US Culture Shock: British Verdict on American Suburbs 

It doesn't work now a days.

Sales guys ignore those completely 😂

I live in a suburb of Omaha, and my sign has worked like a charm...

Pro tip: bring out your Koran to fend off the solicitors 😂

"Watch for hornets - three nests" works

To a Brit, a yard is a very tall glass of ale.

A yard is a measurement. 3 ft = 1 yard

Beds Flower beds and vegetable beds all located within the garden (as is the lawn) A "yard" is usually a fully concreted over area usually associated with a business premises for storage of machinery etc

It's like referring to all desserts as pudding. How do you distinguish actual pudding?

@@miafarrago4941 Cold custard?

HOA are evil!

The HOA can look at the deed, the mortgage, and the paychecks used to pay for everything. They all have MY name on it. I don't care who Little Miss HOA Manager thinks she is. It is MY house, which I paid for with MY paycheck, which means I do what I want with MY property. If she does not like that, I have a shotgun, and a copy of the Constitution.

Or, move into a neighborhood where whatever you want to do with your lot is fine. Mine is a wildlife habitat, no grass, no mowing, no leaf raking, no pesticides, no fertilizers. Nobody around me cares. It's great.

If you own the house, you own the land and you should be able to do whatever non-structural alterations you want, plant flowers, let the lawn grow, paint the house pink or replace the driveway with a garden.

@@ThatBaritoneGuitarGuy In some places, HOAs can foreclose on your home if you don't pay the fines you get for violating their rules. Acting tough won't keep them from stealing your house.

Americans own a lot of guns, even in the suburbs.

@@djquinn11 Have to be able to protect ourselves if we need to. This didn't say anything about a gun though. It was just a funny sign. Lighten up.

It’s right up with those signs, “No trespassing. We’re tired of hiding the bodies!” No one who’d actually DO that would advertise. 😂

Hard to feel threatened by someone who uses the word ‘poop’…

HOA = Home Oppressors Association

A lot of us further west would do better to emulate the English garden as we don't have the natural rainfall to sustain grass. At minimum we should downsize it to a usable size and use more plants. I love me some plants 😍🌳🌼

@@dwhit_272 I agree with you that a poly culture garden is more lively, feeds wildlife, feeds people, and conserves and protects fresh water resources. In the Western US there are plenty of native grasses, sedges, clovers, etc that can make a beautiful lawn, if people want one. Native lawns do fine on natural rainfall. But they don't resemble that solid one inch carpet covering a golf course or a soccer field.

Me either! Thanks for the comment, I can't understand the people who want to live in the "perfect, ideal" HOA neighborhood.

If nothing else a great excuse to lower the amount of mowing you have to do.

That's how Bay View is in Wisconsin

I live in the country in that sweet spot on the I 94 corridor and can get to Chicago or Detroit in about 2+ hrs. Far away from Homeowners Associations. But they do shake the cherry trees across the street at 6 am but you know, trade offs. Lol.

We have that same mentality. We bought 46 acres just outside a small town (250 people), but we are only 30-45 minutes from a bigger city with all the services you need. Its nice knowing that because of the size of our property, our closest neighbor is over a mile away in any direction.

We have similar views on the sweet spot. I'd like to move there eventually. Currently I'm in a booming suburb and have to commute a fair distance. Beats living in a city. Did that for a while.

Plano, IL

I love the sound of that

I take it that you don't have a large dog. I prefer larger lots for my dogs.

I live in a subdivision that was planned in the twenties but wasn't really built up until post war so I know what you mean about it's way more walkable then other subdivisions.

Yes, would be great to bring back the trams/streetcars! It looks like Lawrence may be in this kind of older "streetcar suburb" (even if the streetcars are gone now), maybe he can talk about that sometime (public transit, is there a train or bus service in his area, is it convenient, how does it compare to UK or elsewhere in the world.)

This is the way housing is done across Europe, with local or High Street shops within a reasonable distance. Unfortunately, the US motor industry put paid to that in the early part of the 1900s by pushing cars over public transport and you now haw the worlds biggest car park (parking lot) and very poor public transport and very poor housing estate designs favouring vehicles over walking.

Dogs are terrific social lubricants. I had lived near downtown Chicago for 27 years and knew none of the neighbors. Then I got a dog and bingo! Suddenly I was having conversations with strangers because having a dog makes you an approachable human being, no longer a potential threat. People would tell me about dogs they had known as children, their stories and quirks. Knew all of the dogs' names but none of the owners. Two years after my dog died I encountered a couple who wondered how he was since they hadn't seen us walking for a while. I had no idea who these people were, but they sure knew my dog. Having him was a life-changing event.

