American Reacts to What a £275k British Home Looks Like - UK House Tour 

or reverse your air source heat pump, works a treat.

@@georgebarnes8163 Not if the heat pump drives water bourne heat to radiators (or even under floor pipes). Actually I have wondered if that would work at all, would cold radiators actually cool a room or just be unpleasant to touch? The only way that would work is if the heat pump drove a forced air heating system and our houses just aren't built to accommodate that. I've seen it in office spaces but never in a UK home.

@@andyjdhurley my air source pump heats and cools air via ducting and ceiling vents within the building which is sealed.

10:52

Last summer was so hot at hitting nearly 40° in my mums flat, we gave in and bought a massive cooling fan that you add water and iceblocks to and I sat with ice packs on me. I've lived in very hot zones in desert and almost tropics. I know hot...but last summer was a real scorcher and I'm no longer acclimatised, having come back to England by way of Scotland!

🤪

very clever lol

With lots of cheesy

🤣😂👋

Clever! 😂😂

Agreed, looks like it shouldn’t pass building regs

Having watched quite a few new build tour videos, this unfortunately doesn’t surprise me now. I’ve seen it quite a few times, but I do think it’s weird.

I thought the same. The cupboard under the stairs, yes, but not in a toilet. I don't see how having the electrics in a room with water is a good idea.

Mine is in the garage. This really confused me.

@@solforuu 🤣

It's a toilet not a bathroom are you shore your English?and my house has a Fuse box in the toilet.

Be happy, in Thailand I had a cheap hotel with a multiple kW inline water just heating next to the shower head. Every western electrician would throw his hands up in despair. 😅👍

Shore? Are you sure?

Usually have a key pad for the home alarm by the front door and the fuse box under the stairs or in a hallway cabinet. Router for broadband is usually in the lounge.

It's actually called Downstairs toilet, not a bathroom because it hasn't got a bath in!!!

yes I Can see how that would work well, we still using hot water bottles,

😂😂😂😂

Coming from Lossiemouth I can appreciate that sentiment. Very very funny 🤣🤣🤣🤣

British wit, love it😂😂

I see your North Sea and raise you the North Atlantic Ocean :)

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Most new houses in the UK are too small, due to the greed of builders wanting a high density of housing on available land.

I live in an older house a big living room open staircase a massive separate kitchen diner and 3 double bedrooms and i would never buy a new build and all i hear from people that do live in a new build is about mould, noise from next door , and cant hang mirrors or pictures because the walls are like cardboard lol

@@partridge9698why I hate new builds and they are ruining victorian house by turning them into flats for this exact reason xo

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That wasn't a flood plain it was actually branston ash lagoon. They built the houses on the pulverised ash field that the local.power station used to dump its ash.

@@kirstyhughes5554that does not sound good

Totally agree with this. Only thing I would add is the shared garden is a show home thing. It won't get sold that way.

@@rengibson never knew that. Always learn something new 😁

As stated, this the show home and right next door is the show room. The garden space is not separated between the two. You can see from the aerial shot how the gardens look. Most seem tiny and consumed by the garages. I cycle past this development and the houses are so small and cramped because the developer is trying to maximise profit.

@@RichHaynes2012 The garages are built into the houses; what you are seeing in the back gardens (yards) are garden sheds.

Garages are not permitted to open directly into houses, due to fumes, although to be fair, most people use them for storing their ‘stuff’! Many people just convert them into additional downstairs rooms (and put a door in).

I was thinking that price point seemed a bit steep for a starter home.

@@reactingtomyroots the price is about right for a starter home in a good area, although this one is super nice, the prices are insane right now!!

Yea a start home only has like one bedroom maybe a very small room just big enough, to fit a baby's cot in, and right to why the door is separating hall and living space , and a starter home a lot of the time wont have a garage. I see a few Americans surprised to see a washing machine in the kitchen, i did a youtube video calling out a known youtuber, lol on that very thing.

