Brits React to BRITISH vs AMERICAN Homes 

Im 74 years old. Born, and lived in the U.S. all of my life. I have never had a bath suite without a door. I find the idea of it ridiculous. 😅

I had never seen a bathroom without a door.

Typically, you'll find all master bathrooms have a door. The larger master bathrooms will sometimes have the toilet in its own tiny room with a door. The only time I've ever seen a bathroom without a door in the US, its been in a builder's model home.

99.9 percent of all bathrooms in america have doors. I have never seen a bathroom without a door

Giving you a heads up, they live in a gated community and therefore, they go to a building to pickup the mail.

NOBODY puts a full banana into a garbage disposal!! That is nothing but trouble later on. Further, most homes (millions of them) are at least 40 years old or more and the average size was much smaller as well as the inside style was more individual rooms and not open concept which is mostly in the past 20 years. So this is not a fair or realistic representation of the average home. Homes are entirely different from east coast to west and I would guess that more than 50% of home have only 1 1/2 or 2 bathrooms.

The toilet usually has a door. Not sure why they don't in such an expensive home.

My wife and i live in rural Tennessee. We live on 44 acres with a log home we built 6 years ago. We have a basement and 2 stories above that. Including the basement it is 3300 square feet of space. We are retired on fixed incomes, but we are still able to live comfortably. We probably are not typical in our situation because I was a building contractor for most of my life, and we built our home ourselves. I think you will find it pretty hard to compare the American lifestyle to that of British lifestyle because there is such a wide variety of lifestyle here in this massive country. There are so many different climate zones here and a different way to build and live in each one. You need to spend a few months here and travel a long distance to experience them all. I am blessed to live in a country like this one.

I have never seen or heard of a house in the US without a door for the restroom. I was actually surprised when she mentioned that.

This couple was showing you top of the market type of home in the US. It is NOT the norm for most people in the US in all of the categories.

Most US homes the mailbox is at the road in front of the home. In gated communities the mailboxes are at entrance of community.

1:58 That's literally the house on the ranch that was used for the television show Dallas. It's Southfork Ranch and what you are seeing is basically a museum you can visit in Texas that was used on location for the show.

Typically, the average home in the US is a 3 bedroom 2 bath 2 car garage. 1200 - 1800 sqft. Depending on your geographic location, you may have a basement which can be used as living quarters, entertainment room, office, home gym, ect....

This comparison isn’t a middle class home in 🇺🇸 nor older builds

That's a strange mail situation. Every house I've seen had a mail box either at the curb or on the porch, or a slot in the door.

Mail delivery varies by area here in USA. Some go to Post Office to pick it up, some have a mailbox out by the street, others have it either on the porch or a mail slot...there is no standard means of mail delivery in the USA.

As far as hard wood flooring, you can add heating underneath to keep the floor from being too cold

i call bovine excrement, that couple are a double 6 figure income couple and their house reflects it. also they live in a desert where water is at a premium so you wouldn't have a "garden" per say you would go broke hydrating it. and like the uk it depends on the age of your house mostly as to the amenities you get. area also dictates housing prices here in miami like ny a small apt will cost you $2500 and a simple house will set you back $500k down here you really dont worry about heat (i haven't worn long pants in 5 years) but you do have higher insurance costs due to storms. there's a lot about this video that doesn't apply to most of the US.

The best part of an open kitchen is you can prepare meals for family and friends and still be included socially.

Another thing that is different between U.S. and UK homes is that the clothes washer and dryer are in the kitchen in the UK and they are in a separate area of the home in the U.S. I can not imagine trying to wash my dirty laundry in the same room where i prepare my food. Laundry facilities vary in location depending on the size of the home here. In some homes they are located in the basement, some home have dedicated laundry rooms, and in some homes they can even be located in the garage. I have lived in homes where the laundry facilities are located in the above mentioned places. My sister's house has a little alcove off of the hallway that has folding doors specifically for the washer and dryer.

Many master suites in the US are open onto the vanity/bath area, especially in larger houses, but there is always a door to the Water Closet(toilet area). If your en-suite is just a regular sized bathroom, it would definitely have a door.

