CONFUSING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GERMAN AND AMERICAN HOMES
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- Опубліковано 8 жов 2020
- A house is a house and a flat is a flat, isn't it? At first glance you may not notice too many differences between a German and American homes, but we are going to show you some of the biggest differences after having lived in a German apartment for a year! In this video we move past the famous German windows and lack of air conditioning and into other differences you may never have noticed yourself! 😊
1:35 - Video Title
2:24 - Window Screens
4:01 - BYOK (Bring Your Own Kitchen)
5:36 - Thick Walls
7:10 - Knobs vs Handles
8:21 - Ceiling Fans
9:36 - Roofs
10:38 - Labeling Systems
11:29 - For You!
12:01 - Home Decor
13:01 - Bloopers
Filmed: Kaiserslautern / Ramstein, Germany - October 2020
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❤️Aubrey was a Speech-Language Pathologist, Donnie was a graphic designer, but we both had a dream to travel the world and experience cultures. After three years of being married and dreaming about if something like this great adventure would be possible, we decided to quit the rat race and take on the world. We sold everything we had, quit our jobs, and took off! After 9 months of aimless and nonstop travel, we now get to fulfill our dreams of living abroad as expats as we move to Germany!
What other differences do you know of between your country‘s homes and others?? 😃
IN the part with the sweating Don, are you training for the oscars?
@@betaich Exactly. This will be my submission to the committee.
@@countercpu5447 aber weniger Menschen können deutsch sprechen als Menschen, die englisch sprechen können. Also es ist besser videos auf englisch zu drehen, damit mehr Leute lernen können. 😊
One thing I noticed is that the ceilings in American homes are very low. I can touch the ceiling by just stretching out. Whereas in my Dutch home I cannot even reach it by jumping.
I believe you still didn´t saw my "review" in the comments of your living place.
Don't worry about flies. In Germany we use to keep a big hairy spider to take care of them ;-)
Or some Frogs 🐸😉
True
I have one too. It' quite friendly also. My son it's quite fond of him. He greets it when he goes to sleep and when he wakes up 🤣
@@margretblaswich Frogspiders would be perfect, don't you think?
@@ulliulli 😈😉
A friend once had a huge spider web next to her bed. When I was about to remove it, she called to me: "Hands off! I need the spider so I don't get stinged by mosquitoes at night." I thought that was nonsense. But when I slept next to her and first heard a mosquito and then how the spider speeding towards the victim trapped in its web, I understood.
The kitchen thing is from a time when people did not rent apartments for years, but for decades. Some decades ago it was not unusual for people to stay in a job with the same company for 20, 40, 50 years. They also stayed in their rented Appartement that long. So it was normal to choose your own kitchen, something you like to work, to live in. People over here just did not move around as much as in the US. You were more rooted. No hire and fire mentality, no ruthless moving around to find something better (payed). BTW even then student apartments were mostly complete with furniture and kitchen. I myself worked at one company for 32 years, only moved once. And yes, I bought my own kitchen as I wanted it to be, not as someone else chose. Just a different philosophy.
Not to mention, the prices for even a basic mini kitchen. If anyone invests in a kitchen, they will want to keep it.
To the point, that I've seen apartments, while hunting myself in which the tenants at the time requested a 4-digit sum in order to leave the kitchen in the apartment, even if the reason for giving up the apartment was moving into their first house, including a top notch dream kitchen.
It is also due to the legal framework that landlords don't equip flats with a kitchen. If they do, they are responsible for repair and replacements. As not all tenants treat rented property with the same care as their own, renting out a kitchen means an additional financial risk for the landlord.
@@emmasly123 Of course you are right. If the landlord offers a kitchen with say a dishwasher, he has to pay repairs or a replacement unit if it breaks. So most shy offering more than the mere minimum. Even if a former tenant leaves his washing machine the landlord better removes it. If it is in the apartment when rented, he has to pay for repairs. Unless the new and the former tenant cut a deal.
I live in Berlin and here most the flats are available with the kitchen already
Hi. Kitchens are traditionally not included in many rental flats as renting in Germany is not considered short term but often ultra long term and people want their own and landlords don’t want to be responsible for a kitchen in a flat that is rented out to the same person 10 years+.
However this is changing and in bigger cities a kitchen now often is included for some extra fee or often the previous occupier sells the current kitchen to the new tenant and so on. I agree that kitchens without kitchens is not suitable for times that require more flexibility and where people move more often. When I grew up in the 80s we and all my friends lived in long term rented accommodation and people just had the kitchen to their own taste, it was normal.
Yeah, I remember when I grew up in the 80ies there where rentals where kitchens where already built-in. But often times the personal tastes of the landlord and the tenants didn‘t match. So people started to buy their own kitchen for their long term rentals. (storing the landlords kitchen in the cellar) And because germans think efficiently 😁 the landlords than figured out that they could save money by just not equipping their apartments with kitchens at all. And germans adapted to this „trend“ because when you rent an apartments for several years or decades - they‘d rather have a kitchen that you like... than an ugly-a.... one. 🥴
Germans don‘t move as much, far and frequent as Americans do (on average) - so it‘s not that big of an issue to us.
Also when we move - the distances within Germany aren‘t as huge - so that you could easily rent a small truck and haul the kitchen to the next apartment.
The sizes of the cabinets and appliances are also mostly standardized - so if the new kitchen has a different size overall - you either add cabinets or remove them.
The only real new thing that you might have to exchange is the counter top. That‘s why it has become a „german thing“ - no real other cultural reason.
When I was looking for a new flat, it had to come with a kitchen (cupboards, stove/oven, sink). I didn't want to buy a kitchen and go through the hassle of hanging cupboards. You never know beforehand what the walls are made of. The last one had reinforced concrete and hanging anything was a nightmare.
Luckily I found a nice flat within less than 500 meters away with an equipped kitchen (I don't own a car, so this was awesome). It's an old house, so the walls are either sturdy brick or porous and don't even want to hold a curtain rod properly.
The countertop is a bit high, but my landlord even put a fridge and washing machine in it. It isn't a perfect kitchen for me, but it works and the appliances are new or fairly new. I had to work with way less, so I'm happy.
The usage permit is part of the rental agreement, which is the norm under such circumstances I think.
Would I buy a kitchen for a future apartment? Who knows...
That really surprised me. In the Netherlands rental is often long term, but most rentals still come with kitchens. I think it might even be mandatory.
In my area in southern Germany all the flats I’ve ever been living in and all the flats my friends and family members used to live in/still live in had/have kitchens.
Danke
You can tell by the paint when the house was built, or when it was last renovated.
In the 60's the houses were almost always white.
In the 70's it became more "pastel".
In the 80s and well into the 90s it became really colorful.
At the end of the 90s it became more quiet and pastel again, very popular were yellow and light blue.
And now? Try to find a new building that is not painted white and has no dark grey windows and doors.