@@djfargis3728 Why on earth would you make a video to call out a RU-vidr for that? Utterly ridiculous!

​@@reactingtomyroots this is over £480.000 / £530.000 Also it is a new build , there are no starter homes in the UK we don't call it that what we do is if you can afford rent or buying a property that is up to you and your money New builds are just there for anyone to buy or rent from the property management, big trend property management but stupid designs built for cheap sold for 2 3 times the price you would expect the quality 2 bedroom flats are now prices of homes UK at the same time as building properties need to do it in much nicer ways with decoration and more practical use , UK has narrow roads so if anything property real estate owners should start redesigning areas off practicality

Exactly! I'm in the southeast & looking at 1-2 bedroom flats at £350k 😅

Yes agree with this

100% agree. Flats (Condos?) are around £350k ($440k). 3 bedroom terrace houses are around £500k ($631k) and 4 bedroom detached houses (like most Americans I think would be accustomed to. You are looking at around £700k ($883k). Prices can be higher or lower. Especially higher in London.

I live about 10 miles from this place. Price seems a little cheaper than I would expect this to be around £300k

Yeah I was going to say the cheapest 1 bed flat near me is about 140k, 3 bed new build down the road is going for 550k

You are right. My home was built in 1935. The walls are solid brick. It has a long wide hallway with 3 beds, separate dining room sitting room kitchen and two bathrooms. A veranda adjoining the main bedroom and the other end the sitting room. The walls are so solid you can't actually knock a nail in the wall...it bends. So you have to drill a hole plug it and then drive the nails in. The design is Spanish Hollywood.

Older houses are best, with proper gardens and reasonable size rooms, plus a bit of character compered to the modern lego houses they throw up now.

I wish to live on one of these though, it would mean I dont have to share with other people. ;(

We've always bought old solid properties with huge gardens . The houses that are built nowadays are like little identical boxes were 24 houses are looking into your 6ftx6ft garden at all times 😭 horrid. (Wales uk)

My thought exactly, i'm disgusted watching this video, what a bad home! They are cramming everything into every are as much as they can too, the tv placement was awful, i thought "show homes" had a certain artistique to them but they have the control panel for your electics next to the toilet, a boiler next to the sink hidden behind a cupboard door, it's just terrible, could've atleast tried to fit the boiler in under the stairs. Really dont like this, if this is how they all are now, count me out!

Yes, and it seems ironic for a reaction video that is usually along the lines of "you don't have sockets in your bathrooms?".

Just checked it meets regulations with regard distance from sink etc

It's because it's a display home.

@@Westcountrynordic yes - the regs are relaxing as RCD technology improves. My downstairs “bathroom” has a standard wall mounted light switch inside.

At least if the lights trip when you are on the toilet, you can reset them.

Not necessarily

@@neiltitmus9744 really, you must have been lucky to find something. Any 3 bed new build that is over 100m2 and has a garage, will most likely be way over half a million pounds. Within a London commute.

Depends where you are. The commute from my city takes about an hour into Liverpool Street and an average 3 bed house here is in the region of £400k.

I agree, I’m an hour commute away by train from London. House prices where I am (small town and villages) are 300-400 k for a 3 bedroom house. They’re 500-600k 12 miles away towards London, in the nearest city to where I live.

​@@lawli56 Not really even here in N.I flat prices absolutely ridiculous.

yes that cupboard under the stairs would have been a more logical place

totaly agree. this would never be marketed as a starter home. a beautiful new 3 bedroom detatched house like this is something you may work upto £275K minimum of 5% deposit required (£13750) then having to pass lending criteria & usualy only being able to borrow 3.5 times your salary you may get mortgage at 5.3% (typical at moment but this is changing) costing £1574 per month....(info from right move calculators) so even if you could afford the monthly mortgage then you would be having to be earning a very good wage to afford the lending criteria.........so very unlikley to be a first home

Jealous!

That garden is big!! Believe me LOLS.

Ditto, Yorkshire stone, built 1890s.