The mail situation for them is unique. I've lived in the US all my life, I'm 66 years old. 95 % of the places I've lived in have had mail delivered in the door, or a mailbox on your front porch. I've lived in apartments, and they have mail delivered in the front lobby (1st floor), in a communal mail area where everyone has a lockable mailbox. The home I have now is a 2100 sq foot townhome, in a development here in southern Pennsylvania. The mail is delivered to a communal outside box where we have a keyed mailbox. It's about 100' from my front door. I personally love mail delivered to my front door, but that's typically not done in a more rural setting, which I like living in the rural area. I hope that helps!!

I've never heard of a bathroom not having a door. Everyone I know with an en suite has a bathroom door. As far as the mailboxes, our mailbox is at the end of our driveway so the mail truck can dry by and deliver your mail without having to walk to the door. He only comes to the door if a package won't fit in the mailbox.

Draining boards next to the kitchen sink can be purchased at Walmart, etc. They're relatively inexpensive.

They’re showing big houses in the US. Not all of us live in homes like that. Yes, new construction is opening up homes with big kitchens and bigger rooms but we have plenty of smaller homes here too. I grew up in a small home with one bathroom and 3 bedrooms and shared a bedroom with my little brother. We were able to afford a bigger house as I grew into a teen but not all of us can do that.

After my wife(a cancer patient) passed 13 years ago, I downsized into a new home closer to my relatives in central Texas. I bought the smallest house being built in a new subdivision that is a 3 bedroom(4th room for BR, or other purpose), 2 bath, 2 car garage. Using the chart in your video, it is more than twice the size of an average UK home. We just have more land for homes, compared the UK. I would have been perfectly fine living in a smaller house, just for myself, but they don't build smaller houses in this area. ❤

Our space is not excessive, its just what we have. Britain is miniscule.

A lot of master bathrooms don't have doors as you enter the bathroom because the toilet has its own space within the bathroom with a door.

I live in a house that has a basement, first and second floor. Each floor of my house is about 400sq ft. I have a galley kitchen, one full bath (we have 3/4 bath, in the basement, but it's just a place for bugs to go die). The bedrooms are big enough for a twin bed, and the "master" can fit a queen. When it comes to my kitchen, I have 2 normal sized cabinets and 2 very small cabinets on the bottom and 3 regular sized cabinets up top. I would kill for a larger kitchen with a full pantry, but my house isn't built that way. The houses that are shown in these video's are great, if you can afford it, but for the most part more people live in homes like mine.

It's amazing the vast differences! I live in a suburban area of upper-middle class homes. My home is almost 70 years old, so it is not the more modern "open-concept" with the kitchen part of the living room. We have a two-car garage, as opposed to the 3-car garages more popular in newer homes. You're correct that most people do not have all the luxury shown in the featured home. But overall, we Americans are spoiled in what we take for granted. I couldn't live without central heat or AC.

When I built my home in the 70’s we opted for the open style even my smaller home feels so much larger without the walls.

Maybe the main part of a bathroom doesn’t have a door, but the toilet area does. 🤷‍♀️ I heard, that in the UK, there are no minimum room size requirements. Water is scarce in the Southwestern US. Gardening might be mostly drought tolerant plants.

I have NEVER seen a bathroom without a door.

Lived in the U.S. for 64 years. Always had a bathroom door and my mail always comes to my front door.

My ensuite has a door. Also, there is a separate room within the bathroom for the toilet - it is called the toilet room.

Most mail in the U.S. is delivered directly to the home's mailbox out front. Walking to get your mail is rare.

Residential mail delivery receptacles (i.e. where you pick up your mail) come in a few flavors in the US: * slot on front door (this tends to be only very old houses) * mailbox mounted on house (this requires the route to be walked by the postal carrier, so it's also a bit less prevalent) * mailbox at the end of your driveway (carrier drives a mail truck), or across the street from that (this being required if the driving mail carrier will only traverse the road in one direction) * multiple boxes or multiple cells in one spot in the neighborhood * mailbox that you rent from the post office (or one of its competitors)

Open plans with kitchens are fairly new. My house has doors on each room, including the kitchen. It was built in the 1940s and the rooms are small.