Reminds me of a reddit story about how someone knew their neighbor Steve. In their phone and in their mind, the owner of the dog in that apartment was Steve. Steve was the dog's name.

I live in an apartment building of about 1,000 residents, many of whom are dog owners. I only know the dog owners as 'insert dog name here mom or dad'

priorities 😂

Dogs are better people than people are normally

A friend of mine was married to an Englishman, he has passed away. Her backyard though is not as sculpted as an English garden, but she has a gazebo, little patches of different kinds of flowers all throughout the garden. It must be crazy to mow around all of it, because there aren't any straight lines, it's all circles and curves

If he did, his HOA would probably fine him for having his chrysanthemums an inch too tall or something. That's the American dream.

@@NoobixCube i doubt Laurence and his wife live in an HOA, he looks like he lives in an older more established neighborhood, and HOAs typically dwell in newer developments

I don't know about Chicago, but here in Indy, the long strip of flowers and grasses I've planted along the street has gotten almost entirely positive feedback. The worst responses I've gotten were random people offering to mow one newly planted part of it.

Biggest problem, Lawrence is In Chicago, (I'm further north in St Paul, MN) is the shorter growing season.

truth - people stay to themselves in the suburbs nowadays. The '80s ushered in more TV channels, dual-income households, and less time outside and more inside playing video games. People started getting personal computers and spending more time in front of screens and less time talking to their neighbors. As incomes rose, people moved more and divorces spiked higher, forcing couples to sell their houses.

The post office gets paid a lot for the pre-sorted to be delivered... You can't just opt out. Maybe your mail carrier is nice but if you go on r/USPS, you'll hear all the mail carriers laughing at people asking for this. You can pay for your name to be taken off mailing lists, of course, and refuse/mark return to sender named mail (not "or current resident"), though.

@@emma70707 Yes you can. At least you used to be able to. There was a way to get it blocked.

@@tiamotzz I spent some time working for the post office about a year ago (I only lasted 8 months as a clerk--good money, but 48+ hour weeks weren't for me). I asked our postmaster if that was possible & he replied: "if it was, don't you think I'd have done it?" That said, it may be a regional thing. When was the "you used to be able to" anyway"?

@@tiamotzz LMAO no. The Postal Service has an obligation to deliver any pre-paid parcel or papers to any valid address. It's quite a miracle of a service. You can't unsubscribe from mail. You can only ask that that senders stop sending things to you.

@@nigelwylie01 The problem with that system is that, while you are getting rid of half of your junk mail, you are getting rid of the "best" half of it (the reputable companies). That doesn't really improve the overall quality of your mail. A better system to reduce the mail you receive by half would be one where the Post Office would remove the reputable ones at the postal station, put them to the side, and when a disreputable one comes through, they replace it with one of the reputable ones. You end up with the same amount of mail (half of the original), but with a higher quality on average. The Post Office doesn't lose any money vs the original system, since they still end up delivering the same amount.

By which you mean "white people neighborhoods". Funny how that works.

I realized that as soon as he claimed everything was rectangular! Modern suburbs are stupid and unconnecting to anything curly-qs.

Time travel

Yes… so much criticism of suburbia is people talking about post-1960s suburbia - the huge houses on huge lots in the middle of nowhere. The truth is that pre-1960s suburbs are often very reasonably proportioned and walkable or semi-walkable, and do have a sense of place. But the houses are smaller and eventually everyone seems to want the big fat McMansions in modern suburbia or exurbia.

Postwar suburbs are rarely on rectangular street grids. The FHA published a manual in the '30s that specified curving streets and T intersections to reduce traffic speeds, and developments on that pattern got preferential loans.

Welcome? He has been a citizen for a little while but has been in America for years.

@@OmniscientWarrior Yes, he's been residing here, and recently became a citizen, but this video gave me the impression that he is finally, truly, beginning to consider himself one of us.

In America those paved areas are sometimes still called yard just with an extra word. "Stockyard" and "Steelyard" are common examples but I've also have heard "workyard", "truckyard" (specifically a parking lot for very large trucks, skids and other heavy machinery) neither of which appear in any dictionary so maybe that's something more common among blue collar workers in the Midwest and South. You're not wrong though most American yards (or front gardens) are pretty damn soulless especially in the hellscape that's suburbia. For people "who care about their lawn" Typically it's 1 species of grass, 2 species of grass if they're feeling spicy. Rarely you'll see people have clover "perfectly" mixed in with the grass to provide just enough nitrogen all season long to keep their grass healthy without having to constantly maintain fertilizer. For people who don't care about their lawn it's large clumps of clover just as it grew in, dandelions, and a handful of other "weeds". Just those 2 types of people account for like 90% of all laws you would see in the states.