Lots of towns have banned wooden houses centuries ago after burning down in the middle ages because of that issue, but that's mainly limited to the original boundaries. But it certainly shaped our understanding that houses should be made from brick and stone. There is another reason though which is that wood is far cheaper in the US than Britain. We only have a small amount of forest in the UK, where we favour the environment and leisure as much as much as lumber production. Britain was deforested thousands of years ago in the Neolithic period. As a result of this most lumber has to be imported (normally from Scandinavia). Bricks in contrast are produced domestically.

Treated timber is fire resistant. If you get a fire in a brick hose it's going to lose it's floors and roof that means you're starting from scratch regardless, the house is always a write-off, so it makes no difference - insurers know what they're doing.

I find it really interesting that the '3 little pigs' tale is as well known in the US as it is in the UK but they still follow pig 2's building codes. It does make me wonder about places where wildfires seem to be a risk, are those homes still predominantly wood?

@@streaky81 yeah but most people have neighbours on the other side of the wall...

​@@streaky81 They can be replaced. There are incidents of stone or brick built houses having been open to the elements for years having the insides replaced. I particularly remember one granite tenement in a terrace of them in Aberdeen being restored in the 1980s, the stone walls having been found to be in as good condition as before an incendiary bomb destroyed the walls, floors and roof during WW2. Similarly, a modern brick house in a village near me had the inside replaced after being gutted by fire.

The main reason is nothing to do with fire. It's heat and privacy.

@@RustyVaperGameplay As I said, Lots of reasons I suppose, all a matter of perspective.

100 years? 😂 try 30-40 years. My nan still had an outdoor toilet as a kid in her houses as well as alot of houses

They weren't being built without inside loos 30-40 years ago! The 100 years specified would be about right for building age.

Yes, London UK is the same latitude as Calgary Alberta. The north of mainland Scotland corresponds with Juneau, Alaska.

There’s quite a few times I could have done with AC, remember last year?😊Don’t forget it gets very humid here too and our houses are built to be warm.

@@jemmajames6719 Try paying for AC. A fan is much less expensive - and greener. A heat pump even more so.

Even the south of England shares a latitude with southern Alaska. The UK as a whole is on the same latitude as Labrador.

⁠@@jemmajames6719 Built to be warm yes, but the special glass in my new double glazed patio door which keeps out the draughts in the winter actually kept the room much cooler in the hot weather than the previous one did.

Totally agree, especially if you have young children.

Nothing crazy or dangerous and they are very commonly installed in WC’s

The power switches (consumer unit) are usually under the stairs or in their own small cupboard, I assume these are in the downstairs WC because it is closest to where the power comes into the house.

@@Sophie.S.. I'm in Ireland and most power switch units are up high and the house alarms will always be in the hallways right beside the front door so you can turn the alarm off quickly. I've never seen that before. I thought the power switch being down low was strange because my 7 year old would know better than to touch it but my toddler would be all over it but then I wondered was it situated like that with disabled people in mind. For over 20 years all new builds have to be disability friendly with certain specifications like wider doorways downstairs, a toilet downstairs big enough to accommodate a wheelchair, lower doorhandles etc. It still seems like putting it in a toilet could be dangerous but what do I know about building regs?!

We have a new build and it’s in the cloakroom

Also, cooking smell stays just in the kitchen. I am not keen on open plan

@@clareoclareo2626 haha that’s true I didn’t think of that. Though depends what they’re cooking if I wanna smell it 😅 I have mixed feelings on open plan. I think it can make things more accessible and feel more spacious. However it can also decrease things like privacy and noise cancellation. I think it’s okay in a studio apartment cause it’s just you though I’d still like a curtain or something around my bed to create a separate mental space for sleep. I think an open space between the dining area and kitchen would be good cause those two are kinda connected and I personally rarely eat at a dining table now a days, but I’d probably want a separate living area.

Yeah, when it's hot we just open a window.

@@Otacatapetl Painful, but true!

My wife would disagree with the AC comment.

