As an American, I think it's funny you call the recliner a cinema chair. Where I'm from, recliners were standard in homes when I was growing up, and reclining chairs at the movies only became a thing about 10 years ago lol.
you're lucky. in my area, only the super expensive imax theatre has chairs like that. everything else is one step up from stadium seats- annoying fixed plastic chairs with cushions. The better the theatre, the more cushion.
The recliner as a standalone chair has been around since at least the 1970s. Reclining seats in couches are newer. I don't remember seeing them before ~20 years ago.
Well, recliners aren't standard in the way that the house comes with them installed like a kitchen sink. But yeah, it's rather common that people have at least one recliner in the house, or even couches that can recline.
Recliners are a trademark of older Midwest homes. My in-laws each had one and I thought they were the laziest people, especially because they were obese. My mother’s first impression of my mother in law was the woman sitting on the recliner with her fat naked feet up in the air and she didn’t even get up to meet my mom. Ugh!
We dont need them, most days its too cold to open the windows so on average I get maybe 10 houseflies come in through the window a year. Maybe a wasp or two. Don't really get mosquitos here.
The laundry room with a washer and dryer! I discovered that when I moved to the States. I designed mine in this house and it is huge so I can have the dog and cat food, cat litter, a sink, an upright freezer, a clothe line for delicates, room to store laundry baskets, brooms, detergents and shelves and more shelves. It is one of the best investment I made. I do like the French windows better because they have shutters that you can actually use. Here, they are only decorations. They are great to for insolation, privacy and protection. I also have fallen in love with recliners. Were I to move back to Europe, I would take them with me. And finally, the size of the houses, and the rooms inside. I love the feeling of openness in large rooms. Same with cars which, to my delight, are fully automatic. This European loves the American life style.
I love seeing this UK guy reacting so excitedly to things we just take for granted here in the US. He put a smile on my face with his cheerful enthusiasm.
Those rubbish disposal systems are unbelievably polluting! Imagine all the stuff that gets to the waste water treatment plants and has to be filtered out of the water instead of just being put in the compost or the “green bin” which is collected by the municipality and ecologically disposed off!
I am a janitor at a school in southern Texas. 104 degrees with heavy humidity. For some reason, the school district decided it would be a great idea to save electricity by turning the AC off in the schools in our town. Because ‘no one will be there anyway during the summers ’. Ummm/ you have a group of employees doing labor intensive work all summer. It gets about 80 degrees in the classrooms WITH added humidity. Makes it reallllyyy hard to be a peppy efficient employee. 🥵
@@CinderellaRaptured333and with modern buildings being sealed so tightly how mold is a major problem when A/C and it's dehumidifying functions are turned off.
@@tsiefhtes Yeah. We have those clocks that have the time/date/temp/humidity information on them. Our particular school feels very humid when the AC is off. I’m assuming the builders cut corners to save money, bc it’s not insulated well at all! It’s an older school. One day, the air in the classroom went out. The teacher was irritable and complaining that it was SO humid and hot! Upwards of 80 degrees according to the clock. They fixed it for her. I told her, “Yeah- imagine the whole school feeling like this! Because we work in this all summer.” She couldn’t believe it. She was like, there’s no way I could do that! That’s so sad they make yall work without cooler air like that.
@@CinderellaRaptured333They did that in some districts here in North Carolina last year resulting in mold so bad school was delayed by weeks and cost millions in remediation. Administrators are often quite stupid.
Yeah, not everyone has a reclining sofa, but a lot of people at least have a reclining chair. I don't - not enough room for one where I live now - but my dad has a recliner that also lifts up in the back to help him stand up. Full disclosure though, he's over 80 so I doubt he'd be able to get out of a stuffed chair without the help.
@lynnw7155 every movie theater I've been in in the past 5-10 years has had recliners for seats. I used to think the same thing, but they take out entire rows of seats to put them in. It cuts the seating by 50-75%, but it is so much better. No more getting your seat kicked or not being able to see over a tall person.
In the US, most people don't have more than one car for a person unless they have specific needs for it, for example work trucks, farmer's tractors and crop harvesters, or full size vans for large families. The primary exception to this are people who repair and resell cars for a hobby or as part of their job. I know a mechanic who works for the state who also owns 11 cars, and fixes them up on the side. Also, you always want to run the water while running the garbage disposal because it helps pulverize the food waste.
They missed, probably one of the bigger conveniences of America versus Europe, is the laundry room. Typically in Europe, the washer dryer combo machine is either in the bathroom or the kitchen. There are a lot of dedicated laundry rooms in bigger homes in the US. Or just a dedicated laundry closet in the hallways.
My wish is to design a large, multi-functional laundry room with large storage closets for Christmas decor, extra China sets and glassware, gift wrapping table, folding area. I do not understand why builders put the laundry 🧺 in the scary basement, (think of the scene with Kevin McAllister in Home Alone) or near the kitchen. I don’t keep my clothes in the kitchen. A laundry should be near the bedrooms. Hats off to all those poor women who had to schlepp heavy laundry down and then back up two flights of stairs. Whether here in the U.S., or in Europe, we have to begin to think more creatively and practically about homes and design. And bathrooms should not be near dining areas. Just sayin’.
@@user-es9mb8wi3m We are a retired couple and when we downsized, there was no laundry at all. So we took the second bedroom and made it a laundry room/walk-in closet.
@@TallulahB58 Good move, Tallulah. The importance of the laundry in the function of a home is grossly underestimated. It seems always to be an afterthought, the smallest, often windowless room in most cases. Often just a closet. Space is needed for moving around, folding, hanging clothing, and storage. It should be a pretty, pleasant room in which to work because we spend quite a bit of time in there. Enjoy your lovely laundry room.
No...the mailman does not have a key. It's unlocked, but considering that messing with someones mail within their mailbox is a federal crime, it's not a big risk, at least where I live.
It depends on your neighborhood. In newer developments you’ll often see a set of mailboxes on a big post that also contains two or three package boxes and an outgoing mail slot. You have as assigned box and use a key to,open it. Of course the mail carrier has the master key to open the entire box. We have that kind of set up in our development, there’s a mail box on every block, mounted on the sidewalk at the edge of the curb so the mail carrier can fill the boxes and collect outgoing mail without leaving their vehicle, unless the package you’re receiving is too large for one if the package boxes and then they leave it on your front porch.
Mine actually does have a lock. There's a slot for the mail to be put in once the door is opened. You need the key to open it to get the mail out. Anything too big to fit through the slot, is brought to the house.
Everyone’s talking about the screens on the windows. I’M still trying to wrap my head round HIM trying to wrap his head round the fact that you can send letters or small packages from your mailbox! 🤣
Her mother is upper class daughter living abroad in a house on a lake (she said mid-west where you can get bigger houses then on the east or west coast specially cities)
She lives in a more upper middle class area. That is not how a lot of Americans live. Lake front properties are rare and very expensive. Owning 6 TVs is a lot, 3 is more like it. The two vehicles in the driveway are usually a sedan and a truck, and if you have a third vehicle, mostly due to having young drivers in the family over the age of 16. Her parents live in a very large house, and most Americans live in smaller square foot homes.The recliners are very common for living rooms.
@@Phoenix_DarkMoon It depends, midwesterners used to buy or build these lakefront properties as vacation homes that would be shared and funded by extended family. I'm middleclass in michigan and my extended family does this still with a lakefront home that was built by my great grandfather in the 1950's or 60's...