As an American, I’ve never seen a bathroom without a door.

My wife and I lived in a very large flat on Upper Whimpole St. in London. We were lucky to get it (2+ years), but it was expensive! The bedrooms were large, but no closets...WTH?? The one bathroom was 10' x 10' and it had heated towel racks!! We had the entire 3rd and 4th floors with a couple doctor offices on the first and second. The kitchen was small with a washer that was also the dryer. A wash and dry session took over 3 hours, but our clothes came out very clean. One thing all the Americans noticed was our "whites" came out incredibly white!! We had a good time in London and our weekend road trips to the English countryside were the best!!

British people commonly call their back area a 'garden' because before and during the world wars, they grew food in those areas as it was common for families to grow their veggies instead of buying most of them, and would buy meats from the store and the few veggies they didn't or couldn't grow. this naming just stuck and it's been that way since for British people. In the U.S. on the other hand, we've rarely grown our own foods, unless you live on an actual farm (small or otherwise) and thus it has nearly only been 'yards'. Widespread carpet in homes is a fad that changes decade to decade. in the 60s and 70s it was highly used (even some bathrooms had carpet up to and could include the sides of the bath), even on the stairs. but in the 90s and 2000s, non-carpet floors became more popular. it started off being that the kitchen and living rooms were non-carpet (along with bathrooms and laundry rooms. basically anywhere that water might spill). then it spread to bedrooms as people started to understand that it was much easier to keep non-carpet areas clean than carpeted areas. thus you have now that it's popular to have nearly (or entirely) the whole house without carpet. some may have it already (or get it installed) in specific places for comfort, like the bedrooms or living rooms, but it's preference now. and area or small rugs are used in those non-carpet places to keep the cold off people's feet.

They can buy a drainage thingy to put next to the sink. Rubbermaid and I imagine other companies make them. They also usually have a rack that sits on top where you can put your wet dishes as they dry and drain into the sink. They are probably at every dollar store.

In nearby Philadelphia the average square footage for homes is 1,420. I live in the suburbs about a half hour away so homes here are definitely bigger. 2:00 This house is HUGE!

In our en-suite, we have what we call saloon doors just for a little privacy. One has to be in the bedroom before getting to the bathroom. The saloon doors also serve as a bit of a light diffuser for the night light we have in the bathroom. If those doors are kept open at night, more light shines into the bedroom.

Hardwood floors every time!!! They are beautiful, and tou can cozy them up wirg large area rugs around the bed, couch, etc. Har wood is essential for tjose of us with allergies!!!

Houses in America, with lots of windows, tends to be in locations with mostly sunny weather. Too many windows in cold climates, means cold air, which means high utility bill. One more point, my experience growing up was 3 bedroom home, with 1 bathroom, no basement. Not the normal. I currently reside in a home with 4 baths, walk in closets, brick home. There is what i would say is an older stock of homes, and a newer, more modern stock. The homes on here, is typically newer, higher end homes.

Houses are smaller in the UK due to heating costs. When most homes were built, the technology to build them at the time needed you to have smaller rooms to keep in the heat. More homes in the US are newer. With building technology today, you can have those open floor plans. Windows today keep a lot more heat/cold out. Central heat/air in the US helps keep those bigger spaces comfortable. The ensuite might not have a door, but they usually have a toilet closet with a door.

my grandfather bought a 'kit house' from Sears in 1944 for $550 and built it himself. it had a kitchen, living room and bedroom. they had an outhouse. My grandmother refused to move into it until my grandfather built a working bathroom INSIDE the house, which he did. they then added another bedroom with their first child and then a master suit when their 4th child (girl, so she could have her own room from her 3 brothers). by the 1970s, my grandfather had build a new larger kitchen/dinning room. a sitting room, a second larger living room. a car port, and the house was 4 bedrooms, 3 baths with a total of 5,400+ sq ft.... and this was all on 10 acres. He built ALL of the house himself throughout those years.

mail slots are in old neighborhoods. The postal service pushes for boxes since it is more efficient for them.