😂😂

Yeah we have mild seasons in the UK

What!😮 You mean you don't have a 3 bedroom house as a starter home? Ridiculous! Where do you keep the boat? And where do the staff sleep?🤭

Regardless of why it started, it's now a building regs issue. Once you get to three stories, then if you want open-plan on any floor, then you need to install a sprinkler system, which will them need to be periodically checked to satisfy your insurance. ...Or you don't do open-plan and make sure every room has a fire door. So this is why modern townhouse and other three story styles need to have doors. It's also a pitfall if you already have open-plan in your two story property and want to convert the loft because suddenly the downstairs layout no longer meets regs.

Water closet WC

A few years ago we moved to the Yorkshire coast, £155k got us a Victorian built 4 floor ex guesthouse, (9/10 bedrooms)Zoopla says £210k now and it’s a great size for a large family.

My thinking exactly. We are in a rural area 30 miles north of London and it is the sort of thing they are building as 'starter homes' but costing 4-500k. New developments are supposed to contain a proportion of 'affordable' homes but the developers ALWAYS find a way to reduce or remove that requirment. If you need something cheaper then it is going to be old, worn out, needing major refurbishment and tiny (2 bedrooms if you are really lucky), generally with NO outdoor space and probably a flat.

I live in Buckinghamshire and yeh it would cost far more for a place like this

Same here in Berkshire - 25 minutes to Paddington on the train from where I live and that makes my town very attractive for commuters, hence the house prices!

I live in south east wales and the house building is through the roof. Because people can’t afford Bristol and Cardiff. Even had people commute to London.

so thats why they are like units in australia they are mostly free standing

It would be classed as a half bathroom in states ... water closet here .

timber framed Buildings are quite common with an outside skin of bricks

Cloakroom!

around £600k in the south east, and the garden would be way smaller, probably just enough for a small patio and a patch of fake grass.

I live in a very posh area in South East london, in a 3 bed bungalow with a rear garden, tiny driveway suitable for 1 car, no AC. Last had it valued 2 and a half years ago and they estimated between £500,000 - £550,000. That said the rear garden is very long but narrow and divided into two sections, a smaller seating area and patio with a passageway that leads down the grassy larger area at the back where the shed is, table and chairs etc. There's probably just as much space outdoors, if not more, than there is indoors.

Most British houses are too small to include a laundry room.

Lol bit of a silly thing to say: it's only easier to plumb them in the kitchen because we tend to put them in the kitchen. As others have said, the reason we tend to put them in the kitchen in the first place is that most UK homes are too small for a separate laundry room.

@@slashdisco The kitchen tends to be the place where the mains water enters the house. Putting the washing machine near the sink is best for the water pressure.

Agreed, never ever seen a fusebox in a bathroom, little sketchy imo

You can put a consumer unit (fuse box) in a downstairs loo as long as its in the right position. If it was in the wrong place the inspector would not pass it.

​@@Westcountrynordiceven so it looked out of place so low down on the wall.

@@neilwilliams2409 That's down to the architect. I would have put the loo under the stairs and the cupboard where the loo is but that's me

Loo isn't a word used so much by younger people in the UK. Downstairs toilet is what I call it. Only my grandparents still use the word loo.

I can't help thinking that was the heating thermostat and not the alam? I can' imagine that a alarm would come as standard?

That is the alarm control panel (we have the same one in our house) and it''s completely wireless, so depending on the sensors and siren you use the batteries can last up to seven years before being replaced. You just need to install the control panel near a plug socket to get power to the panel. To arm or disarm you use a keyfob so you don't need to physically enter the code at the panel itself, just press a button when leaving or entering the house.

Ours is in the hall. My sisters has it just inside the hall cupboard (under the stairs)

That wasn't the alarm it was the electricity fuse box. I am shocked that was allowed in a bathroom. Presumably rules are different in a small WC rather than a full bathroom. Generally we don't even allow plug sockets or standard light switches in a bathroom

@@primeprover Yes that was the fuse box, the alarm was in the cupboard in the living room.

