6893 And then when the one machine is broken, you can neither wash nor dry your load...

@@snopure not true actually, you can still use it.

@@jpw6893 How do you use a broken machine????

@@OhJodi69 if the wash bit breaks you can still use the dryer and vice versa.

Same here in Alabama. It is "Townhouse" here as well.

From Washington state and it's also known as Townhouse here too. I've never heard the term row house before

They call them row houses in NYC and here in Chicago

And in some places, notably Arizona they might be called "patio homes" because the patio...oh you get the idea.

In Philadelphia is called row houses.

I grew up in Seattle so I happen to know the reason for the wood vs brick. Firstly, when the settlers arrived in what is now Washington, it was covered in mile after miles of old growth fir. Second, Washington State (at least the Western part of it, is in a subduction zone.) Earthquake country. Brick construction historically doesn't do all that well in moderate to severe quakes. Brick construction handles hurricanes just fine.

I’m from Wa State and also lived in Texas. Am very familiar with Leavenworth, too. 👍🏻 Your comparisons are spot on. I’m in the mid west now and still miss Wa. tho I left in 1976! There is a definite flavor in those two states but not so much where I am now. Also lived in Calif for 30+ yrs. You see a little of everything there! I think it’s wonderful to have such diversity within one country. It’s been a real education for me.

That was the only thing I was wondering. I do a lot of electronics and have DIY some house electrical work; I've always referred it as "mains" not grid. To me the grid refers to the entire network outside the house.

I see in instructions "plug into the mains." But in the US it would be "plug into the outlet."

And the mains box in Britain would be the breaker box or fuse box in the US.

Someone with solar panels or a generator might well say "grid power" to distinguish.

Grid power = power that comes from the power grid. Power grid = the thing that produces grid power.

Tbh it was down to the size of the houses and people as to why they had smaller refrigerators. Now almost everyone has a big American style refrigerator.

this is flat out incorrect. in Britain we have proper fridges lol

@@annie4005 now they do

I have an American style fridge freezer in my kitchen, it even gives you water and ice 😜

While some people have disagreed about the fridge size (I own a normal, bog-standard white fridge freezer) I do agree with you on the fact that people in the UK tend to spread their shopping more. Generally the big shop would be a weekly shop and then you'd run to the shops to buy milk, bread or anything else you might have run out every couple of days. In America I have the feeling they tend to stock more, especially on non perishables. That's especially true in places where natural disaster risk is greater, obviously.

@The Armchair Spaceman** Your last 2 sentences sum up the lives of African Americans.

I live in the midwest and I think I'd probably croak without my central air in the summer. I can't imagine going without it somewhere like south Florida.

Real question, how did people survive the summer 30/50 years ago?

Which begs the question....WHY????

@@orangew3988, passive cooling methods, maybe. Good question. I'd be interested in hearing other answers. Windows could have been bigger to better catch the breezes. I've seen old homes with areas called sleeping porches.

In Arizona a home without a cooling system is legally not inhabitable. You can't rent out a place without cooling. In old days and parts of the state they did have sleeping porches -- and homes built of foot thick adobe for a reason. Some homes would be dug half a story down to get cooler and wide windows yes but none facing south... The state was quite low in population until just after WWII when they invented or popularized the evaporative cooler (called "swamp boxes" informally) which allowed homes to be cooled inexpensively. Can't use them in places without low humidity though. They are mostly replaced by A/C in some areas where as in Phoenix you would not even consider anything but A/C since swamp boxes just can't lower the blistering temps enough. If it's 100 outside a swamp box will give you 75 inside, but if it's 115 you'll be 90 inside. Oh we have a lot of ceiling fans.

@@missprimproper1022 Or a water closet - WC

I think it’s the American way for job security for roofers . Dumb as my roof was done wrong. Needs a redo

I’m in Cardiff and my house will soon be in need of new slate tiles, at the moment they are 80 years old. I might change them in another 10 years or so.

I thought I heard once that in the US we use light-weight individual shingles because of tornadoes and hurricanes...if they go flying it is just a few individual ones that go (not the entire roof) and they are light so not as lethal.

@@user-jy3zl2vp4b they're also less dangerous in an earthquake

Wales is the home of slate, my house is roofed in Welsh slate. Its well over 100 years old and they are as good as ever.