Multiple cars is definitely not the norm... Her parents are probably upper middle class. My parents have an extra vehicle. It's a truck for hauling things.
Thank you. I came here to say this is not the typical home here. Also, the size of the yard. Most houses would be lucky to have half that size depending on the age. The newer houses might be lucky to have 1/8 an acre.
Frausters are brazen now and will alter checks from your mailbox. That's for the old school people who still write checks and buy stamps. Online payments or bill pay from ur bank account is easiest and cheapest way to pay the bills.
Mail tampering does happen occasionally, because people are idiots. But yeah, it's definitely not *worth* it, because you can get in way more trouble than it's worth. If you're going to commit a felony and risk the consequences, there are far more appealing and potentially lucrative ways to do it, than reading your neighbor's mail. Frankly, there are more appealing and lucrative forms of completely legal unskilled labor, like working a cash register.
I worked as a rural postman in one of the poorest and most crime-ridden parts of my state, for a brief time only. One of the things I learned, extremely quickly, is that no one, not even the craziest junky, messes with the mail. For two main reasons: They deliver the checks. And they have the oldest, and most fuck around and find out police force, founded in 1775 by Ben Franklin.
It's also worth realizing that these days, the blue mail drop boxes are becoming a rarity, so your option for mailing letters is either you mailbox or taking it to an actual post office.
My coworker took a vacation to Florida and had never seen the screened enclosures surrounding swimming pools in people's backyards. She told me, "there's a whole room of screened walls and ceiling connected to the houses". Having lived in Florida for 30 years, I know why they are built. As soon as the summer sun dips in the sky, around 4pm, the mosquitoes come out. You would never use your pool after 4pm unless you want to get eaten alive. The screened enclosure also protects kids from the neighborhood coming in to swim in your pool. If the kid drowns, it's the homeowner's fault even if the kid was trespassing. The enclosure also keeps debris from trees falling into your pool and making it dirty. And lastly, it helps to keep alligators and other wildlife from using your pool as a lake. The one thing I didn't like about the enclosure is that the pool water temp is colder with the screens vs without. However on hot, humid, summer days the cold water feels nice!
I lived in Florida for a year and I've never seen a screen completely surrounding a pool. My apartment did have a screened patio though. That was really nice.
As others have noted, it's worth noting that this appears to be a wealthy family. Some families do have several cars to a family, but usually only very wealthy people have more than one car per person. That kitchen is also quite large, although it is relatively common in newer homes to have that detachable faucet and a garbage disposal. In American apartments built before those things were common, it's not unusual to have neither of those things. That view is also a wealthy people view. What's funny is that recliners have been somewhat common in America for a while, so when cinemas started to have them my thought was "wow this is a recliner just like my grandma's," not "my grandma's house is just like a cinema chair."
I was thinking that too about the recliners. It’s only been in the last decade that we have gotten those kinds of cinema chairs and they are only in one of the rooms at the movies while the other 14 or so have the old straight back ones. We have had recliners in homes since I was a little kid (and before.) It’s funny how that’s backwards.
i would mostly agree, but it feels like buying broken down "project" cars and fixing them up is becoming more common these days with how messed up car prices have become.
I used to live in a one vehicle per occupant home, but then one of the occupants was no more. One vehicle is used for transporting big things, but isn't very fuel efficient. The other is fuel efficient with 60 miles of electric range. The electric range is enough for 95% of my driving. Round trips to the airport are outside the range, but not that frequent.
I have never been to a theater with a full reclining seat. Even the newly built on just has seats that tilt back a little. I live in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh.
Something I miss with new houses in America.... porches and patios. Now some houses will have one or the other or they will have a wooden deck. My grandmother's old house had both a porch out front with rocking chairs and out back was a large patio with a fire pit. During the day (mostly on Sundays) we'd sit out front drinking ice tea and marvel at her flower garden. At night we'd move to the back patio and tell stories around the fire pit. I loved the patio, it looked out over a grassy field with a few apple trees and her huge vegetable garden. Although when it's harvest season the size of that vegetable garden was painful. The grandkids would spend the day picking vegetables while the mothers were cleaning and prepping them, and grandma was manning the stove canning all the vegetables. I know, tell me you're Gen X without saying you're Gen X. lol
It depends on the builder, my development was built seventeen years ago and when you picked out your floor plan, you also had a choice of three different variations of the exterior but they all included covered porches. Also a large patio was included in the back of your house.
I still see porches and patios but it's like the front and back yards, it's getting smaller. But you're right, you can see it slowly being less common than it once was.
My last house only had a front stoop and a concrete patio out back. When we got our new home a couple of years ago...I finally got my front and back porches. Love them!
Not only do screens let in air but also the sounds of nature. Air conditioning is not just for cooling but removing humidity which helps with the feeling of comfort.
That depends on the region. Where I live, the HVAC system has a humidifier that adds moisture to the air. Other places have de-humidifiers, and some places have both.
I live somewhere very dry, so swamp coolers reign supreme. I actually struggle with a dry cough sometimes because of systems that remove humidity when it's already kind of dry after growing up with the swamp cooler... Edit: I COULD'VE SWORN I MADE SURE IT SAID LIVE, NOT LOVE, BUT!
@@JanMaynz the one thing I don't like very much about swamp coolers is the smell, and it wasn't just one particular home, it was a common thing to smell that 'swamp cooler' smell everywhere that used them. That being said, I'd happily deal with the stink of swamp coolers if the only alternative was living without screens on my windows.... I can't cope with having mosquitoes, june bugs, and other unsavory critters getting into my home
The one big thing she left out is the laundry room. We have an entire room for the washer and dryer, which are 2 separate units. In the UK, I believe there's usually a washer/dryer in the actual kitchen, and it's only one unit.
Not all homes in America either. Where I live its more common to have your washer/dryer in the basement or bathroom if you haver enough rom. Also there is a 50/50 split between the separate and 1 unit washer/dryer.
@@keegansmetanko3755 Certainly. I've seen those all as well. Those are also things you don't often see in the UK. Looking at the house in this video, I would shocked if it didn't have a laundry room, but I digress. I'm more specifically saying that in the US, you don't see washer/dryer units under the kitchen counter in the same location you'd find a dishwasher.
I noticed that as well. I would definitely need a dryer for clothes. I don’t think that’s real common in the UK. Comment please of it is common to have a dryer in the house.
@@keegansmetanko3755 - a one unit piece of stacking washer dryer - or a one unit piece that you put clothes into once and it washes and dries? . . . . No moving clothes into a dryer (whether stand alone or a stacking unit)
Aside from the typical bells and whistles for most U.S. houses, construction means and methods differ across the U.S. due to the environment. Just hear in Texas, you have the Chihuahuan desert of El Paso in the west and the costal “swamp” of Houston in the east. Hence, building is different. Not to mention - equidistant north from El Paso - you have alpine environs of Colorado.
I am from Florida and could not imagine a life without AC or window screens. The heat, humidity, and insane number of bugs here, will literally kill you. Growing up we always had at least three vehicles. Dad wanted a spare in case one was broken, so he was never late to work, & we couldn't get to school. I have continued that thought process into my life with children. Public transportation is not readily available in the country or rural areas. Most US houses at least have a tv in the main living room and bedrooms, but it is not uncommon to have them in a workout room, kitchen, or back porch for parties. We are not rich, nor do we have the massive house or amazing view as this poster, but we have all the items listed.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm an American in the mid-west. I do not own a TV anymore but growing up we had two, one was small black and white and the other color, then we migrated to two color. Only have one car per person. Now scenic view out the windows, just neighbor's' homes. That type of sink faucet is about $100 or more, and I've never seen a sink that large in anyone's home in my life! Also, I've never lived in a home with that much space. Definitely not a typical American home unless you are the upper middle class.