Yes! I remember reading that somewhere and it does appear to be the case in this show home.

Show homes use all sorts of tricks to make them look bigger. Hardly any furniture, no doors, lots of mirrors. A lot of new builds have very little storage as well, hence the rise of self storage units!

I would love to live in an old victorian house.

yes we got a super king in our bedroom put that in and the door would not open,

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 ahhhhh people are wising up after all the years of getting bummed from massive building firms 🤣

This is a new build housing estate built due to population increasing, it's not a village it's a commuter development

570k can only get a 2 bedrooms flat (tiny one) in where I live (outer London) 10 years ago.

@@user-bi8ko7kc6h Jeez. £570k would get you a nice fairly rural barn conversion with a decent garden, or plot of land where I am, in the Southern Lake district......or a 4 bedroomed exec style home on a fancy development. You know they type, with a couple of hanging baskets, and a 70 reg BMW on the drive...... A friend of mine moved over to the Lakes from East Yorkshire last year. He paid £200k for a lovely semi-detached cottage in a small rural village. It's on a narrow country lane, in a slightly elevated position, and has sweeping, uninterrupted 180 degree views of the Lake District hills from the front door..... The village pub is 300 yards down the road.. Given the fact that we get Winter here in the Lakes, followed by 6 months of bad weather, he has swapped his posh Audi for a Mitsubishi L200 4WD pick up truck.......

£275k would get you a very nice big house where I live

£275k would get you an old small terraced house, 1ba 2br, tiny garden, and road parking no driveway. A house like this, looking at £750k minimum.

It's massive for the money. In the London area you'd by lucky to get a 1 bedroom flat for that much.

I live in a two bedroom and I have a utility and my house is 70+ yrs old. As does all the other houses around me. It’s for rinsing dishes most houses have them in the uk.

Our fuse box is under the stairs

I live in a 3 bed bungalow in south east London. valued 2 and half years ago at £500k-£550k. Small drive with enough space for one car, large rear garden divided into two parts (probably more space in the garden than is in the house itself). Renting the cheapest house on my road would set you back £1,700 a month. A small 1 bed flat with a tiny lounge and bathroom in a block of flats about 1/4 of a mile from my house is still £1,300+ a month to rent. They aren't particularly modern flats either and the block was built around 20-30 years ago.

Same where I live, we got our beautiful 1800s 3 bed cottage for 90k. I’m bewildered by the prices in the south tbh 😂

Indeed, can't imagine a new build starter home costing anything above £150k around here and we have good transport links. Out in the country it drops to under £100k or you can find council estates with houses cheaper even than that but they are not places you would want to buy to live in yourself if you can help it, better just to rent

​@@timenchanter1983 where the fuck do you live in Manchester they sell garages literally for that sort of money .... Trust me I have seen it and am in the building game myself and everything this way is 3 to 400 grand plus for a shitty prefab or a apartment in a sky scraper where they bill you yearly for a parking spot under the building and then they bill you for having staff to work and press buttons all day to let people in

@@robertknight2556 I’m from up north, no way would it be that cheap in many many areas.