Chriseurosong I could not agree more!! Glad to hear a Brit admit how silly separate taps are! If you see the tour of my flat in Cheltenham, you’ll note that this American gal ensured she got only mixer taps 😉

What Not To Do At a Stoplight do you mean separate handles for hot and cold, or actually two faucets! I think two different faucets for hot and cold is uncommon in the US. Even in bathrooms. Although I just watched video that Jimmy Fallon recorded in his home, and his bathroom did have two faucets for hot and cold! LOL

I'm American and we have separate taps. I'd say separate taps and one tap for both hot and cold are about equally common. The sinks in my family's current home are all separate tap, but the house we lived in before had some single taps. My university's restrooms have some separate taps, some single taps, and some automatic/motion sensor taps.

@@MagentaOtterTravels I though when they said tap they meant handle, not faucet. I didn't imagine any sink would have two faucets and would be surprised if Britain's sinks had more than one faucet.

Attie Davis They actually have two faucets... you get to choose whether you want your hands to be freezing cold or scalding hot when you wash your hands. It’s not my favorite...

In NYC I've always referred to them as 'row-house', unless they are a rowhouse made of brown sandstone in which case we call them brownstones.

I love having a electric kettle there are the best.

I've been debating getting one, is it faster than a stove top one??

@@samanthab3292 Oh, hell yeah! Instant hot water...takes less than a minute to boil, I'd guess.

I think I was introduced to them by a friend in college and was an instant convert. A few years later, I convinced my parents to get one as well. Tea is possible within 5 minutes at all hours of the day or night! I would not want to live without one!

The fact that they aren’t common in America boggles my mind, they are so dam useful

To me that sounds like a nightmare.

I hope you've left SF by now. I'd hate to live amongst the woke elitists and the feces contaminated streets, along with the homeless thousands. Might as well be a third world environment.

soco13466 I was coming to say the same thing.

Oh yes, I’ve been back in the wide open spaces & huge sky country of Nebraska for many years now. The City was breathtaking when I was there & I have to say I’m relieved my parents aren’t here to see what has become of it, they loved it so. 😞

@@soco13466 SF use to be a really beautiful city.....it's such a shame.

We tend to boggle at the enormous size of American fridges. Our large combination fridge-freezers are smaller than most American stand-alone fridges. Brits also find the concept of top-loading washing machines very antiquated (my parents had an old-fashioned top-loading washer in the 50's, I think). A front loader can be installed under the counter (next to the fridge, even) out of the way.

@@teddy-3765 Yep, but in the US, our washing appliances aren't located in the kitchen or the occasional bathroom. They have their own room. To iron, steam, and random laundry tasks. You would be looked at funny if you put the washer or dryer in the kitchen.

@@LibraryBooksPages It's the same as the US in Australia regarding the laundry.

Clothes Washer/dryer is in MY kitchen in San Diego CA.

@Therese A. Judith Izzo-Davis I've lived in houses with them in different places including in the kitchen, the current one being in the room beside the kitchen but not accessible from said kitchen. My favorite was the laundry room accessible from the kitchen.

While it’s true that Americans are very friendly people, it is so not true to say that they don’t have to fight for their existence. I’ve lived in the U.S. and U.K. (for 5 years in each) and Americans are way more obsessed with making a career, earning money and getting successful, and doing all of that with lots of struggling and overcoming obstacles and fighting the hardships of their lives. Brits on average are way more chill, not fighting anything or anyone. So while Americans are a wealthy nation, their souls are restless, never satisfied with what they have, craving more and more.

@@lorainisrael I read a comment by someone from England about Americans working there and how incredibly competitive we are. It was actually a relief to hear that viewpoint. I appreciate that Americans are willing to work hard and want to achieve, etc., but it’s really stressful to do that for decades in a career.

@@JanetSmith900 true, fortunately these days there is a growing demand for the work life balance all around the world. May we all achieve happiness rather than pure wealth.

Sounds like you just surrounded yourself with the wrong people in America then because that is just not true for most Americans lol.

Most of us Americans just want to survive without having to work two jobs.

I do! It was such a clever thing I discovered with my British friends that I had to have one here.

Coffee Pot count?

We have always had electric kettles.