@@Shirayuuki1 My 3/2 2000 square ft house on a just under 1 acre lake lot in rural MN costs half what I paid for my winter home in S Florida that has a teeny lot and is 1500 sq ft 3/2 on a drainage pond they call a lake. My MN house is on a 1000 acre lake. But in FL the gators are free ha ha ha.
I love watching videos like this because it helps me stay humble and appreciate America. I'm in Florida. Everyday is beautiful and life is very good. I love seeing people's faces when they see things we take for granted over here. It reminds me NOT to take things for granted. I hope you're able to visit us one day!
We have those large mailboxes on the streets too, usually in busy areas. The pickup hours are posted there, too. Different vehicles have different uses too. I have a little car for most of my commuting, but I also inherited a pickup which is useful for moving things around. I use it more than I'd ever think.
I just recalled, many years ago my family had a relative visit from the U.K. She was amazed how big everything was, especially the cars. The first time she stopped by to visit my parents and me, my mother ushered her to our back yard. She looked astonished and asked if the entire back yard belonged to us. My parents yard wasn’t an especially large yard, but my mother worked hard every spring planting flowers and making everything beautiful. The thing that shocked my dads cousin the most was a few minutes into her visit while she was sitting enjoying the garden, was a squirrel who ran and hopped off a tree, standing on the grass looking at her. She jumped up, screamed a little, and ran back in the house. My mother and I had to work hard to get her into the yard again. She wanted to know what the wild animal was.
I don't know why she would be scared of a squirrel, have you ever seen the size of the rabbits in the UK??? They are the size of dogs! And I don't mean a Chihuahua.
@@SubeTheWenchyes I thought that was strange. There are plenty of squirrels in the UK They just look a little different from American squirrels but you can still clearly tell they are squirrels
Funniest mailbox quote I just came up with: "The key to my mailbox is a federal appointment. You're either appointed as the mailman, or appointed a jail sentence."
I think a key to U.S. consumerism is that we spend a lot of time and income on 'removing' daily annoyances so that we can be more productive as people. Many of these same conveniences one can also find in our work places. When it comes to multiple vehicles, it largely depends on the part of the country one resides. In Northern winters it's safer to drive an SUV or truck (snow, ice.) When the 90F summers arrive it's less costly to drive a sedan or commuter (fuel.) Many in the UK and Europe don't realize how drastic our weather changes through the seasons here. Especially in the North.
@@jeffmockus5400I live in Minnesota. I have never had 4wheel drive, but rather front wheel drive. I have driven through snow storms safely and watched the idiots with 4wheel drive blast past me and then see them in the ditch. As far as I am concerned, 4wheel drive just gets you in the ditch that much faster and more efficiently! (Also, I know when it is better to just stay home and wait for the plows to come through.)
@@nancykaminski8600 Correct. 4wd is definitely better than a 2wd pickup, which is useless in snow because there's no weight over the rear wheels, and a rwd car is better than a rwd/2wd pickup. Front wheel drive is the best in snow. Example: BIG, N50/15 rear tires, a posi rear and a couple hundred pounds of weight in the trunk of a '69 Dodge Coronet will out drive any 2wd pickup in snow. This I know for sure. I learned this in the Poconos (East Stroudsburg), as I drove past my friend in his Dodge pickup, which was - really - in a ditch. (He did it twice that year.) Don't even get me started on going up snowy hills.
As a former postal worker. In class they told us the Office of the Postmaster General Inspector is the 2nd highest police force in the country. The only people that outrank them in civilian service is the secret service. Stealing/putting anything in a mailbox that is not your is a felony. They will find you if they want to. The mailbox on each property is TECHNICALLY the federal government's property. You are technically only allowed to replace it with certain boxes but the mailman usually lets it slide if they like you.
IIRC, that's mostly because mail that's going from one side of the country to the other via truck passes through hundreds of jursidictions. The result is that in order to figure out where it was stolen, the Postmaster Inspector General has to have that level of authority.
@@tonette11000 murder is illegal and people still kill lol if you want you can file a report on continued theft and they will eventually get around to you. I wasn't in the dept but it is all true. I'm with UPS now and have done Amazon both stressed DAILY DO NOT PUT IT IN THE MAILBOX. mailmen that care will take the packages back to the post office and the UPS driver will get them next time he goes to drop off a bulk of packages along with a report on where and a warning of a fine/escalation if it keeps happening.
Your reactions crack me up! 69 year old American here. I lived in Brazil for 4 years where there were no screens. But where we lived, there weren't a lot of bugs either. We closed all the windows at 5 PM before the mosquitoes were out. But in the U.S., even when I was a child and we were poor, there were always screens. We lived in a place that was too cold for bugs and still had screens! :) But I agree with one of the comments, the house in the video belongs to someone relatively wealthy. Double ice makers, 6 TV's, more than one car per person and that beautiful view are not the usual in the U.S.
@@alanlight7740if you haven’t noticed the middle class is shrinking rapidly in America. So even if they are Upper middle class that’s makes them very well of in todays economy compared to the AVERAGE American.
The building code in the US requires screens in certain rooms. That doesn't mean they won't get damaged over time. I remember kitchens being one required room to keep flies away from food preparation areas.
That house is definitely upper middle class, tho from the size of their driveway it could be in a rural area. Having a gorgeous view like that is not the norm in the US, however, even in rural areas.
@@alanlight7740Agreed. You don't necessarily have to be rich to have all these things but as far as the beautiful view goes, you may not be wealthy but you will probably be spending the bulk of your savings on it lol.
How cute his reactions are! I’m 62, I redid my kitchen. I have the garbage disposal, a very large and deep hand hammered copper sink, a full size refrigerator with a big ice maker, and I have a 24” beverage refrigerator too. I live alone, and have two cars. I have whole house air conditioning, a whole house automatic generator, and a 2200 square foot house, with two recliners in my living room. I worked my ass off for all of it, and I’m happy and grateful for what I have. I wish every good person had the same too.
While many homes do have garbage disposals, if they are older homes (and many homes are in my area) they often do NOT have garbage disposals. Personally, I think they are not ideal. We should be composting our food waste, and not just throw it down the drain. A head of lettuce in a landfill takes 50 years to degrade. In a compost pile it takes about two weeks.
@@Kammy44 it’s minimal what goes down my disposal. I live on 9 acres. I throw everything out for the animals. It’s just scrapings from plates mostly. I feed the woodland creatures.
That was one nice ass fawkin fridge! LOL, we have a pretty decent Samsung fridge, side-by-side fridge doors up top, freezer on bottom that's split into 2 separate freezers with 2 doors, so that general style of fridge is pretty common and accessible these days. But that one in the video specifically is a damn rocket ship😂
The window screen is a metal or plastic mesh (with tiny tiny holes) that lets air through but not bugs. The mesh is mounted on a rail that is affixed just behind the actual window on the bottom in it's own track. It can be pulled out for repairs or to clean the windows. LOVE SCREENS. Also, we have SCREEN DOORS that have mesh instead of glass that are mounted in the door jam about 3 inches in front of the outside door so you can open the door and bugs not come in. The handle can also be locked to help prevent instrusion.