Boston is like that. the boston neighborhoods are different from the suburbs and aren't considered as such. they are patrolled by boston police, fire dept. etc. really extended cities.

@Gretchen K. 1942 per Lawrence.

He's not out in The burbs like Norridge evanston Wilmette niles... I think he's somewhere up there in one of those areas like Craigin, Logan square, Avondale, Jefferson Park, bucktown, wrigleyville etc still in the city limits not In a suburb

He is not in Chicago itself as his gas meter is "N.I. Gas" (previous video on his house).

Rogers Park? North Mayfair? West Ridge? Norwood Park? Jefferson Park? I'm trying to guess too! Or if it's an actual suburb, Evanston? Oak Park? Berwyn? What do you think?

@@StellaMayfair7 I'm thinking Oak Park

My Mom was a city girl and my Dad was a country boy. He thought that the city was noisy and my Mom thought that the country was noisy. They settled in the suburbs where I grew up. My Dad was fine with it, but my Mom still didn't like all the nature sounds and couldn't stand tree leaves falling on the ground. If my Dad had allowed it, she would've cut all our trees down.

I grew up in the suburbs and the sounds of frogs croaking reminds me of summer nights, sleeping with the window open. I live in the city with my 6 year old now and when he spent the night at my childhood home with the grandparents the frogs scared him 😂 Ditto with my partner who grew up in the city - to her, the near silence and birdsongs creeped her out. To her it meant, “Where did everyone go? What went wrong?”

Funny! I live in the city car-free and all I hear in my home is the traffic noise from all the suburbanites who come here to work and shop. I'm sure their homes are perfectly quiet and free from traffic, so they don't mind at all.

@@Frostbiker As a suburbanite, I can hear traffic way off in the distance, but that is usually during the morning and evening when the commuters are going to and from work. Otherwise, the most sounds I hear are the freight trains, the planes, dogs barking, and the birds and frogs on a regular day in the suburbs. On weekends I hear the mowers operating, the kids playing, the chainsaws buzzing, dogs still barking, more road traffic, trains and planes. It is harder to hear the nature sounds on the weekends than it is on the weekdays. At least I'm retired and can enjoy the weekdays in the suburbs.

I live in outskirts of medium city, with somewhat rural flavor. Even in hot summer (with AC on) I crack my window at night just a teeny bit so I can listen to crickets and cicadas sing. Feels like home (farm, 50s-60's). No AC then - sometimes put cots in yard and slept outside! (Sheet over head so no mosquito bites!)

Why is that a problem?

@@brettbuck7362 Because it sucks and it makes you fat and lazy. It's an inefficient use of land and resources. It's shitty for the environment and it's simply more fun and better for you in all ways to be able to walk to places like restaurants, grocery stores, and work.

@@brettbuck7362 living in the city it’s nice to just walk places, not have to deal with traffic or parking. Just preference I guess. I live just outside of Detroit and it would be so nice to visit the city without the long drive and finding a safe place to park.

@@brettbuck7362 fat people

Yep, agree. I've lived in 5 countries but here in the US, it takes real planning to find a nice place to live that is walkable to everything. Almost everyone assumes that we 'need' a car here in the US. Well, maybe. It depends on the person, their age, and their lifestyle. My apartment is walkable to ALDI, Target, Walmart, the biggest mall in town, 5 ethnic grocery stores, and a handful of restaurants. Aside from needing the city bus to head downtown, everything I need is within a mile of my apartment. I can and do walk everywhere, even in the winter.

@Kathleen R yes thank you. I didn't proofread.