🙋‍♀️ but in fairness I lived in England for 3 years and just got too used to my electric kettle that I bought one as soon as I returned

Can’t live without my kettle and punjana tea.

Yup. The famous 'beer fridge' and one of Americas great contributions to human well being.

A beer fridge in the garage has been a life goal of mine for years. I don't know what pop is, but I will be putting lots of Coke and beer in my future fridge.

M Loftin pop = coke

@@sl2115 I know. I was just kidding. I am a Southerner, so we of course say Coke generically.

@@mloftin6472 I live in Southeast Texas, but my people are Cajun from Southwest Louisiana. My family always referred to soft drinks as soda pop. So that was my habit. Once I married, and started eating out with my husband (eating out was something my people never did) I totally confused the waiters when I requested soda pop. My husband would have to interject with 'she wants a coke.' Now, several years later, I say coke. I also had to learn to stop calling every one Sha (Cajun and Creole slang, derived from the French "cher". A term of affection meaning darling, dear, or sweetheart.) Took me a while for that one. But my husband says that when I am home in Texas I am a Texan; but as soon as the car crosses the state line into Louisiana, I immediately revert back to my inner Cajun, accent and all. I call myself a Texajun.

😂Also called McMansions !!

My German friend told me that German houses don't have porches which led to her misunderstanding of the song "Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams in which she assumed he must be saying "standing on your mother's Porsche" because she never heard of a porch.

A lot of Americans are “house poor,” too. The cost of purchase and ownership strains many family budgets. Just as car companies’ marketing convinced Americans in the 1950s to center life on the auto, builders and real estate interests have the “need” for ever-bigger houses.

@@timdowney6721 Yeah. But keep in mind it's even worse in the UK right now with this issue. UK homes are very expensive. An average American home equivalent in the UK, could easily go for a $1million US, due to the size of them and the size of their yards. Lot's of Brits are very used to the roommate culture to split rent.

@@waycoolscootaloo it's the same for some parts of the US. In some parts of Florida, a small 2 bedroom house goes for 3 million. The only reason for it is because the land is valuable. I sold my house in Florida for 4 million 15 years ago. It was 1800 sq foot (167 sq meter) house. The reason behind it was the land is expensive. Close to my house in Florida, they sold 20 acres (80,937 sq meters) for 400 million. New York City can be super expensive. Chicago can be super expensive. It just depends where you live.

That's the general idea. In England we find it very strange that Americans have to go to the end of their garden to get their mail, while in England we just have to pick it up from the floor inside the front door.

There are American houses with letterboxes

Your mail is probably safer too, going into a slot in a locked door.

Around here a lot of the houses (built around 1960, but it's also found in older houses) have a mail slot through the house wall next to the front door. Unfortunately kids would do things like pour water through them and throw burning debris into them, and so a lot of people sealed them up.

@@onespiceybbw That's so sad :(

Really? I've lived in the US my whole life, but I spent 15 days in England when I was younger and I dont remember the light switches being backwards! That's interesting.

@@dustinclouse6888 They're not! Some rooms have more than one light switch - a hallway/landing for example so you can turn the light on from the top or the bottom of the stairs, and 2 of our 3 downstairs rooms also have a switch near each door, so often you're flicking the switch up for on or down for off, depending on which switch was used last time. Our kitchen has 3 separate light switches - yeah, really! But up is off and down is on - unless your electrics have been installed/changed by an idiot electrician! But I've stayed in lots of places in Florida, and all the switches are the same - up for off and down for on.

American living in Britain here. In our British home, the bathroom doors open out into the hall way, so we have to close them in order to move about. I don't know if all their bathrooms are constructed this way, but ours is. And thus, a habit is born.

@@estelasteele1173 It could be because our houses tend to be larger, our bathrooms are also larger and the doors open into the bathroom.

I live in the US, and the upstairs bathroom doors are left open, but the powder room door, off the front hall is always left closed!