FYI: Window screens are typically mounted in frames that can be slid up and down or removed altogether, so people can escape out the window in the event of a house fire.
You can also get pet screen, which is a thicker black plastic, but you can still see through it very well, and it keeps cats from ripping the screens to shreds, which any cat will do if you let them get a chance at a regular screen window. We had it on our porch outside in Virginia. Costs more but absolutely worth it.
In my neighborhood in the US the mailboxes are a bank of lock boxes. Each house gets assigned a number and given a key to their box. If there's a package there are package bins where they will secure the package and deposit the key in your mailbox. To send letters, there is a specific slot that is communal that people can put their letters in, but no one besides the post office has the key to open that.
One thing about air conditioning is that the entire contiguous part of the USA is more southerly than London. Things get pretty warm in the summer, even in the northernmost, snowiest, cities.
Yeah, I am from Pennsylvania at the northernmost part, and the one year we hit a US record for cold temperature, but during the summer it was one of our hottest summers too like 98 f
Yes, most of these things are standard in American homes: window screens, ice makers, garbage disposals. We don’t have a recliner, but my parents have had recliners as long as I can remember. They’re so comfortable, you can literally sleep in them.
I literally stayed in a recliner at my parents house for a week after I'd had abdominal surgery, and wasn't supposed to sleep completely laying down, or on my side like I usually do. They are definitely comfortable enough for sleeping, (pretty much only left it for the bathroom for about 4 days, until I was ready to start moving around)
@@ringringbananarchy Tbh I sleep in recliner pretty much every single night for the last year… I tend to get pretty bad migraines if I lay down flat or rather if I have migraine (which I get pretty often) they get much worse if I lay down completely flat. So I started sleeping in my recliner whenever I had a migraine, which progressed into me just sleeping in the recliner every night now. Lol
I have a summer car, good fuel efficiency and fun to drive, and a winter SUV, because my car stranded me in the snow four times the first winter I owned it. Now if the weather permits in the winter I will drive the car and if there's ice or snow it's the SUV.
Recliners are very common brother, so are fine mesh screens for windows, and no the mail man does not have a key to our mailboxes (it's a federal crime to steal mail, you get more jail time for that than assault or any other kind of theft)
Community mailboxes are getting more commonly installed in new subdivisions and yes, the mailman has a key to the back which opens all the boxes. Then each resident has a key to their individual box. Still has a slot for outgoing mail though.
@@loverlyredhead I grew up in the 80s, and our neighborhood had community mailboxes for each end of the block. It was usually my job when I got home from school to walk the dog & get the mail. Every apartment I've lived in (including current one) has had community mailboxes as well
We have post office drop boxes, but if you have an individual mail box, the mailman will pick up the letters you want to send. You see this arrangement in less densely populated areas like the suburbs or the rural areas. Yes, someone can steal your mail, but getting into someone else's mail or mailbox is a federal offense.
We put the flag up every day on our mailbox by the road. We leave a nice cold bottle of water for our letter carriers. They love it and every now and then they thank us for thinking of them, especially when it's hot outside.
The mail one only applies to mail boxes. Those aren't nearly as common as people think, due to movies. Literally my entire city doesn't have them at single homes (non-apartments). Nearly everyone here has a letterbox as well. Like, a little box hanging next to the door, and some even have those slots in the door like you might have seen in movies, too. But we have a secondary thing to send letters. My house has slot with a hinged little door, but it's IN THE WALL next to the door. To it slides down the little cutout on the inside of the wall. Then above that slot on the outside, we have a clip, you know, like you press down on the little ends, and the clip opens, like you'd use to close up a bag or something? We have a metal one that we put letters in that we want to mail. The postman knows that's what it's for and takes the mail from it to send out. Some homes here have 2 letter boxes. Where it's just an actual box attached to the house next to the door, with a lid you can open, and they will be labeled which one is for incoming, and which is for outgoing. And yes, technically your neighbors COULD steal the mail, but it's not common, because it's a federal crime, which is mandatory prison time. And mail theft like that, can easily be a 5 year prison sentence. Enough to stop any idea from most people. Fences are eh..Some do some don't. Cars though..I can explain that. It's called having an extra just in case. You're telling me if your car suddenly has a problem, and you work 2 cities over (sometimes further here, my stepdad used to work over an hour drive away), you're just gonna walk? Or hope you can catch the bus? Nah, have a backup car. For example, like you said "one for mom one for dad", what if mom is at work and dad's car has a sudden problem and he needs to get to work? You have an extra car for that. The reason we all have AC, is because the US generally gets WAY hotter than the UK. Like A LOT hotter. You guys were just recently complaining about it being a record high of the mid friggin 80s (30 for you guys). That's literally the LOW for the ENTIRE SUMMER here. Sometimes that even drags on into autumn, and starts late spring. This entire summer, I'm in the northern part of the US where it's nowhere near as hot as it CAN get, and it's constantly in the 90s (32-37 for you), and even for a week was around 100 (37.7 to you). And a couple years ago, it got 114 (45.5 for you), for a day. And again that's in the NORTH of the US. Literally Washington, the state on the top left of the US map. You can't go higher than the states at the top. Can you image those days in the south half where it's HOTTER!? Screw that. Not having AC can mean literally life and death for many people. On the window, yet. that is netting. It's a mesh netting in which the holes are small enough that no bugs can get through it. With the ice, I can't say 100% for sure, but I don't think she's right. I think that's just her mom lol Every single person I've ever met that has a fridge with a built in ice machine like that, does NOT make a separate thing of ice. It's not needed. They get the ice from the ice machine part. No need to make a whole big tub of it like that. We don't have one in this house, so we HAVE to make ice the old fashioned way, in the trays in the freezer, but not a single person I know does that, that has the built in ice machine.
Yes, stealing someone’s mail is a federal offense, not just petty theft. When I still live at home with my parents, my father would open up my mail. I would tell him it was a federal offense. So, he would say “I don’t care, it’s coming to my house”! The kicker is, he once worked for the post office!😂😂😂
I will send my kids a You've Got Mail MSG. Then a picture of it if it looks important. Like tax return/owed.Then they'll let me know if they're coming over soon or to open it and let them know what it is. If its just junk mail, I still give it all to them to do with what they want. Cuz. It's their mail. They still kinda get a kick out of opening it all. Except maybe the, you still owe this much. Lol
Yes, technically you could have reported him and gotten him in big trouble. Man, that is such a rude and disrespectful thing for your dad to do! I would never open someone else's mail, kid or no.
@@1024lafyeah some people can just be way too nosey… my moms husband (don’t like referring to him as my stepdad lol) opens other peoples mail a lot. He’s a very nosey person
@@Chris-fn4df Depends on the federal judicial district you live in as all federal crimes, just like state crimes, are charged and prosecuted based on the discretion of the prosecutor. I've witnessed many people go to federal prison or at least have their day in court for stealing low-value Amazon packages on porches while sitting through federal trials in a district court that had more aggressive prosecution overall. Other federal prosecutors elsewhere might've let them go. Because of the prevalence of Ring and other doorbell cameras, prosecution of mail theft is getting easier to prove so federal prosecutors have less excuses to not enforce. But there will always be prosecutors who decide not to enforce any type of crime. It's their call. But that's nothing unique to mail theft.
@@Tijuanabill let me catch someone taking anything out my mailbox. I have a surprise for them. The only person that should take mail from the box is the carrier or myself.