Get a recording of a giant breed dog barking. The JW's no longer visit me 😊

@@zippymacadoo6336 I will try that

I moved from the inner City to the rural as heck. So much better

@@Grand1Admiral I prefer smallish cities (say, 10-20 thousand people) within reasonable driving distance to a large city but not close enough to be a suburb. (Currently, for example, I live in Galion, which is an hour from the north edge of greater Columbus.) 10 thousand people is big enough to have *most* things, so you don't have to drive to the big city very often. But anything under about 20k is small enough to not have big-city kinds of problems. The one downside is, cities in this size range don't usually have good restaurant options (*especially* if you want ethnic cuisine) or access to native speakers of foreign languages in any significant numbers. The latter is less critical now that we have internet, but yeah, I have to go to Columbus if I want decent ethnic food, so I don't get it very often. Since I enjoy cooking most of my own food, this is something I can live with, but I can easily imagine someone feeling differently about it. Also, "rural as heck" means completely different things depending on which part of the country you are in. In Ohio, "rural as heck" means there are so many farms that "Future Farmers of America" is the most popular extra-curricular at the local high school. In Montana, "rural as heck" means that you have to drive for a couple of hours to get to the nearest farm, much less a school.

​@@jonadabtheunsightlyyou and I like the same kind of cities/towns for the same reasons. I'm in a small City on the East Coast, small enough that it feels like everyone knows everyone. I sometimes miss taking the train to my book club in Boston because I used to enjoy being on the train and seeing different faces and hearing different languages

@@LindaC616 I have no interest in trains (sorry, it's just not my kink), but yeah, hearing different languages occasionally would be nice. Living here, I have to use the internet for that.

@@jonadabtheunsightly I get it 🙂

Adventures with a purpose is a fantastic channel! Lol

I still remember the dogs names, not so much my neighbors 😂

Hey

I lived in Madison for 10 or 11 years. I really felt his pain on that weather video! You know someone is in a bad way when they start counting the days since the new year that they have seen the sunshine!

He lives outside the city limits. He’s in a sub urb.

@@norlockv Oak Park feels very much like city

I don't think there is enough shown to know that for sure. I get the impression he might be in one of the older suburbs close to the edge of the Chicago. Places like Berwyn, Cicero, or Summit all look like this.

chain link is a bitch to keep up. that's the downside. the new fences aren't even wood anymore. no need to treat of paint and they won't rot.

Yea he is bothered about the squirrels, wait till you have gators on the lawn.

Or dry periods during the summer

@@katherinegarlock2249 Yup. Exactly.

@@tomsherwood4650 gators are mostly harmless to humans, attacks on humans are quite rare. Now if you have a small animal like a dog, just don't let them near any body of water. If there is a body of water, unless it is something like a pool. Just assume there is a gator in it.

​@@tomsherwood4650 I have lived in Central Florida for 63 years and I lived the FIRST 20 YEARS on a lake, and I have NEVER, not once, seen a gator in the wild. Though I think your chances of seeing one on the golf course are MUCH higher in South Florida because of that giant swamp down there called The Everglades, and how all of South Florida's cities are encroaching on that giant swamp full of gators . . . and some crocodiles.

I agree. I want peace and quiet with a few birdies singing and more peace and quiet. I have a neighbor that sits on her step and yells into the phone like when I was a child and long distance meant talk loud! I don't think that is an issue anymore.

And a dog living in a car at Oslo's 😂

I love that show so much

Brits don't know what the f**k they are talking about when it comes to the US. not a single clue. you can't just visit here and think you got it all figured out.

Thank you for your incredible contribution to my childhood! You are the true hero!

Unless you have a Pit bull ! 😊

@@jljordan1 even then I probably know the dog’s name. Not because we’ve stopped and chatted but because I’ve heard the owner saying “Fido, Leave It!” :)

@@kmw4359 lol that reminds me of a dutch punk band who had an album with a big old dobermann on the front cover and the title "fifi"

If you are a more rural area I think technically you live in the exurbs. If you’re outside of the county of a medium to large city it would be an exurb.

I get the impression he might be in one of the older suburbs close to the edge of Chicago. Places like Berwyn, Cicero, or Summit all look like this. Houses right next to each other with maybe a 4 feet wide gap, garages in the back off an alley, almost all of them narrowish but more than one story. After you get out of the immediate suburbs (in my area is literally one degree of separation from the city limits) you start to get towns that look more like the traditional image of a suburb.

Colorado is lovely wherever you are

Most of the Mansions where I live have either become part of the preservation Society or subdivided into condos. If people can afford to keep them as one family homes, they are usually summer homes. I used to live in a historic mansion, in an apartment, and there was a business on the first floor. They said they sold the building, but I think that the LLC sold it to a smaller portion of the group, which became a new LLC, and they just revamped it. It's now listed as a one-family home, they put in a swimming pool with an automatic cover, and they are only renting it in the summer months for 125,000 a month

We grew up in a development that was built on an old Gimbel’s estate. The builder had bought the old stone mansion & surrounding land. Was very picky about who he sold to & what kind of house they wanted him to build. Mock Tudors were big back then. He limited our 25 house street to 4. Spread out & different sizes.