Yup, the Art Deco house here was built in 1936, it's a three-bed semi-detached, they had driveways down the side of the houses and a garage in the rear garden, but back then the cars were much narrower, most people have extended their homes over this area, and the front garden and driveway has become a large driveway for three cars, plus our rear garden is South facing 130ft long x 26ft wide, we've not extended sideways as I want the access for a small trailer storage (used for logs), but we have extended the ground floor at the rear, some people build a glass extension, we decided those were too hot/bright in the Summer, and too cold in the Winter, so we had built built with a tiled roof instead, we also have a large wooden decking that we intend to cover with just a roof for shade/rain for use in the Summer. The rear garden is big enough for three sheds 20ft x 20ft, 8ft x 8ft and 6ft x 8ft, an antenna tower (Amateur Radio), a large natural stone paved patio, including an outdoor large Sun Patio with seating, tables, and a log fired Chimnea, along with a separate BBQ, four large log stores, and an Air Rifle Range up for 20/25/30 yards, and a separate Air Rifle Range for 6 yards / 10 metres. The kitchen here is slightly better equipped as the wife just had a new one fitted, along with a breakfast room, there's also a front sitting room with a log fire (although the house has Gas Central Heating & Water as well), and we are considering Solare Water Heating Tubes on the South facing roof; and the rear ground floor extension is the Lounge/TV Room, we also have the Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer under the Stairs to the First Floor, upstairs there's three bedrooms and a bathroom. We are considering converting the loft space into a 2nd Floor storage and a craft room. On Zoopla the house here in Shrewsbury is estimated at £380-£400k, but that was when I last checked a year ago. As regards Renewable Energy, we have Cooperative Society shares in a Wind Farm (Scotland), and a Solar Farm (England), that credits us energy via our Cooperative Society Utilities, although I'm planning Solar Panels on the large shed, and a small wind generator on the antenna tower, to power Amateur Radio off-grid. We currently have four cars (2x Diesel, 2x Petrol), two are classics (an air-cooled engined estate, and an untidy looking 'Sleeper' hatchback tuned for Track Days), one diesel hatchback is used by the wife for work, and the other is a large estate for towing a caravan/trailer (the twin-axle six berth caravan is stored in a secure location elsewhere). We have zero plans to change our cars, however, because we may have friends/family turn up in an EV or plug-in Hybrid, we do have a 240vAC 13A Charging Point fitted to an outside wall.

​@@brianbrotherston5940 All of them? or just the one above you? Or the guy talking?

We've never been able to get ANY car we've owned into the typical garage - going back to 1974.......................

i suspect that consumer unit location is for the show house only and it does meet current building/IEE regulations.

I would say Staffordsheer!

@@janewilson8676 There are going to be variations, depending on a persons location and regional accent. I was just generalising.

'burnt' down.

@@celticgold4028 Yes burnt.

I'm a retired structural carpenter, and I built a timber framed, timber clad house for myself about 30 years ago (in which I still live). I've watched by neighbours in their Victorian terraces dealing with massive cracks in their masonry walls, shell out huge sums to have their founds underpinned, brickwork re-pointed, deal with rising damp and mold etc., whilst I've been enjoying my trouble-free, very well insulated house. When "history is made", it doesn't necessarily go in the right direction - I'm sure you're aware we're currently witnessing the demise of the internal combustion engine. Producing brick, cinder blocks and cement cause untold environmental damage. On the other hand, using timber as a building material creates a minimal carbon footprint, as it takes little more than sun and rain to produce fast growing timber with which we can build houses. Over the last 20-30 years, I've seen a significant movement back to using timber framing in otherwise conventional house building. Timber is easy to use, flexible, and should any structural part fail, it can be replaced with little drama. unlike masonry.

​@@user-zu6ir6kj5gevery house built like yours? Would again be a fire hazard.