You can install a fence around your yard if you wish. There are many types available. Some you can see through, and some you cannot. Those are known as a privacy fence. You can have them installed or have them delivered or go to stores like Home Depot, or Lowes and pick it up if you own a pickup truck and install it yourself.
Middle Class American here - I would say this is a very affluent family that is NOT the norm in the US. I don't know anyone who has multiple cars per person. Typically one car per adult but I have known some who share one car. I've never seen a refrigerator with two icemakers and that looks like a very upscale fridge. Many of the homes I've lived in don't have garbage disposals, including the one I live in now. Where I live many people don't have a/c (but with climate change more and more people are getting it - my neighbors tend to have window units for one room). I have one television. Many people I know don't have a tv at all anymore because they watch what they want to on their laptops or phones or they aren't into tv. That view is extraordinary, but not all homes are like that. Again, pretty upscale there. We do tend to have front yards but often they have hedges or short fences around them. Regarding mail boxes, typically neighbors don't steal from them but there are theft rings that steal mail and peoples' identities. More and more mailboxes are replaced with locking varieties and the postal person has a universal key that opens them. (And I've heard of the post person's key being stolen too!).
For sure that family house looks rich. And even my parents are middle class. We have an because it would be insane not to on the East Coast. We don’t have a garbage disposal (the previous house we did) Our yards are generally open, I have seen some with front fences in the more bad areas.
My fridge looks like that and I’m far from affluent. The top ice maker is technically part of the door ice maker. That’s where the ice comes from for the door and you just have to pull it out if you want the ice in there
I am a 57 year old American that has lived my entire life in America only and though I know that there are many homes that have garbage disposals I personally have only stepped into one home that had one in my entire life. And that was a newly built house back in the 1990s that was on sale and my Mom was checking out. I have never lived in any home that had one and aside from that one house that was being sold, it just so happens that I also have never visited any home that had one. Just luck of the draw, I guess. LOL! So needless to say, Not every American home has a garbage disposal. LOL! 😉👍
Same, no garbage disposals except in 2 homes of my acquaintances. I'm guessing they're a bigger thing in big cities.. I personally think they're not worth it and will not be putting one in our kitchen remodel. We do have a garden and compost though.
@@alisonflaxman1566 I lived 47 years in New York City but I lived 10 years in Miami, Florida during my teen years. But I do visit Miami once in a while to see my Mom who still lives there. A huge chunk of New York City apartments don't come with garage disposals. And I have visited a few townhouses and penthouses of friends over the years. But even when living in Florida or visiting I still have yet to see one in someone's home. Like I said, I guess it just has been the luck of the draw for me. Update; I just googled it. It said, "There are garbage disposals in NYC apartments. Prior to 1997, they were illegal. Now they are allowed at the discretion of the building's board." So that means that you might find a garbage disposal only in turn of the 21st century building construction and on. But most NYC buildings were built prior to that. Especially apartment buildings in upper Manhattan and in some areas in the outer burrows where you can find many pre-war apartment buildings. And then there are the low income housing. Garbage disposals, dish washers and washing machines are not considered an essential priority. They are considered a luxury and are also disapproved upon because fixing them and stopping an accidental flooding is more problematic and expensive deal with.
Yep I live in the country with a well and septic- no garbage disposal here. My parents and siblings have them though (they live in town and have city water/sewage service)
I've only seen a garbage disposal in real life once at a friend's house when I was young. They didn't even have it hooked up though cause they had dogs and no need. I've seen too many horror movies with people reaching their hand down there, no thanks
His mind is gonna blow when he finds out you can get sinks that you dont need to touch. I can just wave my hand in front of the sink and it will turn on and off. Is is needed? No. Is it great? YES.
Having air conditioning is a survival necessity in south Louisiana and Mississippi. I remember my dad putting in a window unit in our house in 1965. We lived in a rented "shotgun" house in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans (the part that was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina). I think we were one of the first families in our circle to have a/c in our house -- and we were dirt poor at that time. I now live in a 1 acre lot in a subdivision where most of us don't have fences around our entire property -- only the area closest to the back of the house to keep our pets in. It's also against the zoning in a lot of suburban areas to have fences in the front of houses in the US.
I am single - 2 cars: 1) smart car to commute and run errands 2) pick up truck - for horses care and haul large items. Smaller, well kept, non-fenced front yard with fenced in back yard with my veggie garden and fruit trees (and soon to have chickens!) and a place for the dog to run. Kitchen - meh, about the same, frige not so fancy but lots of ice (have to have special filter for water because ours is 'hard'). No tv in my house - just one computer screen Screens on all windows and - not mentioned - 'storm' or 'screened' doors too! And yeah, most have recliners too. My house is considered 'smaller' even though it has 3 bed and 2 baths (1700 sq ft) Not fancy like the one shown. I also live in sw us - so air conditioner is mandatory! Like your video!
Multiple cars per person could be due to the work a person does, or a hobby a person does on the weekends. For instance, a guy might need a truck for work, but uses a car to pick up a date. Or someone might need a truck to pull their boat but uses a car that is cheaper on gas to drive around town. And yes, recliners (what you called a cinema chair) are very common in the US.
I was going to say, for the average couple without kids, it's not unusual to see two cars, sometimes three if one is really fuel efficient, or a truck. The other thing is that if there are kids who are of driving age (or even if they're adults living at home with their parents) they might (kids), or will (adults living with parents), have their own cars.
and also not everyone trades in a car, they might also get passed down to a kid and then when that kid is grown up and gets their own car they just end up keeping the old one since they already have a newer car and have no reason to trade it in to a dealer.
Yep, and I know people that have a car for work commuting, a truck for the occasions when they need to haul stuff and/or pull a trailer, and a minivan for when they want to take the whole family somewhere.
6:42 The garbage/trash disposal in the kitchen sink is NOT for ALL of the trash. It's for the crumbs and small pieces of food that are left in the sink after hand-washing the dishes, but not for bones or large chunks of food; if the piece of food world take up most of the area in the bowl of a spoon, it goes into the trash can. If you don't run the disposal every day, do run it at least once per week, and ALWAYS run the disposal with the hot water running in the sink. These tips were told to me by the garbage disposal installer.
it's definitely not typical for people in america to have more than one car per person, this woman's mom is pretty darn wealthy. our home doesn't have a garbage disposal either. but wow, i never even thought of anyone not having screens, i feel so bad for those who don't.
@@justbeeyourself Yes they work and have to drive a long distance. Many work 45-1 hour away so they need a vehicle that is reliable. So each adult has 2 cars just case one breaks down. And once the kids are 16 they have a hoopty (an old car). That way they can take their siblings to sports, dance etc.
@@justbeeyourself Yes, there is the commuter car that can be somewhat of a "beater" but gets good gas mileage. If one has a rural property, having a truck is important for home projects etc. Then if you have kids, one needs a SUV to take them & their equipment to sporting events. It's also good for Costco or big box store runs, so one can carry lots of things in a car. Then in areas that have cold weather like the Mid-West, if one has a fun car like a convertible or a soft top car, it can only be driven the warmer months of the year & garaged other times. As others have noted, there can be older car for teenagers in the family, so they can drive to high school or go on dates.
Not having air conditioning or window screens are two things that are wild to me. The US is really behind on using heat pumps, or sometimes called Mini splits for heating and cooling both, but just not having anything at all like you mentioned is next level insane. That seems like a million euro idea over in the UK. "We'll fit bug screens on your windows, no matter what kinda window you have."