An area next to our subdivision had an estate sized home with several acres surrounding it. A developer bought the land and instead of demolishing the home, they remodeled it to be a high-end club house.

Oh, I neant to add that my present house is NOT rectangular. It's partly hexagonal, and otherwise C shaped.

In a lot of suburbs, there are are zoning laws were you can't have fences.

As long as that Elk did not runnafter you!! They are such majestic animals.

Everyone thinks that there's a "normal" and that "normal" is typically associated with what they grew up in - but the reality is that the world doesn't stop moving, it's always changing, always evolving. Well, mostly, I definitely know of some towns that are stuck well in the past(rural farm or industry towns). Anyway, expect change because it's on it's way lol.

@@RyTrapp0 Normal is good. Not that your comment has anything to do with the OP.

Hell, with as fast as Texas is growing that happens within 30 to 50 years. When I built a house in Mansfield in 2001, Dallas was in view but still very desolate. Now it's just another suburb and 3 times the size.

@@RyTrapp0 And what does THAT have to do with the price of wheat in India?? I remarked on the way cities grow and absorb once-remote communities in the process.

@@DGTelevsionNetwork Yep! Just ask Round Rock. When I moved to Austin in '75, Round Rock was 15 miles away and 5,000 people. Today, the two have grown completely together and RRk's population is 100,000.

Little too old and near the urban center to be an American Dream Post-WWII real Suburban Neighborhood.

There's even a movie called Suburbia.

people watch this stuff on RU-vid and think it's normal. the US is such wonderful place it pisses me off that people think yt is reality.

I've lived in several suburbs with exactly the type of abandoned houses he's talking about. Sometimes they're empty for years at a time.

A great nail gun seane

There's a movie called Suburbia. Surprised you didn't choose that

I can't get past Blue Velvet.

I immediately saw that rake and thought "that is the wrong rake for leaves."

He has a 'bow' rake. used for moving heavy things, like dirt. He needs a 'tine' rake , used for fluffy things like leaves or loose grass.

Me too

Still better than an HOA

Still better than Europe

​@@MikehMike01 don't limit yourself europe is huge and has many great areas, explore and expand your horizons.

@@samanthab1923 You are 100% correct, unless your HOA consists of only 3-5 members, of which you are participating. And they all need to be owners at stake. The HOAs that are outsourced are money and life-dream drains, a lot have absolutely no human connection to the community they claim to serve. The HOA I was part of when I owned a condo consisted of 3 owners (1 tiny Boston building), and we sort of made our own rules. All owners.

@@markbradley7323 Europe is a dump, been there not interested UK is decent

Would disagree with that. Kids have no independence in many suburbs due to needing a car to get just about anywhere, so are dependent on parents. I can’t imagine growing up in a place where every house is a giant McMansion on a giant lot, seems so isolated. I used to walk to stores, friends houses, school, etc as a kid. Also, suburban sprawl is just about the worst thing for nature

@@kurtwerber8729 i think it depends on the suburb. if it’s your newer cul-de-sac type, yeah it’s terrible for kids. it is safe but for kids its bland. streetcar suburbs are different tho, or maybe old downtown of a suburb that was initially a small town

@@UserName-ts3sp its not really bland, if you look at early 1900s suburbs when they were first build literally every house looks exactly the same, no variation of floorplans either like you would find in post war suburbs, they only look good after 100 years of individualization

@@circleinforthecube5170 by bland i mostly mean lack of walkability and not being able to really go anywhere without a car

@@UserName-ts3sp sorry, i thought you meant it architecturally, the empty lawns everywhere is the blandest part because they could've been businesses or libraries or literally anything else other than plain boring ass grass

My real estate agent told me "good fences make good neighbors"

@@LindaC616 The problem is, loud neighbors project over good fences. I like my peace and quite and prefer not to hear the living embodiment of a Jerry Springer episode or Friday night house party.

Thank you! I've been trying to remember the name of the plan. And, yes, it is the reason why almost everything west of Appalachia is in rectangles. So much more precise and convenient.

the only thing it yields to is water; running water, flood plains, etc...

@@kathywiseley4382 Yeah, my area is in the Appalachian foothills and most of our counties are NOT rectangle - more rhombus, trapezoid, or triangular if you were to try to straighten out all of the squiggly lines.