The house image at about the 2:00 mark is not typical in size. That is actually the house filmed in the TV show Dallas.

That house, the first one, looks like rhe home on the old tv show, Dallas!! Way before your time!! Its ginormous!!!

in the US you have a yard and a garden is an area where food is grown. The yard can have flowers, trees, etc. referred to as landscaping but we would never call that a garden. Even at our farm we call the landscaped area around the house and barn a "Farmyard" and the sub-area with fruit trees the "fruit orchard" (we are not there enough to take care of a garden with vegetables).

14:58 where I am (El Paso, Tx), replacing an hvac system (assuming a split unit - condenser outside with evaporator and furnace inside) for a residential @ 1600 square foot single story house would cost from $6,800 (low quality) to @ $15,000 (high end system - this includes a thermostat that also displays info useful to a tech and the condenser has a display panel of pressures and temps of refrigerant with other useful info allowing the tech to not have to connect gauges and other tools/equipment)

In hot climates like Las Vegas, many people have coated cement, marble, or ceramic/porcelain tile floors. It keeps the heat down and is easier to clean. People will put down a throw-down rug in areas for comfort.

You should start a channel "The Beesleys move to America" move to America and start a Vlog like "Lost in the Pond" but from the view of a newly arrived British Couple.

Common area bathrooms have doors, but in some homes the bedroom bathrooms may not. It's YOUR bedroom. Lol!!

The master en-suite in my childhood home had an open doorway, but the toilet was in an enclosed room with a door inside the bathroom.. Most people have letterboxes or mailboxes at their residence. Our mail is delivered straight to our houses, with few exceptions. If you don't like hardwood, put a large stylish rug down.

originally, British homes were built out of stone (with little wood, as it's scarce for building material there) and the interiors were walled off rooms so that the heat could be kept in the rooms that were being used, while the rooms that weren't in current use to get cold until they were needed again. thus why your traditional building schemes still work that way. In the U.S. we used to build that way until we created 'central' heating and aircon. then that allowed us to keep the whole house at the same temp, so there was no longer a need to keep the rooms walled off to keep heat or aircon within those rooms that were currently occupied. this allowed for the 'open' floor plans, thus you have it as the default building plan now in the U.S.

At 8:18 I've lived my whole life in the US and never seen or heard of a bathroom without a door. A lot of the things they're talking about must be with expensive new builds. The standard US middle-class detached "tract" houses built in the 1950s through 1980s (which we Baby Boomers grew up in) are bungalows with three or four bedrooms and two bathrooms, one off the Master Bedroom and the other in the hallway. These houses would have a decent-sized kitchen (not the narrow "galley kitchen" many UK homes have) and a dining room, formal "living room", "den" or family room, and small "laundry room" having the washer and dryer, then a hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms. What I envy with UK homes are the huge "utility rooms".

The house pictured at 1:58 is actually Southfork Ranch, home of the Ewing family in the 70s and 80s television show "Dallas" which is by no means a standard house in the US. Never put a banana with the peel in the garbage disposal because they could wrap around the blades and damage the motor. We buy draining racks to stack dishes after hand washing them. Most kitchens in the US have double sinks instead of one sink and a drainage area, one sink to wash and one sink to rinse.

Enjoyed hearing from a couple from England. It makes me feel I should be more thankful for all we have in the USA. Thank you for sharing.. My name came from England in the 1600's, I think.

I don't have a pantry now but an old apartment used to have one. But that's only because the building used to be a house and the pantry used to be a bedroom closet.

Our family has lived in several US states. We did live in one home where the master bath sink area was open to the bedroom, but the toilet was still in a separate area with a door.

We aren't wealthy at all but our house has an open floor plan so our kitchen dinning and great room are all visible from any room and so is our fireplace. Our fireplace is the focal point of our house. We have doors on all our batrooms.

We have a bathroom in every bed room & a powder room for guests on the main level.

That's why you put heated floors in the master bedroom/bathroom.

My house growing up had a backyard of 3 levels with 2 levels for gardens.

That “stunning” house at the beginning is Southfork Ranch from the TV show “Dallas.” That’s where I watched the solar eclipse.