Yeah, all the modern houses are white. Very boring. I live in a super colorful house & it's great
I don‘t own a house - but isn‘t it also that you can‘t just use whatever color you want? The building authorities do specify that the chosen color has to fit into the existing neighborhood - which limits the choices - thus why a lot of german neighborhoods do look boringly similar. German bureaucracy 😒
I remember years ago nearby my workplace a painting company did paint their newly acquired headquarter in a variety of bright colors - which caused a big cry out from locals. Even the local newspapers wrote about it and discussed if this ok..... 🙄🤦🏻♂️
I personally do like it more when exposed natural materials are used and are exposed - like stone or bricks 🧱. Makes for an way more interesting structure than plain stucco with pastel paint. That‘s the most boring architectural choice. 🤷♂️ But I guess it‘s cheap and efficient - thus german 🤔
@@willionaire77 yes those kinds of rules do exist. I'm from a northern part of Germany where in general most houses are built out of bricks. Here, the rules often defined what colour the roofs should be (red, grey, etc)
@@willionaire77 Here in Austria there seems to be no or less rules, at least for colours. I have all the palette around my home (mine is yellow). I looked at a house while searching which was pink, which I don't really like, but which is not so uncommon here. The style of the roof e.g. is much more regulated. And of course that is much more strict in the (old) city centers.
Walls ...
Broker goes to the next room and asks the potential new tennants : "Can you hear me?".
They answer "Loud and clear!". Then: "Can you see me?". - "No?".
Broker: "Now, these are SOLID walls, aren't they?!"
as an electrician i can see more differences. the "putzsteckdose" (cleaning socket). the socket next to de door directly under the switch is for easy access to plug the vacuum cleaner in. in the u.s. the switches are stand allone. 2nd: the switches in the u.s. are higher (around 1.4m) and in germany the switches are between 1.05 and 1.10m (same high as the door handles) so the move from the door to the switch is shorter and easier in the dark to find. there are more differences but hard to explane to non electrician
We totally were confused by those sockets at first but once we learned the function, we have learned to love them and not having to bend over to plug and unplug those types of temporary electrical items! 😊
The U.S. standard for door handles is 36-inches (915mm) above the walking surface [lower than DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung)] whereas lighting switches are 48-inches (1220mm) to the center of the switch [higher than DIN]. This height allows for a person to operate the switch with their elbow if the hands are full with clean, folded laundry or a baby. The U.S.'s NEC (National Electrical Code) has a residential construction requirement for a duplex power outlet [two (2) sockets] in occupied spaces every 12-feet (3.66 m) as portable electrical gear such as lighting fixtures, kitchen appliances, hair-dryers, and the like are normally provided with a 6-foot (1.83 m) power cord. Added edit: These sockets are usually placed 16-18 inches (410 460 mm) AFF [Above Finish Floor] in ordinary living spaces and 48-inches (1220mm) in bathrooms, kitchens, and workshops.
In residential construction. there is no restriction to combining a switch and power outlet within the same junction-box behind a single device plate (cover); this is frequently done in bathrooms and kitchens. The only restriction being the two devices must be the same voltage which is 120 in the U.S. rather than the 240 as found in Germany and almost everywhere else in Europe.
Regarding door handles: Levers are now standard in all new. non-residential construction in the U.S. in order to comply with the requirements of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Older buildings were required to be retro-fitted by a certain date which has long since passed.
In the Netherlands I've hardly ever seen a light switch together with a socket. I honestly think that's pretty dangerous. What if you aim wrong (in the dark) and accidently put your finger in the socket?
Usually there're two sockets together and a separate light switch or two switches together when there're two lamps.
The hight of the switches and sockets varies. It depends on when the house was built. In houses from the 1960s or earlier the switches are pretty high up the wall, 1,5m I think, and the sockets around 1,2m. Then from the 1970s - 2000-ish the switches and sockets are at the same hight and a little lower than the door handle (which is at 1,1m). In houses built after 2000 the switches are the same, but the sockets are often really low, like 30cm above the floor. Very inconvenient imo.
@@picobello99 the usual sockets are also 30cm high. the one socket under the switch is not a problem even when you miss the swith you cant hit a live wire because the holes are too tiny and for the case that sombody can hit a live wire somehow, the rcd (not the fuse) should disconect in less than 300 ms (most do in less than 30 ms) or 0,03 ampere. if there a possibility that you can hit a live wire by accident, than is somthing terribly wrong with your electrical installation.
As an electrician you even learn how plan these for complete houses. You learn to think practically, and "think in" the role of the person wanting to do something in the house.
In the test situation, a task for me was to find out how many sockets are needed in a house (layout of rooms was given), witch fuse-size, cable-version and so on and explain why for every item.
So imo a good electrician here is compareable to an "engeneer" in the USA.
I actually find it much better that we buy our own kitchens here in Germany. What if you don’t like what they‘ve built in if it’s already installed. Sometimes the previous renter might want to leave the kitchen in, and you can pay them a small amount for it. It works out cheaper than buying a new kitchen. If you don’t like it, you can still say no and the previous renter has to remove the kitchen themselves.
Kitchens are really expensive though. €10.000 or more. Unless you're happy with a small, low quality Ikea kitchen.
I live in the Netherlands and over here most people who rent a house or appartment don't have the money to buy a kitchen.
The kitchen is always part of the house just like the toilet and radiators. You could change it, but then you would have to reinstall it again because everything must be in the original state when you leave.
Even when you're selling your house you're not supposed to remove the kitchen or the buyers would demand a serious discount.
@@picobello99 I can’t speak for Holland, but here in Germany kitchens are normally rather small, so you can get a good kitchen at less than €10.000. When you rent a flat here, the kitchen is normally empty and it’s up to the renter to buy the furnishings, unless you make a deal with the previous renter to pay them a small sum ti,leave the kitchen in. The kitchen I have built in my flat is my own and if I should move out, I’ll be taking it with me. That would leave the room in the state it was in when I moved in: empty.
@@picobello99 I guess Germans just put more emphasis on their taste in interior design. Plus, you'll most likely be living in your flat or house at least 5-10 years, so you may as well furnish it to your liking. There's nothing wrong with IKEA kitchens if you can't afford an expensive one.
Hi guys, Americans always wonder about the lack of air conditioning and the bad weather in Germany. But for example your home state Oklahoma is on the same circle of latitude as North Africa or Sicily. Germany is much further to the north than most American states. I come from northern Germany, which is same latitude as southern Alaska. Do they have ceiling fans in Alaska? Cheers.
Haha many Canadian houses don’t have ceiling fans & AC unless in traditionally hot areas. Why have them when the need for them is only for a week or two a year?
The house differences. Oh well, let‘s start in Germany.