@@user-zu6ir6kj5g I didn't say it doesn't have it's uses. And when I say brick, I meant more in the lines of "stone" type materials. The fact remains however that brick is far more longer lasting, and a lot of problems in older brick houses are not the bricks themselves, nor the quality of building. The Victorians had a strange habit of building over disused wells and shafts, resulting in lots of sinkholes even today. The integrity of a building is only as good as the foundation it is built on, and the ground itself is what compromises most older buildings, not the structure of materials used. Their windows were not as sealed, resulting in moisture entering framework, not just around the windows, but doorways, skirting boards, roof framing, joists etc. Ventilation was not adequate resulting in moisture build up from the inside. The heating was open fires which are open to the elements, birds nesting, debris build up. Trees were planted around properties, and 100+ years later those roots are still cracking underground pipes and sewage lines resulting in waterlogging in the ground. Early Victorian houses had no plumbing, nor central heating, and weren't built big enough for today's living standards. People had only a couple of sets of clothes, there were no fridges, freezers, washing machines, tumble dryers, chest freezers, power tools, showers, pools, garages, electrical appliances, technological gadgets and machines, toys, bikes, or boisterous children bombing round the house. Since then, those same houses have sacrificed a bedroom or two to convert into bathrooms, had driveways added, extensions built on, lofts converted and conservatories added on. Windows have been replaced,and replaced again,. Fireplaces have been knocked out or boarded over. Walls have been removed. Period features ripped out. Staircases flipped round, moved or added. Pollution affects the building materials. So much traffic vibration affects the ground stability. Major groundworks around the properties have upgraded drains, sewers, electric cabling, gas pipes, water mains, telecom wiring, streetlights, resurfaced roads, burst pipes, traffic collisions. There's only so much pneumatic drilling that can be done before you start shattering structures nearby. Extensions or conservatories don't require as much foundation, but the problem is, they are built onto the side of a house and if they start sinking, they can pull the house sideways along the way. If you keep knocking out window frames, redrilling brickwork to add wiring for additional appliances, upgrading boilers and replacing old lead pipes, then of course bricks are gonna get cracked along the way. That doesn't mean the bricks themselves are not a strong and reliable building material. A lot of building problems come down to neglect, most of which isn't intentional. Lack of money may push repairs back but a lot of necessary repairs aren't even obvious until you've got water pouring through the ceiling or find your drains overflowing sewage along your garden. So whilst you say it's easier to replace a piece of wood here and there, that's all very well, providing you can see it and know it needs replacing, but more repairs aren't known to us until something breaks. Most Victorian homes that need underpinning or stabilising in some way, it's not the bricks that were the issue. It's the foundation, the ground becoming wetter and less compacted, or the WOODEN framework of the house or roof that gave way. It's underground tree roots, abandoned wells, climbing plants, repeated alterations, insufficient foundations, moisture levels, rot, mould, neglect or roof damage. Even today people go to salvage yards to buy bricks that are 100-200 years old, that are a little worse for wear cosmetically but still as structurally sound as the day they were made. The bricks are not the problem. And just to finish, there are some fabulous craftsmen in America whose cabinetry or flooring or plasterwork etc are second to none. But on the whole, their building methods OVERALL are STILL not as good as even ours was back in Victorian times. I watch house upgrades, renovations, or property searches more than any other type of TV programme. Whether it's tiny homes, waterworks conversions, renovating a windmill to live in, or buying a home abroad, I watch them all. A lot of them are American. I've seen huge houses being built in America where the foundations are just a series of trenches of concrete, for the outer walls to stand on, not an entire foundation to bear the weight of the entire home. I've seen American homes bought for upgrading, where they've gone into the crawl space beneath, and the only thing holding up the house are wooden posts that have split or are sinking into the ground. Absolute insanity! I've seen better integrity in a pop up tent than a lot of their homes! And finally, the main reason I mentioned American wooden homes are not as reliable as ours...TERMITES!!! Yes we get them here too of course, but their insect population collectively is off the charts compared to a few gnats and ants over here! When they strike over there a wooden house can soon become sawdust, so from an environmental perspective, they could avoid a lot of those potential issues by using brick. 😊😊😊