You can plant a garden in your backyard. A garden for us can be a vegetable garden or a flower garden (which people plant in various locations of the front, side, or backyard).

That home is the site for Dallas the tv show, it’s enormous! My new home in SC was 2,200 which is typical middle class.

I bought a 2-bedroom, 2-bath home on 3/4 acre in the mountains of Idaho. It didn't have a garage! Since I decided that I needed a garage, I decided it would be cost effective if I built a garage (3 car) with a 2nd story apartment for my Mother. I designed a loft style apartment. with a large deck on the south side (above the original house) & a balcony on the north side. The deck has a patio (sliding) door & the balcony has French doors. This allows a breeze in the summer. There is a full kitchen with dish washer & built-in microwave. All interior walls are 3/4 height including the bathroom, i.e., open concept. The bathroom has a Jacuzzi, toilet, bidet, pedestal sink, & a stacked washer/dryer. I did include a door to the bathroom. I installed double swinging "bar doors" for the perfect amount of privacy for an apartment dweller.

No these are not normal homes for big cities. Here in the Midwest the homes are bigger and cheaper with huge yards. 80+% of the population lives on the coast. You would be surprised what you find. The Chiefs coach like 5 mins from my house.

My house is 3,200 sq ft of living space (5 bedroom,3.5 baths, live in basement). Our kitchen opens into the family room. And our mail is delivered to the door. And we have a single carport, so we have to park our cars behind each in the driveway.

On the hardwood vs carpet. Here in Montana when I was shopping for a house in early 2000s. A lot of the houses with hard surface floors came with radiant heat flooring. This meant warm floors in the winter since the floor was your source for heating and then they had central (ducted) cooling systems. I went with a house that has ground source heating and cooling.

Their mail situation isn’t typical. A lot of homes have door mail slots and others have mail boxes on the outside of the house or on the street in front of your house. A/C is fabulous, as are garbage disposals, lol. We have a true garden as part of our backyard. Lots of English roses!

It depends where you live if there is a door on the on-suite bathroom. In the northeast, I have never seen an on-suite without a door.

If they are in Vegas in that size house in a gated community they have pretty good money. They probably live in Summerlin, which is a wealthy neighborhood in Las Vegas. I used to live in Vegas, my kids were born there my ex-husband and father-in-law were security guards for the Prince of Brunei's Vegas mansion so I have been in the gates of the rich areas. For a long while I had marble slabs that were cut off from the Prince's mansion's kitchen counters when they were installed.

The "no door to the ensuite bathroom" was a fad and one of the biggest complaints people had. The new homes which are in a neighborhood may have a central mail area due to the Post Office cutting down on the number of post men and women. Depends on the Post Office.

Older American here. I live in southern New Mexico, in what is often called the high desert. We have a house with a climate controlled system similar to what was shown in your video. Last summer it reached 132°F [55°C] in our back yard. We had well over 44 days of consecutive 100°F [38°C] days last year. In the winter it can drop down below 32 deg. F [below 0 deg. C]. You simply set the thermostat to heat or cool & forget about. It is pretty efficient & isn't really very expensive to run on either setting.

Price would be determined by what state you leave in. For example, you could leave in a very large home in Alabama compared to a small home in south Florida and the price would be the same

In older communities, where houses are both closer together and more near the sidewalk, the mailman CAN walk a normal route. In some areas the houses are both far from the neighbors and from the street. This means that the mailman will have to walk huge distances between houses. In those cases you have a mailbox on a pole at the edge of your property and at the street. In this way the mailman drives a little truck delivering (and picking up mail) into those mailboxes at the street. Now many new housing developments believe that those street mailboxes are unsightly. In some new areas where they have smaller houses, a forest of mailboxes on poles is quite ugly. So now those new communities will have a little oasis of mailboxes (usually under cover and maybe a picnic table). They might look like small high-school book lockers. The mailman comes with a truck and a "master key" to open the individual mail boxes and distribute the mail (and packages) into "locked" boxes. Each "oasis" might have boxes for 20-30 houses or more. Some communities may have several....situated every 2 to 3 streets. In California my sister's each have their community mail boxes just around the corner. My son here in Florida has their's a block away.