The house I live in has been built in 1928 so it is nearly 100 years old. All walls are brick and the house keeps cool in summer and holds the heat well in winter. We added a cyling fan in the bedroom a couple of years ago, you know climate change and hotter summers in the Upper Rhinevalley. The only room that is too hot in summer is my home office. In general I would not install an aircon.
My house that I lived in NJ. Typicall US house wooden studs, OBS on the outside, sheet rock on the inside, forced air heating with aircon. We used it in summer but not to really make the house cold but to humidify it. The winters where awfull. The heating system was digital, hot or cold no settings inbetween. The NJ winter air is already dry, forced air even dried it further and the result for me was frequent nose bleed during winter.
Neverthelsee I enjoyed the years in NJ.
Ceiling fans actually were kind of a fad in the late 70s and early 80s in Germany. I remember them being kind of common in my childhood, but still being a bit of a extravagant status symbol, as weird as that must be to Americans.
The 70s and 80s generally were a wild time when it came to interior design in Germany. People would cram their homes full of all sorts of weird and tacky stuff. Wild, complicated and gaudy light fixtures were common, people would have live sized porcelain sculptures of dogs, cheetahs or panthers in their living rooms, panoramic wall paper still survived from the 60s and lava lamps and plug in water features and stuff like that were everywhere.
Aquariums also were super common.
I remember there was a large, phone book sized home order catalog full of just stuff like that, plus gaudy, new-age chandeliers made of different kinds of fake gem stones, crystals and turquoise, stuff like slinkies, those "birds" that appear to be drinking from a glass of water, if you know what I mean, those steel balls suspended on wire that tap each other, disco balls, all sorts of brass mobiles and stuff like tanning beds.
Also a huge collection of large posters, also ostentatious stuff like naked ladies riding tigers and the such.
Man, I wish I would still have one of those catalogs. What a fascinating historical artifact and time capsule that would be.
One of my aunts had this huge glass fiber novelty lamp. Maybe you know what I mean. It was a cylindrical base, kind of shaped like a flower pot made of shiny brass, with hundreds of long, thin glass fiber strands sticking out of it. They naturally would bend and fan out and form roughly a half sphere and their tips would glow like tiny stars. The whole thing would slowly rotate and the color and hue of the light would constantly change and run through the optical spectrum.
Said aunt had a especially large, fancy and expensive one. The thing was too big to put it on a table, so she had it on the floor next to her TV set and Hi Fi stereo tower. The thing was almost as big as a Christmas tree and had cost thousands of Deutschmarks. It was a big conversation piece, a status symbol and we kids stared at it in fascination when we visited her.
That is one of the themes, I guess, of my memories of the early 80s, visiting people with my parents, who were trying to impress each other with weird, expensive stuff like that, while Tina Turner music was playing on the radio in the background, hehehe.
I suspect ceiling fans are considered gauche because they are associated with those gaudy interior design excesses from the 80s.
superb description of similar items here In Australia in the same era ..one thing I noticed when I visited my relatives in Toronto Canda was that most of the houses had no ceiling lights or were standard fixtures
.. lighting in the rooms were by stand lights
I love the way you point out the differences in a very neutral way, without judging, and name pros and cons! :D
Thanks so much for that! That is our goal with every video. We don't really even think for a lot of these things there is a "right" or "wrong" just simply different 😊
Yep, the windows and the structures, completely spot on. Screens as well, but seeing more and more here too, ditto air-conditioners. Rooves as well. But, honestly, love watching HGTV here and when I watch the renovations back in the States, wow, sometimes all you need is a hammer to take down a wall. Wondering, seriously wondering, whether there would not be less say hurricane destruction if some of the homes were sturdier from the get-go. Just saying. But, again, thanks. You guys really get it.
I can speak more for a tornado prone area like we came from and not hurricane, but I also think that part of it may be the fact that to build concrete is significantly more expensive and it is a gamble really - should I pay a lot more money for a house that MIGHT withstand a natural disaster that MIGHT destroy my house? Or roll the dice and have a less expensive place and the odds may be in my favor of not actually getting destroyed and I save money in the end? 🤷♂️ But we are not from hurricane areas so I don't know the answer as to why it is the way that it is there and for sure, it SEEMS like the odds of getting hit by a destructive hurricane is much higher than a tornado considering they are so much more widespread and reaching, but I don't really have an answer 😂
Als ich in meine letzte Wohnung eingezogen bin, habe ich die Küche von meiner Vormieterin übernommen. Aber hätte ich gewusst, wie kaputt und ramponiert die war, hätte ich mir direkt eine neue günstige bei Ikea gekauft!
German house to hurricane: Gimme your best shot. Hahahahahahaha!
I agree. When it comes to those, the chances are much less of losing my home compared to the USA
Thanks guys for yet another interesting video. Had no idea about some of the stuff, despite my daughter lives in Germany. Keep up the good work! Tschüs!
My land lord told me once that he didn't provide a kitchen by intention. He think and he is probably right, that when you buy your own custom made kitchen you are somehow more committed to the apartment and do not move out after 2 years. To it was his approach to ensure that only people apply for a long term rent.
I love the red roofs - they’re are so pretty! I’d never thought of them being like gingerbread houses.
Great video guys, yall crack me up lol. I love the acting Donnie with you on the couch with the fans lol lol, and of course the bloopers. :). I love sleeping with my ceiling fan on. :)
Having no screens on the windows is not a German, but European issue! Non-load bearing walls are also much thinner than load bearing walls.
It also heavily depends on where you live. I'm now in a bigger city and those screens aren't really necessary here; to few insects for the amount of appartements here - and therefore they are basically non existant here.
In my parents home however, those are a must have. A farm in a small village and next to a small river. Without those Screens, you wouldn't be able to sleep, because there would be at least 10 Mosquitos flying around. Those Screens are a LOT more common on rural regions.
Kitchen: yes, in most cases you buy your own kitchen when moving to a new apartment. But there are exceptions: Say, you are moving out and I will be the next tenant. Then I can ask you to let the kitchen in place and I pay "Abstand" for that. Abstand in this case means: the previous tenant (or the owner of the house) installed something special in the apartement and you can pay him to keep it. Like said kitchen. But sometimes also sheds or a extravagant bath. If you as new tenant don't want them, you don't pay "Abstand" and the previous tenant has to remove e.g. the kitchen.
Wood vs concrete/bricks -> Wood is way more cheaper in the US, therefore you tend to live in glorified garden sheds with the garantuee that this building will fly away when a hurricane passes by, while here, we build houses since the middle ages with a combination of stone and wood (a lot of older building are made of bricks for the walls and wood for the floors). It's not a "real" cultural thing, more a question of costs and availability of resources.
German "like to sweat it out on a hot sommer day to have something to complain about": We are germans, we love to complain. One of our biggest compliment is "I can't complain about that", which should give you a hint about how important complaing is for us ;)
Adresses: In germany, always read from bottom to top -> Ah, he lives in 12345 Berlin. In the Blablastreet Nr. 11, his Name is Hermann Example.