@@user-zu6ir6kj5g HAH! Coincidence or what? What's the chances of this.....one of the other RU-vidrs I watch, who's also American and does (mostly) UK reaction videos, is RYAN WUZER...... and he's JUST posted a video on his channel explaining WHY American homes are flimsy compared to ours! 😂 You couldn't make this up! Just as I posted my reply to you, he's put that video up! Well done on building your own home, BUT there is no way to future proof any home. There will always be new and improved boilers, heating, appliances, gadgets, must-have fads, better windows etc etc. Years ago my daughter lived in a small block of flats before she had children. One of the previous tenants in the block had put up a satellite dish outside, and when they moved, they took it with them. Fast forward a year or so after that tenant had left, and ALL the tenants had to move out temporarily to a Premier Inn, that the landlord paid for, because the whole block has an issue with black mould which is dangerous! My daughter's flat particularly was badly affected and she was getting through bottles of bleach like water, but all the flats had some issue with it. It was all because of a few small holes in the brickwork from the satellite dish being put up a bit sloppily by former tenants. Whenever it rained it drove water into the hole that was soaking up into the insulation throughout the whole cavity between inner and outer walls. Everyone had mould inside from that side of the building. That's what I mean....the bricks themselves are fine, it's all the subsequent upgrades and DIY that causes future problems. Incidentally, I'm sure you know who Sarah Beenie is? Building and interior design expert....Yes? On one of her shows she was with a couple whose outer wall needed anchoring as the bricks were starting to look a bit higgledy-piggledy. They were still in place but looked like someone with hand tremors had laid them and had never heard of, let alone used a spirit level. 🙄 Anyhoo, this couple were in a state of panic and dread, thinking the worst, so she took them to the building and engineering institute, I think that's what it was called..or some place called something similar. Basically it's like a scientific testing and teaching place, specifically related to building work. So she showed them a demo of a brick wall that was still upright, but most if not all the cement was missing, and these bricks were still standing on no more than a whim and a prayer holding them upright! Then they were told to push out a brick here and there, a bit like a giant Jenga wall, and whilst the rest of the bricks may have leaned a little on one end in response, the wall still didn't fall down. They took out more a more bricks, and the rest of them kind of shuffled and redistributed the weight bearing. It took the removal of a LOT of bricks, before the wall finally fell, and even then not all of it fell. Back at their house they had a man outside the wall, level with the upstairs floor, who had the biggest drill and threaded bolt you've ever seen. He drilled through a brick, right through into the home and inside the end of one of the floor joists. Then a decorative metal emblem went on the outside of the brick, and the threaded bolt went through that, through the wall, and right inside a decent length of this joist. As it got tighter it pulled this decorative brace thing closer and tighter to the home, which pulled in the whole wall until it was perfectly level, and secured it to the inside floor. The wall was fixed, and it also raised up the slight sag of the bedroom floor making that level again. As Sarah explained, it's not just that bricks are strong and durable in themselves, but that the placement of laying a brick wall, each layer overlapping the ends of each brick in the row beneath itself, is where the real integrity of a brick wall lies. The overlapping holds a wall together more than the cement does and even with no cement at all! She's said time and time again, that what threatens Victorian houses the most, is the ground, that is full of huge tree roots either zapping out ALL underground moisture making the ground crack and sink, or the roots damaging pipes and causing a water build up underneath. That and, roof damage, because rain gets into the wooden rafters and works that moisture all along into wooden joists, framing, stud walls and skirting boards etc. It is RARELY, if EVER, a fault with the bricks themselves! 😘😘😘 Right, let's go watch Ryan's video to see American flimsy building! 😜

The Scandinavians use wood just fine. Wood is pretty study if you employ advanced techniques

I hate them people always seem to chuck teabags in them Iike a, nice bid single sink.

Starter homes in the UK usually are one or two bedroom houses. The WC is a Water Closet which is what the first toilets were called. The electricity panel is never in a bathroom so 4hat is very unusual it is usually in a cupboard in the hallway or under the stairs. The half sink is often utilised for washing vegetables/fruit or rinsing the dishes of the soap suds.

I insisted on this when I replaced mine but it's not standard. It was fitted left handed (yes can switch) and my drainer is much bigger the same size as the sink. But I'm in a older flat, which oddly means I have a better size kitchen than the avg 3 bed house.

Yup, London is situated 600 miles NORTH of Chicago - even north of Edmonton AB.

England must be the only country in the world where you can't have switches and power points in the bathroom and toilet. I have never heard of a person getting water out of the toilet onto the light switch. like every one else Here in Australia we have a light switch and 3 power plugs in both our bathrooms.

​@@kenpage1107 British Safety Standards is why. The only outlets and switches allowed in a bathroom are shower pulls and shaver sockets.