We live on a farm in Indiana and we have a beautiful view here but not every place in the US is the same as in this video. For instance, we only have 2 TVs in our home. And as far as the multiple vehicles go, some people have work trucks and then maybe a car they use for personal transportation. Also some people have cars that they rarely drive and for pleasure like a convertible or they have vintage car and they take them to car shows. There could be multiple reasons. Yes we all love our ice here and our A/C. It can get extremely hot and humid here and especially in parts of the southern US it can get miserable in the summer time. But growing up we didn’t have A/C. It was a fan in the window but we always had window screens. 😊
the duel ice maker system i had to look taht up because i never seen it before, first comments where from a year ,ago so those must be new, i would say kind of higher on the above average. if it's typical i would say mail boxes, but electric recliners. i wouldn't say typical still since i only see one person my life have one. although we just inherited a set from buying a house, they where trying to move without taking to many thing
@@XerouEffect13yeah but again, everything was still pretty much the norm… most house have multiple tvs and a garbage disposal. My sink is quite small though. Had a house fires like 2 years ago and the kitchen for re-done. They put in a garbage dispose which we didn’t have before but they also put in a pretty small sink. (Tbh the contractors did a very poor job overall in multiple areas but I digress.)
I live in Arizona, as we have mild winter here, and we love our swimming pools during the summertime, we also have TV in our patio/outdoor living room.
While the homeowner has to buy and install the mailbox it is actually Federal Property. Tampering with the mail or mailbox is a federal felony. The postal service actually has its own force of postal inspectors to investigate and arrest people. In my area a neighborhood had about 20 mailboxes vandalized in one evening. One of the guys that did it had a prior criminal record. He got a 18 month prison sentence and a $12,000 fine along with restitution.
@@suran396 So who do you think pays for the construction and upkeep of anything involved with the government? The government doesn't have a penny the taxpayers didn't give them. (outside of all the bribe money...the big guy needs his 10%).
I reside in Phoenix, AZ, where air conditioning is an absolute necessity. We endure more than 120 scorching days with temperatures exceeding 100°F (37°C), and a staggering 55 days surpassing 110°F (43°C). Suffice it to say, air conditioning is a big deal here. 😄
Re: cars. I usually have 4 vehicles. A “daily driver”, a pickup truck, a “summer” car (or collectable car) and an RV, and sometimes a motorcycle, too! I will usually have a snowmobile and a 4 wheeler as well ! I’m a Canadian who lives in the BC mountains, though. And my wife has her car, too! Peace
@@KS-ip5xn I can think of a lot of reasons for it . Work truck , small business . My dad always had more cars than could be driven because he liked to buy sell trade and fix them too
My family would save their old cars and hand them down to a teen driver. Then, they would go finance a newer car. I mean a car only lasts so long, and if a teen is coming to that age it makes more sense to just hand over the old one instead of buying a used or newer one. I feel like that's a typical American thing that happens with families.
In many countries as well as some places in the US, the sewage system cannot deal with garbage disposals. They are also not recommended for anyone with a septic system instead of municipal sewers. I have one window a/c for my small house which I rarely use. (I have ceiling fans.) I specifically bought a fridge without an ice dispenser because they are so trouble-prone. I love my recliner! I have 3 TVs but only 1 large one.
American here: 1. Yep - neighbors can access your mailbox (when they look like the one in the vid), but it's a federal offense (illegal nationally). There are lock box style for shared spaces like apartments. 2. No fences in front is definitely normal for suburban life. The back yard is usually fenced but it's a toss whether the fence is tall or short - really depends on the neighbors and area. 3. Multiple cars is a thing but I wouldn't say that's a rule. My parents have 2 cars for 2 people, my wife and I have 2 cars for 2 people, my sis has 1 car for 2 people. FWIW I'm a car nut, too. 4. AC is a NEED where I live in the southern US. I hear Europeans complain about temperatures and when I do the conversion to °F it becomes apparent we are in extremely different climates. For example, in London the mean daily max in July is 23.6°C while our mean daily max in January is 27.1°C. 5. We do have window screens, but reference #4 to get a feel for how often we open those windows. Other parts of the country are much more temperate, though, so use windows a lot. 6. We do have a sink like what she's showing but that's usually only in high end kitchens (we splurged on our kitchen, but have a modest house). We do not have a waste disposal. 7. Ice is real and I can confirm that in France you'll get 1 piece of ice if you ask and none if you don't. This is extremely accurate. I do have an ice tray with a scoop for the ice, but we do not have a door ice maker. 8. Recliners are very common, but we don't have any. We like the Stressless which I suppose is more European in design. My in-laws use recliners extensively and my parents have a chair and a couch that both recline. 9. We have one TV. I don't know what kind of rich person BS she's peddling. We can't have basements here due to water level, so there's no man cave in our house and I never grew up with a TV in the bedroom so et voila we don't have one either. We do, however, have multiple computers so maybe that offsets the TV requirement. As an aside, I live in a city that is too small to be considered big but too big to be considered small. Essentially what that means is we get decent amenities but still get to have a yard and good sized housing. Our house is on the smaller side here but it would be considered massive by French standards. That and our bathrooms are just unequivocally better - even my extremely cramped bathrooms stand head and shoulders above the ones I experienced in France.
I have to add here, that her mother's house is not typical. It is a "nice" home. The average American lives in a house much smaller than that, and with less amenities. I will say that most of my friends have multiple cars and televisions; that part is true. I have one TV and I rarely watch it. If the weather is bad, the TV comes on. Our refrigerators do have multi-functions but mine again, is just standard. I'm not bougie. I agree that a lot of Americans keep their homes ice-cold but I prefer 68 degrees year round. I won't live without screens, so if I do move to Scotland in a couple of years, I will reinstall windows with screens. It will happen, and yes, I will have a garbage disposal. A good dog can do most of that work but there are times when you just need to cram a bunch of things down the disposal and be done with it.
I would also recommend against just cramming a bunch of things down the garbage disposal. Mostly because, while convenient, they generally aren't made with large amounts of food in mind (especially since most people don't clean their garbage disposals like they should). Then again, it's your sink, so do what you want. It just might save you some plumber bills.
Again, it's obvious her parents have money. Most Americans don't have a lakeside view. :D And most of us, if we have a recliner, it's the single yank-the-handle type as well. That cinema-seat sofa is....well, not cheap.
The mail thing, yes normal and people don’t tamper with your mail. The recliner thing is fairly common too. Also, screens are on all our windows, yes. And AC is common as well, even if it’s just a window unit and doesn’t work super well. The rest of the stuff is stuff you see in the homes of people who are better off than I was/am. I have 1 TV, I don’t have a recliner, I don’t have an ice make in my fridge. I do have a garbage disposal in my sink but I didn’t have one growing up. And I have one car and even growing up, my family usually just had one car to share.
My mailbox is down a hill that can get snowy and icy in the winter. I use 'informed delivery' from the post office. They scan the outside of my mail and post it on the site. I can see if I've had any deliveries or if what's in the box is important. That saves me from going out in -5 weather just to learn I've no mail, or it's all advertising. The recliners are typical and well-known as 'dad's chair.' Even my little 3 yr old grandson has his own mini-recliner.
Multiple cars per person isn't actually very common. Unless someone has a particular job that requires them to have a work vehicle that they're not allowed to use for personal errands or they live on a farm or something. (Farm truck vs personal car for town.) Also my fridge only has one ice maker. That lady has a pretty fancy fridge. Reclining couches are pretty common. Not always electrified, though.