Putting the Apartment number UNDER the street adress seems so wrong for me.
interesting with the address .. different to here in Australia .. number street suburb town/city state postcode ..sort of makes sense though in Germany , find principal region , then town/city , etc ..could never work out dates though here in Australia day / month /year not like the USA month /day /year ..not sure how its done in Germany
Mounting our kitchens and lamps is the secret substrate of german craftsmenship!😃
Danke schön. I grew in Los Angeles. Never saw a ceiling fan. But in Oklahoma and Texas, every home has one or more.. I like them🙂
Great video with lots of things not usually discussed! Though I have to say that your guesses on why Germans do not have ceiling fans are completely off.
The real reason most private homes here do not have those fans or airconditioning is simply that we didn't used to get these extremely hot summers. That's a very recent development due to climate change and has been happening more and more frequently with new temperature records every year (i.e. it's a development I could follow during my lifetime and I'm only in my mid-twenties now; when I was a child, summers just weren't as hot).
So a fan used to be something you brought out for a maximum of one week a year in the height of summer and then put away again until the next year, so of course mobile fans were much more practical. Nowadays we really need solutions in our private homes because summers will stay as hot. But airconditioning and ceiling fans are still expensive here and most people in Germany especially in the big cities where the temperatures are the worst only rent their flats so they'd have to invest the little money they have in equipping a flat that's not even theirs, not to mention that they'd have to get their landlord's permission first.
Still, people who can afford it will probably get ACs or ceiling fans in the next years because it's just not bearable anymore.
The things you mentioned with having to dust more often, etc. are reasons that I would have never even thought of on my own and I certainly never heard any German mention. And opposite to how it used to be back in the days I had a lot of conversations with other Germans about cooling down and technical equipment for that in the past years for obvious reasons. :D Believe me, we'd still have enough things to complain about without dying from heat. It's really not that. ^^ Especially not when those extreme temperatures are very dangerous to the elderly, the ill, small children and people who are not used to them in general and therefore do not know how to handle them the best way :/
as others also stated, the kitchen thing is region related. You're more likely to find a built in kitchen (Einbauküche) the further you go north. That's what I experienced. Also, the density of built in kitchen rises getting close or into urban areas
Donny I’m like a little kid with this stuff. When you say “don’t go watch it”. You know what’s gonna happen 😂
haha, I know there would be a few! 😂
Ceiling fans are a desired feature because in winter the fans turn one way to push heat down for more warmth, and in the summer , fans turn in the opposite direction to force heat upwards, thus making the room cooler.
Noone wants old, with appliances like ovens or fridges or dishwashers from the previous tennants. Also, since people typically live in a flat for many years, technology progresses, and they want the devices they'd like to have instead of some outdated model. And lastly people want their own design style.
I did not know about the two direction climate function of the ceiling fans to be honest. It seems to be very useful.. if I will ever build a house, those will definitely be on the list.
you can install it, the same way you install a lamp, most often the lamp is integrated. You don't have to wait until you own a house.
This was a big thing in Czech Republic too. I worked there as a real estate agent and it was like pulling teeth convincing landlords that they had to provide a kitchen and light fixtures to renters. Now, it's standard even for locals renting. And the doors have a lip that seals better than US doors.
Fly swatters are much cheaper - even electric ones. And they are more fun too.
Have you seen these though? These are the real fun 😂 www.amazon.de/BUG-SALT-2-0-FLY-GUN/dp/B00STSZ77G
@@PassportTwo I have, but the heaps of salt accumulating everywhere - especially where it can't be removed too well - aren't fun, to be honest.
We have old German windows here. The handle can only be opened or closed. In addition, there is a lever at the bottom in the corner where you can switch between opening and tilting when the window is closed.
Regarding the BYOK: As a lot of people already mentioned, it's a longterm thing. And keep in mind that a lot of Germans are renting apartments instead of owning a house. So it kinda makes sense to bring your own.
The last point is especially true for the part you're living in I feel like. Since if you come to the north, most people find it very tacky and of bad taste to paint your house. Around the north sea coast you'd rather have a completely red brick (clinker) building. Although, as all things, it's changing a bit.
Accessability is relativly easy if the infrastructure is not that old. Just to give an example of difference: The house I am currently living in is older than the Declaration of Independence in the USA.
Didn’t know about the kitchens. Interesting.
Love all the effort you have put into research and production of the video, really enjoyed it! Funnily enough, I wasn't aware that 'BYOK' is a thing in Germany - a few kilometres south in Austria rented flats normally have built-in kitchens... (there might be exceptions :) )
Thanks so much for that! We are glad you enjoy them 😊
Normally, you can negotiate with the previous person living in an apartment about the kitchen takeover. Depending on place and landlord, it may also be included in the rent.
The german windows typically provide good thermal isolation, which helps saving energy cost in winter. These windows are heavy, using double or triple glazing and sturdy frames where no draft will come through. A window can be above 100kg (200lbs) easily. This is quite a contrast to e.g. english style sliding windows which must be light and may not have a rubber sealing to move up and down freely.
Windows are fairly simple in Australia , came across those windows in Greece first time then Germany ..quite a piece of engineering ..also noticed most high rise apartments even if only 3 floors had elevators/lifts
You can hang a picture on a concrete wall - but you will need nails that are made of steel und not made of wire.
No, you need screws, if it is really concrete (Beton). On some types of stone you can use steel nails.
I am 70 years living in the north of Germany and I have lived in different apartments and I never had to install a kitchen! Same with my friends.
I never lived without window screens to be honest in Germany. Those bug nets are really necessary at my area in Bavaria
I have a ceiling fan in the living room as well as in the kitchen, and when I will be moving to my parents house, I will definitely install ceiling fans again...
Sorrry, forgot to mention that I‘m in Germany...
Awesome video!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am a French man living in Los Angeles, I am also a carpenter. Most of your "discoveries" in Germany apply in France and many other European countries. The story about the kitchen is that all furniture (that's including kitchen furniture) do not belong the the structure (or the building). They are YOUR personal properties. In the US they (kitchen, build in closets, etc.) are part of the structure (building) and can't be removed if and when you move out or sell the building. This is one reason that in the US we have now Euro-cabinets style as they are a way for making kitchen cabinets based on individual block Vs. a whole unit as the standard US way of making them. This practice should be good for the furniture industry in Europe, not your wallet. However, on the bright side, it can allow you to change your decor once in a wile.
I am a german born and living in africa, namibia. Our houses are built with bricks, window usually have screens(bugs etc), doors have handles, our kitchens are built in, we have removable showerheads, usually tile floors (easier to clean), roofs are sometimes flat sometimes like pointed , airconditions are a must for those who can afford as we can get 50 degrees in the shade.