What abt smell tho and I feel like it's unhygienic to leave it open Also our bathroom is right by the front door so if u leave it all the way open it is annoying when u open the front door

@@DannyB-cs9vx yeah our downstairs toilet opens out and upstairs bathroom opens in

It's America. You can basically buy anything that exists!

yes we can buy the combined appliance, but choose quality over space.

sure you can buy them but I lived in the UK and basically every single house has a plug in kettle and a combo washer dryer. Those are not that common here

The first automatic washing machine my mother had was a combination washer/dryer from Sears - a Kenmore. This was in the late 1950's. Prior to that, mom used a wringer washer. Unfortunately, the combo washer/dryer back then was not a good washer or a good dryer and after just a couple years - when we moved to a new house - it was replaced with a conventional washer and a conventional dryer.

never seen one at lows

They call them row in NYC.

In DC do have row houses. My daughter lived in DC for three years.

It's regional.

It is regional and also historical. If you go to an old historical neighborhood like Pullman in Chicago, they refer to them as row houses because that's what they were called in the period when they were built.

I lived in the Historic District of Savannah for 8 years. For a couple of years in a Georgian Rowhouse built in 1853. I called him George. Then in a Victorian Rowhouse built in 1890, I called Vic. Both were called Row houses except you add the style in describing it. SAV was founded in 1733 by a Brit and it’s definitely a European type city. The Historic District. I miss it deeply.

Really? We 'moved' 14 months ago. We didn't 'move house'. This house was built in 2000 so is coming up 22 years old. It was purchased 'off plan' by my husband's retired parents and inherited by us 18 months ago. My daughter is genuinely the third generation 'Marks' to live in this house lol.

Also, a "duplex" is called a "twin" or a "double" where I live, in eastern Pennsylvania.

I would love to have my washer and dryer in the kitchen. No more stairs, carrying a full laundry basket!

Yes, when we visited Scotland the two flats & the cottage that we rented all had the washer/dryer in the kitchen. All three homes that we've owned here in the US have had the laundry rooms adjacent to the kitchen, though.

The house I live in has the washer/dryer in the garage. My sister's house has the w/d in a utility room on the second floor, not far away from the master bedroom.

Yes we do! I didn’t know it had any other name. 🇨🇦

But why.

@@ceramic.ants. we call it that because it is the branded name of the first garbage disposal unit... or perhaps it's just the most common one. The same way we adopted names like dumpster, kleenex, Rubbermaid bins... and now use them for any items of that kind, regardless of brand.

@Tara Wright Well that makes sense when explained. Thanks!

It doesn't even exist in South Africa 😂

Tara Broncano I’m Canadian, and we use British terms, and US terms, with a good dose of French terms and a bit of Indigenous language terms! And you Aussies have your own variations on the language. Where else on earth would you “throw some roo on the barbie”? I love it!

@@JoanneOP Aussie here...Fun fact: Most people I know or have asked, don't/won't eat roo meat...Not me though! I love 'roo...lean, tasty and high in iron & protein.... "what's that, Skipp??" tsk...tsk...tsk!!

Cj Murray Just what everyone needed to know! Whoever eats kangaroos should go on the barbie themselves

@@sovereignspirit7640 Rubbish, there are LOTs of roos ...they are marsupial venison. If Aussies ate roos instead of hooded animals like cattle and sheep, the land would not be desertified.

@@carolevonaarberg472 We're the only country that I know of which eats its national symbol.

We sort of did once we reached the other side with a few Island exceptions.

@@LlyleHunter And we did downsize for 4 years in the 1860's.

HA HA HA! I found that to be funny.

😀😂😀

A little info I copy/pasted: A few fun facts: Texas would be the 39th largest country in the world (out of 197) if it were its own country. You could fit all of the UK inside Texas 2.8 times. Even more amazingly, you could fit TEN European countries inside Texas at once, with room to spare.

LoL you're not alone there. Mesh is what I call the flimsy green or orange plastic square-weave stuff that people put up as temporary fences around their vegetable gardens to keep the kids and pets from running through the collards and squash.

Kris Dudoich I live in England and we call them mesh fences. But chain link sounds more logical :)

Just makes me think of club boys who would wear "chain link" tank shirts. lol!

Chain link in the UK.

So that's what he meant. I thought he was talking about the construction fences.

Have a few guns in the U.K. too I do beleive.

I'm from the Baltimore area and I've only ever heard townhouse. I've never heard row house

BlazingLizard09 same. From Connecticut and have never heard the term rowhouse

I was waiting for him to say it. But he said duplex. But also Row which I’ve never heard.