I never saw a fridge with 2 ice makers. I never even had one. I did have a garbage disposal in the kitchen remodeled myself and always had a dishwasher and laundry room. Now that I have moved to a senior apartment I have no dishwasher and laundry room is down down the hall - one on each floor. Still don't have an ice maker.
I have my mini van for kids and sports stuff, my husband has his car, then we have one specifically with 4 wheel drive that we got specifically for vacations. The last several years my whole family takes a vacation to 4x4 beach in NC where there are no roads and you have to drive 10 miles down the beach to get to the house. Also useful for harsh winters when we get lots of ice and snow. Then we have a pick up truck for what everyone else uses pick ups for lol. Lumber, bags of soil and gardening stuff, tools, heavy yard equipment, etc. and my 19 year old daughter has her own car. We don’t buy anything new, always used or from auctions. Everything is paid off. And we have 8 TVs 😂🤦🏻♀️ No recliners though.
The home this lady showed is not really a typical American home. Most of us have to choose which of these luxurious we have, and it's not super common to have everything she is showing in this video.
It kinda is, maybe not those nicer fridges with ice makers but the majority of them are basic necessities in a typical American house. You’d really have to be in the run down homes to not have them.
@@haechanlee5829 If you're in certain regions of the USA, it's not a big ask to have most or all of what is presented here. Most of us live in places where the sheer cost of everything shown is out of the realm of possibility without a large yearly income, which is dropping on average year by year. Your statement about run down homes is at best inaccurate and at worst classist. I've done work that brings me to homes of a wide variety of people, I've made friends with a wide variety of people, and I can tell you with 100% certainty, the lady in the video is at the VERY least Upper Middle class, but most likely comes from a legacy family from a more rural region where what we see in the video is a pittance of their wealth. How many people do you know that make less than 30k a year and have two cars per person in the household? Probably very few, unless they are mechanics with broken vehicles. The style of faucet is more common, though the potential cost of them often dissuade homeowners, and especially renters, from opting for it. (source: grew up renovating homes with my father.) A/C blasting 24/7 is uncommon, even in some of the hotter regions of the USA. The cost of electricity skyrockets in the months you need A/C, and that is no accident. (source: i pay bills) Recliners are fairly common, though what you see in this video is likely less than 3 years old, and appears to be a Flexsteel recliner, which cost upwards of $5000. That's not a common purchase. The average owner of a recliner likely purchased it when the dollar was worth something and it's 20 years old, or they inherited it from a dead relative. This is incredibly common, and people don't often tell you they inherited the thing you're sitting in from a dead person. (source: used to work for a furniture company and delivered furniture to customers 6 days a week.) As I stated previously, these items are not individually uncommon in the USA, but they are absolutely not commonly owned all together. Drive down to the brown parts of your city, you'll see how most of us live. Get out of your bubble, blue blood.
As people have said, that was a very nice home. None of the things she showed are unusual, but not everyone has all of them, and even fewer have such nice versions. Also it's rarely worth anyone's time to steal the mail, and messing with it at all carries stiff penalties. In most neighborhoods no one ever gets their mail stolen.
As an American that used to live in the UK, this was fun. When I first moved there, I thought some of the differences on the house were because I was broke/cheap. Then I started to realize that wasn't it at all. Another difference is the heating situation. Almost no one leaves the heating on for very long during the cold months. Most British buildings are significantly older so they're not built to insulate the heat well, making it more expensive to heat any building all day the way we Americans do. Let's just say you grow tougher skin.
0:35 It's rare for someone to mess with anyone's mail. On rare occasions you will get people driving around hitting them with baseball bats, but they leave the mail itself alone. Other times people- or snow removal services- will accidentally hit the mailbox with their vehicle. But that's about it for the mailboxes themselves, the front porch package thief is way more common. 6:18 That faucet isn't typical for most people as they can range from $100 to $200 or more. Also, the sink is a single unit, most are double with the occasional triple tub for washing their dishes-wash side and rinse side. 8:30 That style of fridge/freezer is becoming more popular here- called the French door freezer on the bottom design. The upright fridge on the left/right and freezer on the right/left used to be popular years ago, but it gave way to the freezer on top fridge on bottom design. 9:30 the couch recliner is becoming popular, but it's normally just a single person chair that is the recliner. I have a loveseat(2 person) with recliners for the seats. Hers is electric reclining which isn't as popular as the lever activated ones
They're common in the UK, too. I have two electric sofas, and before we got these, we had the pull lever type (push with the backs of your legs to close). I have no idea where in the UK this guy lives or why he hasn't seen these items here. The only things my family don't have are ... the disposal unit, mailbox, and the window screens - unfortunately, my windows open outward. Incidentally, disposal units are bad for the environment.
7:11 This specific faucet is a bit fancy (Honestly, the whole house is a bit fancy. Its a freaking lake house!) , but most kitchen faucets have a sprayer option either in the main faucet itself, or a separate sprayer attachment. Garbage disposal are common, and not ubiquitous, and are not that expensive, maybe about $100. That refrigerator is not common at all. That's like a $4000 appliance.
This woman's family is NOT typical and definitely in the top 5% of incomes in the US. Probably, her parents were in the boomer generation who could afford such a large single family home in a rural or suburban area. The majority of experience in the US is vastly different. Many of the conveniences are there, but they are much more modest.
Yeah multiple cars are common. I have an SUV for commuting to work, clean errands, going out. I have a pick up truck for yard work, Home Depot trips, taking the dog for hikes, hauling my mountain bike, dirt bike and atvs around… dirty stuff. I can’t imagine not having screens on the windows, it’s so cheap and simple. And we all have AC because even in the northeast, its in the 30s*C and 90% humidity in the summer. Which I’m fairly certain people in the UK literally die when there’s a “heat wave” that are just our normal summers.
But your normal summer is equivalent to a heat wave in northern Europe. It would be a waste of money to install AC to only use it a couple of times a year. My in laws in Calgary Alberta didn't have AC in their house because it was shaded by trees. And that was in Alberta where 40 degree days are not uncommon in the summer. Air conditioning is completely overused in Canada. We only use it in the hottest days as usually opening a window is just as comfortable. Also ceiling fans help alot at night time, especially in bedrooms.
@@bubba842 if your climate allows, a window unit for the bedroom only costs a couple hundred bucks and you could only use it on uncomfortably hot and humid nights just to sleep. I have a ceiling fan in every room, large windows and a whole house attic fan… I have the windows open in the spring and fall. It’s just not feasible in the summer when most days require it. It would cost more money/take more energy to cool and dehumidify the entire house multiple days per week than have the AC running 24/7, maintaining 72*F @ 50-60% RH. I’ve actually run this experiment in my house in an effort to reduce my electric bill.
@@bubba842sad thing I've noticed recently is a lot of newer homes don't have ceiling fans which just boggles my mind. They're super good for helping keep a house cool and keeping that AC use low
@@bubba842 Right, I think that was his point. I note that the mid-latitudes of the USA are about the same as Southern Spain and North Africa, and Great Britain is way* North of the continental USA. There are plenty of places in the USA where it would be extremely uncomfortable bordering on lethal without AC, particularly the South and Southwest. In the Southeast, mid-90s is very common - like every day for months - with stifling humidity. The air conditioning lowers the saturated air temperature so water is condensed and just *pours* out of the drip pan, literally, a solid stream of water out of a 3/4" drain line and sometimes even a pump to pump it out fast enough.