Also wir haben auch Appartment Nummern in großen Häußern, das mit nur Namen ist wahrscheinlich in Mehrfamilien Häußern so aber nicht überall :D
The BYOK thing is a suprise to me. I have rented apartments in various German cities over the last 20 years (I moved about 12 times), and I have never had to install my own kitchen. The difference might be between "Neubau" and "Altbau" apartments. I have never wanted to live in a newly constructed bulidung. Right now, we live in a beautiful 1910 Hamburg town house, and of yourse, our apartment has its own kitchen. I think, we are not even allowd to take it out and buy a new one if we wanted to.
I love all your videos.
Schöne Grüße aus Dormagen, NRW.. geboren in Maryland
I think I liked my own comment and don't know how to do what I wanted to do and change the other thing back. 😂. I know German but haven't mastered the internet totally yet
I DID watch that old video when it came out! It was fun, too...! ;o)
You've been around here for a while then! haha
Indeed! As someone who has a degree in American Studies and who has had the reverse experience three times (as an AuPair in 1987 in NJ, as an undergraduate in 1993 in KY and as a post-graduate in 1999 in NYC), I love to hear what cultural differences others experience....
Regarding the structure of walls, I was very surprised about americans beeing surprised that walls here are "usually" bullet-proof.
We in germany consider a wall bullet-proof by default.
So its really interesting that a nation that consider the right of bearing weapons more important than the right to health insurance did not use an appropriate architecture to reflect this and make their homes much more save for their loved ones.
Honestly, I don't get why amercians basically build cardboard boxes instead of proper houses which are able to withstand earthquakes, storms aso.
@@swanpride Acutally wooden-frame constructions are more earthquake resistent than masoned brick walls.
storms like tornados or hurricanes are a different cup of tea. A solid concrete bunker (see all the nice beautifull constructions on the "atlantic wall" build by germans in the early 40ies of the last century) withstand all storms without any harm. But some people have estetic perjustices againtst a brutalistic architectural style.
But there is also an economical aspect on building homes. I assume in a much more mobile society you have little interest in building homes that will stand for centuries. You only need a home for a few more years until you move again.
As Aubrey mentioned on the "roof-topic". Americans use cheaper tiles that need replacement after one generation where we (Germans) expect that our grandchildren will live under the same roof that we built.
So american homes can be build cheaper or in sales speak "economical friendly".
@@archiegates650 Well, cheaper until your home gets levelled....
@@swanpride Storms in the US are much more devastating and common. German houses don't withstand real storms either, but are much more expensive to build. It's just calculations. Built a cheaper house and rebuild it after a storm or build a more expensive house that you also had to rebuild after a proper storm.
@@Markusbloodpet Actually, they do. Let's put aside that they easily withstand smaller tornados which happen pretty often in Germany, as well as big storms, which always cause a huge devastation in the US and happen in Germany not quite as often, but they DO happen.
It actually depends on the strength of the tornado...the US doesn't even bother with the F Scale anymore, because it doesn't really make a difference with all the wooden houses, but in Germany, it actually would make a difference.
This for example was the result of a F2 Tornado in Germany last year:
ua-cam.com/video/VahtFVjuaT0/v-deo.html
As you can see the cars got turned over and not all the roofs survived, but the houses themselves, they are all still standing, and unless there is something wrong with them, they should withstand an F2 (well, minus the roofs, those might suffer), from an F3 upwards it gets dicy. The strongest Tornado we had in Germany was a F4 in Pforzheim (granted, that was more than 50 years ago)...This was the result:
ua-cam.com/video/dwioMf4N968/v-deo.html
As you can see, the damage there is excessive, but there are also still walls which are standing. Wouldn't be the case with wooden houses.
But then, F5 are fairly rare even in the US. They are possible, but most tournados in the US don't reach that level either. Hences with more stable houses, a lot of damage could be avoided each year.
So in short, German houses are able to withstand an F1 or F2, they have a good chance to withstand an F3, an F4 should be too much for your roof, but if you are in an F4 or up, the only save place is the cellar anyway.
Those paintings on outside walls are very specific to your area - or more generally to the South of Germany. Where I live, many houses are red brick, not stucco, so there are no murals on them. :-)
Thanks for that insight! That is why, unlike in our first video, we tried to make sure and specify that we are talking US and German homes, but really more specifically Oklahoma and Rheinland-Pfalz at least. haha, Love the diversity across Germany!
Was about to state that same, great comment! Here in "Nordrhein-Westfalen" we have many, many brick walls, very much like the Dutch who are very close to us geographically (and the UK). In my experience, the Boston area looks a lot like this area of Germany, at least to some extent regarding buildings and their use of bricks.
In California we have these clay type roofs that are Spanish inspired- pretty neato
Often old houses have good termal insulation from the heat in summer, we roll down our roll bilds and no sun comes in , so it stay cool while sun wander around the house when sun goes down we rip open the wind dows and let fresh air in
Definitely agree they are decent at insulation but then it means you have to live in a dark cave for a while when you have heat waves! 😂
Hahaha, Schlagbohrmaschine! Sehr gut! ;)
i am confused by how i keep my ceiling fan turned; I figured that in the winter since hot air rises i have my fan push down the hot air and in the summer i reverse it so the air is pushed up, i usually sit along the perimeter of the room and it feels cooler when it blows on me; a friend told me i was doing it wrong but not sure which is correct?
That's right! Hot air rises so you reverse it in the winter to push that hot air back down just like you said 👍
I live in a village in southern Germany and on most older buildings there's at least one painting. We also have lots of painted on windowsills and decorative painting around the windows in general, which was meant to show off the building owner's wealth in the past (nowadays its usually just for decoration).
There's also painted wooden elements in building like churches or governmental buildings (though not exclusively there) which are painted to look like various expensive natural stones like red granite.
The thickness of the walls is actually based on a system where the types of brick+mortar are 1/8 of a meter times n. So the thinnest wall is rougly 11,5 cm thick (11,5cm brick +1cm mortar makes 12,5 cm which is 1/8 of a meter) and usually outer walls are 36,5 (12,5 cm * 3 -1cm mortar) or 24 cm (12,5 * 2 -1cm mortar) thick (!these measurements include only the bricks and mortar!)
One more thing about doors: German doors almost always open towards the adjacent wall, while American doors, especially bedroom doors, traditionally open into the room, with the hinges away from the wall. Not an iron law, though.
Ya, thinking about my rooms growing up in the states as well as my dorm rooms in college, they always opened adjacent to the wall and not into the room...🤷♂️ Maybe untraditional places though! haha
@@PassportTwo Well, it's a security thing. When you are in room and there is fire, it's easier for you to open the door when opened adjacent to the wall. That's why the main doors to restaurants or any other public building don't open to the inside: to have an undisturbed escape route to the outside.