Washington DC rowhouses. I typically associate a rowhouse with larger East coast cities: Boston, Baltimore, NYC, DC and Philly.

Screens make seance to keep the ghosts out.

@@JohnDoe-fu6zt Ghosts prefer to use elevators. It raises their spirits.

lol now I'm really jealous, I HATE mosquitos!

Mosquitos and wasps. Noooooope. I can't imagine not having screens on the windows. Enough wasps get in this house even with them, taking advantage of the moment a door is open so someone can enter or leave.

@D. F. Mercifully we don't... just the occasional pesky wasp.

It also needs to have two forms of egress: an interior door and a window.

The occupancy limit is only regarding rentals, and only in come states. If you own you can cram in as many as you want.

Rowhomes in Philadelphia

In Canada they're called townhouses. And I have an electric kettle.

And we had cross ventilation and door stops, heavy things that sat on the floor and kept the door propped open for the cross ventilation. That’s why screen doors, so you could keep the main doors open, with no bugs, but lots of moving air. Also, ladies carried fans, they work! Everyone in church would be fanning themselves like crazy.

OMG. And you lived?!? Im a Floridian and I can't imagine. I grew up in PA with no AC and hated it. Can't imagine being here in FL without it! You're one tough cookie.

@@newmoonenergetics6728 My house sucks. The way it is situated, there are no windows or doors to take advantage of cross breeze because it comes to the side of my house. Even though I have large patio doors in the back and big windows in the front, I get no breeze through them!

bleuflamenco 😂

Tim Pool

"I SHOT MY BABY" Neil Young ...... =^>

@@davidcantwell2489 "Deeaaaad, Ooo Oooo Shot er deead!!!" (Now I'll have that song in my head all night!)

Does nobody get the freaking Chris Farley reference. Holy Snikeys!

Kathy B I agree. Usually townhouse or townhomes. I’ve also heard “row houses” in some cities, but not all.

Yea no one says row unless you’re talking about boats or death row 🤷‍♀️

Kathy B - same in Britain. If they are located in inner cities they are called terrace houses (often Victorian) but if they are in the suburbs (usually newly built) they are now called townhouses.

In Philadelphia we call them row houses or rowhouses.

VictrolaIX yes, except in neighborhoods that are being fancied up!

More pictures, less nipple.

Yeah, it's sposedly a video. We sick n tired of talking heads.

@@orcaflotta7867 You dare insult the geniuses who gave us this song? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5IsSpAOD6K8.html

Do you have a ghost?

In Ontario you could not possibly exist without screened windows. I assumed it was the norm everywhere until I visited Alberta and later the U.K. Mosquitoes alone would drain you of blood. Then there's wasps, hornets, spiders (OMG the spiders!!!), gnats, noseeums, mayflies and midges ( in clouds ), horseflies and deer flies ( they remove chunks of flesh ) and if you survive these then the common housefly will drive you nuts.

Paul Burley I lived in Alberta, so luckily the windows/doors were screened. I used all the things that people recommended to keep the mosquitoes away, dryer sheets/Deet spray/orange shower gel/marmite 😂 All houses should have screens, who wants flys/wasps in their houses 🏠

Oh yes, Canadian here. Window screens are a must. I live in a city so mosquitoes at night aren’t as bad, but in rural areas they will drive you into the house in the evening. Mind you we have lots of raccoons, possums, skunks, even in the burbs. They live under our deck and come and go. Lol Around green belts and small forest there are even fox and coy wolves. They venture into the suburbs and look for stray cats or dogs. We use same terms as Americans for different style housing. Air conditioning in Ontario is needed in the summer. We get a lot of humidity. We like our tea and coffee, more westerners and farmers have guns. There are guns in the cities used by criminals too. Hearing more of that in the news. Our houses are big here too compared to Britain. I live in a 5 bedroom home 3200 square feet. (Average for our neighbourhood. )

Window screens or just screens

@@annlolmaugh4491 Window screens, screens or screened windows. 6 of that and half a dozen of this. All are correct and used interchangeably.

this phrase dates from the 1940s

@@dariusanderton3760 - by George Bernard Shaw.

@@dariusanderton3760 Believe it🙋🏾‍♀️😅