The surveys began shortly after the Liuisisna purchase. The surveys led to the western expansion of the new territory. My ancestors purchased, not homesteaders, their land in Misdouri before or just after statehood. The land still had a few native Indians in the area, BTW. Each state began their expansion differently, so each had its own time of giving out land to settlers. Kansas divided land according to what was convenient for the railroads. Towns were set up sling the planned railroads. Quite the interesting explanation there.

metes and bounds can still be rectangular. my house in Missouri, built in 1880, is in metes and bounds, and it's a perfect rectangle. the only difference is you use landmarks instead of surveying stakes as the start point, but most have been converted for ease.

right on Sue. the wife and i retired to rural Maine. fantastic.

@@tekay44 we moved here after my husband retired. I had a job here before we got here. We lived in our camper while we built our house. We arrived on a Saturday and I started work here on Monday. I'm retired now and I just love it here. I live about an hour from where I grew up. I live within an hour from 3 different cities, but stuck happily in the middle. The closest grocery store is 10 miles from my house. Maine must be beautiful.

They still have to drive to work and to do any shopping, among many other things. I do not own a car, and I never will. Excellent walking and biking infrastructure, with plenty of shops and parks within easy walking distance, along with great public transportation, makes that possible. Just by walking to and from work each, I get more than the minimum amount of exercise for optimal health. I also never gain weight, regardless of how much beer I drink or how much I eat. I lived in the US for about 50 years, and I am glad to be away from all that suburban nonsense. A local cop actually harassed me for walking on an empty summer street in Texas, frisking me and calling in my license number. He trumped up a reason, but he was profiling me. He gave me an enduring ugly memory. That is his legacy with me.

@@kaninma7237 Nice try. Never gain weight no matter how much you drink or eat? lol good one. Sounds like you've picked up the British habit of hyperbole.

​@@kaninma7237 In Pittsburgh, for example, if you don't want to be totally car dependent you can live somewhere like Mt. Lebanon, which is outside of the city limits and completely interconnected with sidewalks and bike paths. Older suburbs that were built up prior to the 1950s and 60s are generally very walkable. The idea that suburban life has to be an entirely car dependent one is a major misconception. Honestly, most US cities don't have good public transit anyways. New York City is the only city in the US where the majority of the population uses public transportation, and in Most US cities, not even 30% of the population uses it (the majority of those sitting under 20%). The odds that someone works right down the block from where they live is slim, and statistically not that many people bike or walk to work (even in cities), so most are driving to and from work anyways, excluding New York which is the only exception, so statistically most people rely on a car regardless of whether they're living in the city or not. Point is, if where, and how you live, makes you happy, that's great, but that doesn't mean it's what's right for the rest of the population, especially considering that the majority of the population seemingly doesn't want to, or doesn't care enough to live that way.

@@kaninma7237 on god. Fuck having a car. In Minnesota while I was walking I was profiled too with my friends in the suburb and they asked us if we were breaking into any houses

@@kaninma7237 and that was before George Floyd. The police in Minnesota have always been corrupt. I saw a police officer hit my mom with a police bat inside my house as a kid and she was just standing still and then made eye contact with me

His wife drives for the both of them.

It's so wierd how so many people drive everywhere, no wonder the sidewalks are so desolate and lacking little shops.

So weird. Where I live you have to have grass because we get so much rain and snow that you need grass to hold the ground together

@Casey Matto irrigation is severely restricted in some parts of the west. People have been ripping out for synthetic turf or converting their entire fron yards into butterfly gardens or drought tolerant landscaping or native plants. IMO it's actually much prettier to have all the native stuff.

He's so adorable, I would have to stop and say hi if I saw him! The dog, not Laurence. Sorry, Laurence

Dare I suggest that they host Christmas?

You might find a neighborhood like that in a NorthEastern city. Philadelphia; parts of NJ; Richmond, VA; Charlotte NC, Arlington VA, DC, Baltimore

It sounds like you’re still fairly young. GET OUT! I don’t care where you grew up. The most fun I ever had was living in different places. I’ve lived an hour away from the closest town of 25,000 people. I’ve lived in Southern California, Europe and Mexico. I bet you would have a blast in LA or NY! At least for a little while. Enjoy your life and explore!

@@mattiemathis9549 New York fits better than LA

All made out of ticky-tacky, all look just alike!!!!

The first house my parents bought in the 60’s was a Levitt home, the Cape Codder. 4 beds 2 baths. They were in their 20’s! Five different models & depending what section, A-W all the streets started with that letter.