The reason why most doors in a house opens INTO the room are the door hinges. When the door opens into the room, the hinges are inside of said room, therefore someone else (e.g. a burglar) cant pry the door out of the hinge.
Screens are so useful...we had to take them out last week, because we had people cleaning our windows...and when I opened the window for an hour before going to bed, there were literally 100 bugs in our apartment 🙈🙈 I don't really know why we don't have them in German. I guess we have less bugs....but I would certainly also help.
I definetly notice that each year less and less bugs find their way into the house. But I don't even see them outside as much as I used to see them....since years.
But we do have them? They're just not part of the window frame, and you install them yourself.
When I started renting my place the first thing I did was to go out and buy screens. 😂
I rented a furnished apartment for 4 months near Mainz and it had a kitchen already installed, albeit small. It had a simple stove top and a microwave for preparing basic meals. But no oven.
Cool couple :D. Welcome to germany!
Reading Struwwelpeter
I was waiting for this
Casual read 😂
My kids love it though 🙈
12:24 speaking of "fixer upper": I got the impression from this series that a lot of Americans prefer "open" kitchens that are not devided from the living room by a wall. Is this common in the US? 🤔☺️
Open planned homes are common in parts of the US, mostly the South and West coast. In other parts of the nation like the Midwest and Northeast preference is split between open planned homes and older more traditional planned homes with walls separating rooms.
I think @hansonel definitely nailed it. In our part of the US open floorplans are very popular and you will sometimes not even really have walls between the kitchen, dining room, living room, etc.
Open floor plans in Germany (and Europe?) are more of a modern thing. Most new houses have it to some extent and even old houses are often converted to that style.
when you have summertime, put the Rollladen down on the sites where sun is coming. Put them not totaly down, just to have light. Then go out and enjoy the sun. In the evening, when the sun is mostly gone, open the rolladen and be happy about the cold home ;) In the night, when air is cooling, open the Window to Kippen, and let fresh and cold air in. German Air Condition :)
The no kitchen is because of German renting laws, if the landlord provides the kitchen he has to do the upkeep of said kitchen, so if anything brakes he has to replace it and kitchen aren't cheap.
And if the kitchen is included, it's often an extra in the rent, like 20-30€ more per month. You can also buy with down-payment instead.
The only thing left is the increased moving time.
In Denmark the landlord is responsible for anything screwed to the wall, starting with the door bell (he provides new batteries), light fixtures in the bathroom and in the kitchen, water taps (exchanging the wash if the tap is leaking), the commode (toilet), the sink (toilet and kitchen), the stove, oven, refrigirator, and freezer.
He is also responsible for the permanent air circulation system in the bathroom and kitchen and for problems with balcony doors and windows.
@@KoldingDenmark This also means, the renter is not allowed to fix anything in the wall ? Or to choose his own style of oven and refrigerator ? That's awful. I would feel like under tutelage.
This also means, when I decide to not have a freezer and use the space for something else, this is not possible ? So the space I rent I cannot use by my own free will ?
Hardware stores are only a place for home-owners in denmark, not for renters ?
I am German and I do live in Germany. I do own two flats which I have rented out. Both of them have pre-installed kitchens which are my property. And I do live in a flat which I have rented (because it is a business flat in the building of the company I am working for) and that flat also has a pre-installed kitchen. There are places without pre-installed kitchen but I think that the far majority of flats/condos do have pre-installed kitchen. What you are telling is more common if one is renting a house.
Modern Dutch homes (after the WW2) differ from German homes.
Dutch homes have very big windows compared to German houses. We like to have lots of light in our houses.
We don’t have that many bugs where I live but the wetter parts of the Netherlands have more mosquitoes.
We build our walls from mercenary or concrete but thinner than in Germany. All doors have handles.
Rental homes have kitchens but other houses can have a kitchen or not.
Roofs are mostly red tiles but some houses have a reed roof or a flat roof.
House numbers are almost the same as in Germany.
To be fair the title is a misnomer. Most of Germans own kitchens, not just the landlords.
One man's "Misnomer" is another man's "clickbait" 😂😅
@@PassportTwo 🤣
In Austria we also have apartment-numbers, called „Top“-numbers. Top comes from greek topos. When i was living in Munich, the lack of apartment-numbers was also very confusing to me, espacially in bigger houses with many flats.
I live in Michigan, which is a little further south in latitude than muchnog Germany but still further north than Oklahoma, which may explain the difference, but here ceiling fans are not standard. They are an extra feature that is often a selling point. Of course our summers are shorter and on average cooler than in Oklahoma.
We call the ceiling fans "Miefquirl" ('reek whisk'?).
BTW - I like that intro, Aubrey.
me like that intro too!
haha, glad you enjoyed the evil villain-esque intro! 😂
@7:12 I use handles instead of knobs, too. It is not a universal standard. The advantage is obvious, you cannot lock yourself out but on the flip side you have to lock your door at night.
Of course we have kitchens its just that many germans prefer to plan their own Kitchen just the way they like it... But there are also apartments which allready have a kitchen installed.
I have a feeling you didn't actually watch the video 😉
Donnie, dein "Schlagbohrer" war super, nur das Ü in Dübel braucht wohl noch Übung =) bin schon gespannt auf das alte Video, natürlich gucke ich mir das gleich an ;p
Vielen Dank!! Ja, umlaute sind nicht meine Freunden 😂
@@PassportTwo There seems to be a gender gap. To American males German Umlaute and the vovals O and U are difficult, not so much to ( or for ) the females. In Opera you can hear it easily. Kathleen Battle singing Frühlingsstimmenwalzer - Voices of spring flawless. Males always butcher German Vovals.
Us Americans can't always pronounce German words ever 100%as the Germans though. It's not our mother tongue. At least live in Germany, as I do and love it and try
I can say in austria (vienna) you also don't get a kitchen. Or most oft it, as it is written down that every kitchen has to be with a sink and every room has to have at least a light in it. It can be just the light bulbs but you have to have a light in every room. It was quite funny when i moved to my flat in germany in the evening and found out that I'll have to wait till the morning to be able to see again.
In Austria or Vienna at least it is also common to have the street number then the Building number and then an apartment number usually just a consecutive number, sometimes at new buildings the numbers are 3 digits long indicating with the first number wich floor and with the last 2 digits the door number.
Good Morning Guys 👋Really love your Videos 😉What is that Woman's Name at 12:23? Wasn't she also from HGTV like the Property Brothers? Wishing you both a nice Weekend 😊
Thanks so much! She is Joanna Gaines 😊 Yes, she had a TV show with her husband called "Fixer Upper." Have a great weekend as well!!
@@PassportTwo Yeah that's right. Thanks for the Reply
Helpful to know about these differences as an American planning to move to either Germany (or The Netherlands). I've been wondering about why tile roofs are so common across Europe, now I know.