Most kitchens aren't open floor plan either. We have a wall between the living room and our kitchen which I'd LOVE to open up (it's load bearing so would need a beam) with an entryway but no door to close them off completely. They are roughly the same size in dimensions at 11 1/2 by 16 feet or 184 square feet each. The totally square footage of our house is around 1500 but our home was also built in 1976 so en suite bathrooms were not a thing. We still have a 3 br/1 bath home that consists of a ground level and a basement level. There is a room downstairs that can be used as a bedroom and space to build a small bathroom inside the utility room, my parents just never did. The a/c and heating units are different systems. If we have a garden in the US, it's because we are GARDENING. Some are growing fruit and veggies. Some just have a flower garden hence the reason it's a backyard. A yard at the back of your house to do whatever with even if part of it is a flower garden or you have a patch of herbs. It's still a backyard :).

If the home is without a bathroom door then it probably has a separate room for the toilet. With a door. Some homes have a closet beyond the bathroom, meaning you have to walk through the bathroom to get to the closet.

The in-home climate control systems we use here are sometimes referred to as HVAC. Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning system. The system consists of 3 different machines working in concert, and a network of ducts that connect the furnace to the rooms of the house. Inside the house, the furnace is the central hub. It is responsible for heating, filtering, optional moisture control or even airborn bacteria killing. It also forces the air into the ducts, distributing it around the house. The condenser unit is outside, and it provides the cooling of the air, as well as moisture removal. Lastly, theres the thermostat, which is what you use to control the system. If everything is going right, you will only ever have to deal with the thermostat, aside from occasionally needing to change your furnace filter every 6-12 months. Some modern thermostats have more advanced controls, where they will give you temperature and humidity readings outside, courtesy of the sensors on the condenser. They can also be programmed with schedules, so you could program the system to turn off while you're at work, and set it to turn back on 30 minutes before you get home.

Every house that i have been to in america in my 61 years has had a door to the bathroom. Now sometimes there is no door to the sink and shower/ bath area and there is a separate area with a door for the toilet.

Yes, our bathrooms typically DO have doors. I've seen some newer builds without but it is not normal.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it looks great

I'm a commercial plumber here. Having a master bedroom with a bathroom with no door attached is very common if you have money.

I’ve seen ensuites both ways, depending on region. When in Illinois, every bath had a door but when we moved to Arizona, we really had to look hard for a house that had a door! We do not get ready at the same time, so in order not to wake the other, having a door was a must have for us!

Some homes have pocket doors in the bathroom. They slide in / out of the wall to save space.

Concerning the missing door to the en-suite bath room, I have only ever seen it in Las Vegas homes.

We, the USA, used to have the integrated dish drain for kitchen sinks in the old days!

Our house is about 2500 sq feet so close to the average that was listed, our yard isn't huge, but considerably larger than what they said about a half acre. Our Mailbox is right out the front door by the street, and we do have multiple doors to our en suite master bathroom, in fact every house we have had, had a door. Lots of people have gardens, but very few in subdivisons.

Mail is craziest in Nepal. Kathmandu if you have mail you must go to the local post office and ask for it. Then hope the clerk can find it. I now have a 30 ft walk to my mailbox here in Tennessee.

In newer homes this is quite common. But, the toilet is in a small room with a door within the bathroon.

we prefer hard floors with rugs because it is cleaner. Carpet captures dirt and dust and is hard to clean. We send out our rugs for complete 100% cleanings.

My house is 10 yr old 3/2 with standard 2 car garage separate laundry room with door, all bathrooms have doors. Lanai at back garden. Large kitchen 2 rooms have double step ceilings. Price $200,100.

Older American homes all had carpet, but more modern homes tend to have tile or hard wood floors because they are easier to clean and maintain. It's the newer trend here.

Something depend on when the house was built. older homes (pre 1940) had hardwood floors. Starting in the 50's carpet was expensive so having it in your home was added to show money. Now hardwood floors cost more than carpet so the trend is for hard floors.

Homes in the midwest away from large cities are average this size.