Something I noticed is it seems tile floors are more popular throughout homes and apartments in Germany and other European countries than wood flooring. In the US there's a preference for wood flooring. I've always wondered about this. In warmer climates like Italy and Spain I can see how tile flooring can help keep the interior cool, but what about Germany? Is it because it's easier to install and maintain tile flooring?
Don't know the reason other than it may just be a style preference? But yes, tile is definitely the majority of floors here!
Interesting question.....I think its easy to clean and some have floor heating. I noticed that new houses tend to have both, tile in kitchen and bathroom , wood flooring in living and bedrooms. I have both, too...
@@PassportTwo Tile floor is generally used in a LOT of tenant buildings as tile requires virtually no upkeep or wear through use so it's just a very convenient thing for landlords.
And in the case a water main breaks or some other water related accident occurs you don't have to tear out whole rooms of carpets or deal with warped floors.
Pretty boring answer but at least that's what I've been told and makes sense :)
Edit: It's also more common in the lower-low/medium price range rental units especially where tenants tend to move out more regularly as there's less maintenance required if the previous tenant maybe didn't treat their floors too carefully and also avoids possible scratches in floors by regularly moving furniture in and out...so yeah it all goes back to Landlord convenience ^^
Regarding the fans, it is also an environmental issue. There has been a big push all over the EU to improve energy efficiency of homes. One big part of that is to improve insulation. The thick walls do their part in that, too. In fact, it is often better to keep the windows closed during the summer and open them late when it is cooler outside. AC is commonly considered an excessive waste of energy.
My grandma had a screen on the tiny window in her kitchen (the house was… ages old, certainly way older than me, and I'm _old_ ;-)).
When i lived in New Zealand 10 years ago they people i met did theire laundry cold . Allways. Some never heared about side loaders or temperature settings.
Oh yes, there are some very interesting differences between Germany and New Zealand
Interesting! We have visited New Zealand but not there long enough to notice that!
I spent a whole year there. Work and Travel .
@@jorgschimmer8213 Same here, there are so many tiny differences you notice after such a long time which I found quite funny.
It seems American are a bit paranoid about missing flyscreen and aircon in Germany. Just about every US friend coming to visit, notice the same Windows, Kitchen, Flyscreen and of course , " You don't have any air-conditioning?? No flyscreen? Yeah well in Texas, I only had rattlesnakes in my backyard, mossies big like helicopters and roaches all over the place and snapper turtels coming from the lake in our backyard.......and you worry about a fly in the house? Ahhh....okay here comes the use of the aircon, put it on freeze so you end up with a cold, but hey the roaches are hiding and flies are numb. :-)
Big differences are the electric wires and phone cable from a pole to the house, which is very adventures during storm. And not talking about ages ago, its still is like this today....
I rather live in a stick framed house here in the NW since the is earthquake area.
You might have forgotten the different voltages/watts.
The different numbering of floors. First floor in one country is second in another.
All is acceptable except BYOK!
Cabinets too..you kidding me!
The address in Vienna includes the house number and if it's a bigger house with a lot of apartment's you can find the door number and with multiple stairways sometimes the number of stairway as well.
Because there is no name at the mailbox and door bell.
For example it's Wiener Straße 4/5/21
house number/stairway/door.
That depends though. Our complex has the names next to the bell.
Wow! That is a very detailed instruction to the person receiving the mail 😅
I can't imagine having to completely furnish my apartment for just a few years!
When you leave, you take everything with you, no problem. Did it many times.
"Tile roofs can last from 50 to a 100 years." - There are many old buildings (mostly churches) in Europe with tile roofs that are several hundred years old (often including the wooden truss as seen in Notre Dame, Paris, which was over 700 years old). The church in my own home village has a wooden roof truss which is exactly 600 years old (from 1420).
I think those numbers are definitely generally speaking and I would imagine a lot has to do with the climate of where the roofs are, but I really am no expect 😊 Like I said in the end, mostly we just think they are charming like gingerbread houses and that is the extent to our expertise there! haha
He meant the tiles. They can last longer than a hundred years, but I doubt that your church has one roof tile that is 600 years old.
If the landlord would provide it, he also had to take care of it and would be responsible if something causes trouble or breaks. So they simply don't do it. There are two ways:
-Tenant removes the kitchen when moving out.
-Old tenant sometimes sells it to the new tenant.
7:12 Oh, the combination of this switch and outlet is a real classic from the 1960s. The switch is still of that type glowing green in the dark after charged with light. Too bad they don't do that anymore. BTW: The outlet next to the door is normally for the vacuum cleaner, so you don't need to crawl on the floor looking for a vacant outlet to plug it in. Another difference to the US ;-)
The ceiling fans are not so common, but you'll find them. I got one in my bedroom. Just simply replaced the standard light fixture and installed a fan with lighting and a remote control. Germany is much more in the north than most american states, except Alaska. That's the reason most homes here have forced hot water radiators instead of an HVAC system.
Roof tiles can be made of two materials, clay or poured concrete. The clay ones were expensive and the concrete ones with added pigments for the colour were inexpensive. But now these days they both almost cost the same. The clay ones are mostly red. The poured concrete can almost have any colour. In most cases they are red or brown.
As a U.S.American (who lived in Germany for less than a year in an apartment) I think the BYOK in Germany is strange. Germans expect a sink in their apartment bathrooms, but do NOT expect a sink in their apartment kitchens⁉️ I thought this was so bizarre when I lived there.🤯
Ok,you thought this was so bizarre.But did you not make a Home Inspection?
Because its in US other, means not thats everywere else so.
In Europe ,every Country had is own Rules.
We have a Health insurance,even if you are unenployed.
In a Flat, the Place and the Rent is important.
What if you live in a US flat for 15 years
and the Kitchen is mostly broken?
Who pays a new Sink?
And what, if the Sink is allready 15 years old when you Move in?
Germans often have very specific ideas what they want in their kitchen. They want to chose the devices, not something cheap bought by the landlord.
Cheap homes where students use to live open come with a kitchen, because they live there only a few years and won't buy a fancy kitchen anyway.
German house rooms are all totally bare; there aren't any built-in closets. You supply your own. You also supply all your own light fixtures, and connect them to the connection plugs hanging in the air. A kitchen is a room with a larger sink; an instant hot water heater next to the sink; and tiles on the wall. Stoves, refrigerators, working counters; storage spaces, seating and tables, and lighting are all yours.
Now it is time to bring your fan back to the storage room for next years heat wave.
Der gute alte Struwwelpeter! ;)
Americans move around much more than Germans. I've lived in 6 states, and 10 cities, 11 houses several apartments. The idea of lugging around a stove and fridge is not appealing, unless it would be the 1920s vintage gas stove I once had. We often also leave behind our washer and dryer, too. If you're paying by the pound/kilo for freight across hundreds of miles it can get quite expensive. It's a vast over-simplification to say the majority of American homes are built of wood on concrete slabs. The wood frame part of that statement is true. However, basements predominate in most Midwest and Northeast homes, and many homes built in the South are built over crawl spaces. I've lived in 11 houses, 8 of them had basements (Wisconsin, Illinois, Delaware, Ohio), 2 of them had slabs (Arizona), and 1 with a crawl space (South Carolina). Many people have at least part of their basement finished, often as a family room or den, which can be cool during a hot summer. Building on a slab is cheaper than digging a basement. Crawl spaces are most common in areas that have a high water table. I like the idea of people painting their stucco. Sadly, here in the US, many newer homes are ruled by homeowners associations (HOAs) that dictate what you can and cannot do to the outside of your house, and so all the houses in a subdivision are the same color. :-(
Actually i am looking for a new apartment in the last couple of weeks and 80 to 90% off them had already kitchens in so does my current apartment have but yeah maybe its different from region to region 😀
Greetings from Stuttgart
Compare the number of movings per houshold, I guess it's more often in US, in Germany it's about every 10 years, but 20-30 years in the same appartment are also common. So of course you want your individual nice kitchen style. If people would move yearly, they would find that inconvenient also.
If you punch trough a wall, it cannot be acoustically isolated either. Germans like privacy. And people never even thought about door knobs, they just don't exist, it's just not an option.
Statistics I found (www.movebuddha.com/blog/moving-industry-statistics/) show that the average American lives in one place for 9-10 years as well but living in one place for much longer is also very common. For example, just from my personal experience, my parents have lived in the same home for almost 30 years and my grandparents have lived in the same home for nearly 70 years! So living in an apartment or home long term doesn't seem to explain the kitchen phenomenon because the statistics are the same. 🤔 Americans still update and re-do the kitchens when they move in, they just don't take it with them with they leave and a vast majority of Americans don't move yearly. This is also indicated in the fact that the rate of home/apartment ownership is much higher than in Germany. Americans have a tendency to buy rather than rent at a dramatically higher rate. That is also part of the "American dream." haha, so the fact that we buy and stay makes it even more interesting that we don't move with our kitchens unlike Germans who have a tendency to rent at a higher rate!
In terms of acoustic privacy, Germans also live in homes that have shared walls or are a lot closer than in the US. In the US, our homes are much more spread apart and do not have shared walls in our single family homes and therefore the acoustics are not nearly as big of an issue as in Germany. 😊
@@PassportTwo Really ? From Estate agents I rather hear, it's common Americans even buy/sell houses several times during live, it's the absolute exception to Germans to buy/build a house and not die in there (by natural cause). The estate market is really slow, also there are transfer costs of about 10% of the house value.
And privacy is also a topic inside a family, the children shall not hear the parents having sex (or vice versa).
For me, the biggest difference between US and German houses ist the fact, that US-homes don't have a corridor.
Very often u come in and -there you are with the wet clothes and dirty shoes in the middel of the living-room.
Every American home I have been in has a corridor and normally we call it an "entry way." 😂 It is also very common for American homes to have what they call a "mud room" which is a small entry way where you stop and take your wet clothes or muddy shoes off before moving on down the hallway into the actual rooms of the house 😊 I'm not saying all houses have a corridor and maybe you have just been in them that don't, but for sure we have them and nearly all I have seen, do (with the one exception being my grandparents house 😅)
@@PassportTwo You can take any sitcom like "married with children", "the simpsons", "modern family", "the middle", whatever, maybe they have a designated wardrobe area but essentially, between the frontdoor and the sofa there is never a door. Even the staircase or the kitchen are often just a part of the living room. I think only bedrooms and bathrooms have door. Maybe that's why they categorize appartment size by number of bedrooms. That's a major difference to Germany. Here they include the living room in the counting.
According to the numbering system: Did you notice that we have the odd numbers on the one side of the street and the even numbers on the other side?. And the houses in the streets are numbered in ascending order (or descending when you come from the other direction). So if you are looking for house-number 21 and on your street-side is house number 10 and 12, change the street side (there should be 11 and 13. And then walk to direction of the 13. There should come 15, 17, 19 and finally 21. Actually it is not the houses, that have numbers but the parcel, the house could be build on. So this is, why sometimes you would find 15, 17, empty space (there could be a house, but nobody build one here) and than 21. And sometimes you'll find things like 21 AND 21a (This is when two house were built on the same parcel. So 21 was first, and than somebody built a second house, the 21a. So if you search a house in Germany, it should be easy once you found the correct street.
Same here in the US. House numbers increase from the center point out with odd being on one side and even the other. Same also with gap in numbers. The first house may be #1, then if the next place is more than a house distance away the next number is skipped (house 1, blank space (where 3 would be), house 5, etc.).
I don't know anyone having table fans in Germany
There are ceiling fans (with built-in lighting) in Germany, but they are really rare. I guess I saw them more often in the 90s? Anyway, you will never find them already installed in a rentable appartment. You'll have to buy and put them on yourself.
Gotcha! Maybe it was a trend back in the day that people have outgrown 🤷♂️
I think people in attic apartments are more likely to own them. Our ceiling fan in the living room is absolutely vital for survival in summer.
Many people avoid installing them unless they really, really need one. Germans tend to have a very modern taste in interior design, and that includes light fixtures. Ceiling fans (especially in the US) have a rather "dated" design aesthetic, at least from a German point of view. I'd personally never want one in my bedroom, because I find them to be pretty ugly.
@@leDespicable Not all ceiling fans look like what you're probably thinking of. It seems like ceiling fans have become much more modern-looking over the years, like the one at 8:59. Personally I think more people should have them as they do really help the environment in many cases. They may help lower heating costs by circulating heat, like he explains at 8:53, and in Summer, having one powerful ceiling fan is probably more energy efficient than having several freestanding fans running at the same time.
I saw in another video of an american UA-camr that was househunting in California that you should watch how old the roof is, because there are regulations that you have to renew the whole roof every 10-20 years (or so) and that would add on later to the selling price. Have you ever heard of that from your hometown?
Because in Germany we don't have that. Hence the longer durability of our roof makes more sense.
well, we also got wooden frame houses in 2 varieties but none of those are close to american ones either :D
Is that a map of Oklahoma City on the wall behind you? That is where I live now :-)
It is! Our home 😊
And of course now that I got further into the video I see that it is an OKC map.
Haha, no worries! But yes, we are Okies and after getting married we lived in OKC 👍🏼
@@PassportTwo I live on the north side not far from 150th and Penn. I'm hoping that some day I can make it back to Germany and spend some extended time there. My mom lives in Wuppertal. I have 3 uncles that live in various parts of the country.
Oh nice! I (Donnie) used to work not too far from there at Jasco Products Company on Memorial and Santa Fe. Eat some Ted‘s for us!! 😊
Wuppertal is on our list of places to visit!
I love the windows from German
Some apartments in Germany offers kitchen furniture