I live in an older apartment building and was talking to a woman about what we most wished the apartments had. Hers was a dishwasher (I have a countertop one that I HAD to have), but mine was a garbage disposal. It is so disgusting having to clean the sink out. I literally would rather clean a toilet than the sink sometimes. But the big thing that wasn’t mentioned was the large washers and dryers. My sister lives in Ireland and has to spread out all the laundry on drying lines. This is a newish home, too. And the washing machines are sometimes in the kitchen, which I find bizarre. They don’t even get stuff clean. I was in Spain and the clothes that *had* to get clean just wouldn’t and I ended up throwing them out.
Most American gardens (we call them yards) don't have hedges or walls, which makes it so you can see across several from each house and everyone feels like they have an enormous space, even though it is shared with others. When I've been in European gardens with their high walls, it feels like everyone lives cramped in tiny boxes. Not many worry about security from having open yards, and if you want a little more privacy on one side, you might plant a few bushes or a low tree, but not block off the whole way. Yes, most homes have at least one recliner (Cinema chair, you call it..) Because America is big, most homes outside large cities are pretty spacious. The reason for screens on windows originally was for public health, to block insects that carry disease from entering. Malaria is spread by mosqitoes and we used to have it here long ago.
I'm surprised bedroom closets was not mentioned. Older flats and houses in the UK does not have closets. People have armoires or buy like Ikea closets. The newer flats or homes within the last 25 yrs or so now have closets. In America walk-in closets, whether any size, is normal here but they're not normal there.
Having an open front yard and keeping it well groomed is sometimes seen as a status symbol. Multiple vehicles for residential homes is indeed fairly normal. Why? Because 1) you might need a back up vehicle in case one breaks down, or 2) not every vehicle is used the same way, for example, you might have a pick-up truck to do pick-up truck things, and then you might have a SUV or passenger car for traveling or work or school commuting. We had a family of four. We had 5 vehicles at one time. In our situation it was a back up vehicle. Our vehicle line up included our 1985 GMC Suburban, a 1988 Buick Park Avenue, my 1989 Ford Mustang, my sister's 1991 Ford Escort GT, and the back-up vehicle was a 1977 Forest Service Chevy pickup. It was our junker, but could be used in a clutch.
You are so right about a ‘back up’ vehicle. We’ve always had one. Actually the best vehicle we’ve ever owned is my 1993 Chevy 1500 Silverado pick up. My dad left it to me when he passed. The car I mostly drive is my 1998 GMC Jimmy. I have the most wonderful mechanics that keep both of these in running order.
My husband and I have three cars, it’s really convenient for times where one is being repaired. We have two suvs and a car, the car gets better mileage so we often take it on longer drives.
Mail theft isn't a big thing in our neighborhood. So, I don't really think about it. Plus USPS doesn't do package pick up out here. But yeah flag goes up, pop the mail in the box and they pick it up on their morning route. Then deliver the mail for us in the afternoon. Recliners are pretty common. We have them and we've not got money like her 'parents'. I think she grew up around people with money because what she considers common not a lot of Americans do.
Parents were somewhere in the middle class in the 60's. We lived in upstate NY. We had a summer house on the St. Lawrence River. Growing up in the 60's in the country we had no need for AC. Dad built the house in 1959. Sheetrock, hardwood floors, screens in windows, mailbox with flag, ice maker inside the refrigerator, Dad had a huge faux leather recliner, console color TV and eventually they finished the basement with 2nd livingroom with fireplace and TV. Dad always had a Stanley Insulated thermos. That was the 60"s.
Front yards in the USA typically either have no fence or short fences as a matter of safety, not convention. Most municipalities prohibit any kind of barrier that prevents law enforcement from being able to see onto the front of a residential property. This makes it easier, in theory, for LEOs to see any harmful activity, and facilitates necessary access to a property in order to put a stop to said activity as quickly as possible. As a side benefit, it aids other emergency response persons when they are responding to medical emergencies, fires, and other such hazards.
She forgot to mention that in the USA you must have an egress in every room, so a door and/or window for every room. The only exceptions are basements and inner rooms. I watched some videos of houses being remodeled in France and was appalled at the lack of egress and learned that you don't need many to be in code!
I think that's city code rules, or maybe a few states have a law like that. In Texas if you're in the county you can build/design whatever you want in your home, as long as the bank you're financing with is ok with it. If you have cash you can really do whatever you want with your design.
It is very common in our American homes to have air conditioners, screens on windows, garbage disposals, furniture with reclining sofas and chairs, multiple TVs, a separate area called a laundry room with large washers and dryers, closets in bedrooms for your clothes, and usually a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, family room, dining room, and more. We are very fortunate to have great homes in America.
I seriously can't believe how much you man 'splained that. "A separate area called a laundry room with large washers and dryers" like Europeans have never heard of any of those things before, lol. What, exactly, do you picture homes in Europe look like? No furniture, no laundry "area", no TVs, no closets, no family room or dining room? Is it just a big one-roomed mud hut with a couple of chairs and clothes thrown on the floor? It never ceases to amaze me to find out about how Americans think the rest of the world lives. There are great homes in other countries too. Know what else Europeans have that Americans don't? Free healthcare 🤣
@@ayabokti161 You're right, but we pay $1,200 a month for insurance and then copays and deductibles. You wanna tell me that if we had universal healthcare my raise in taxes would be over $1,300 a month? Of course not. Your basic rights in the US relate to "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", but we treat "life" like a luxury. Basic healthcare should be a right, not a luxury. We manage it for the military, no reason the richest country in the world can't provide healthcare as a basic human right. So my taxes go up a smidge but I'm not supporting a massive corporation and not wasting that much money every month. I see no downside.
New homes don’t have mailboxes any more. We have mail pods where there are lockable boxes. Much smaller than a regular sized mailbox. We can also sign up to see what is coming to the mailbox before it is delivered.
I live in a country subdivision where we have cluster mailboxes. It is a large metal box with maybe 15 smaller numbered boxes. Each property own has there own box with a number. & key that they keep until they move from that address. In my case, Ive had the same mailbox key for 35 years. . For large parcels, there is a large box. The postman leaves a numbered key in your mailbox to access the large box that corresponds to the number on the key. Once you put that key in to get your parcel you can't take that key out. You take your pkg and go......Most homes also have screens, which is a stiff netting, on our window and sliding glass doors. We can enjoy opening our windows and doors without flying bugs getting in. Especially at night, when your inside lights attract bugs. I wouldn't do without screens..That recliner chair is VERY common...We have 2..They are not that expensive but sure nice to put your feet up while watching TV.
Same here! I’m 45 years old and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a garbage disposal in real life. I understand it’s still a very American thing. But, I’ve never seen one.
I've never had a garbage disposal, only seen them in apartment buildings. Never had an ice maker either and I don't want something else to maintain. We do have two TVs.
@@alisonflaxman1566 Garbage disposals are not as common where people have septic systems vs city sewers. Septic systems usually can't handle that kind of waste.
Just FYI, thats not a typical American household. Most of us are barely living paycheck to paycheck. We have one car, two TV's(one I've had since the 90's), one reclining chair(that's broke), no garbage disposal, and my ice maker has never worked lol.
Although it is true that the average American is living paycheck to paycheck, that same household also has multiple vehicles, TVs, etc. etc. Our poor have significantly more than average citizens in other countries and the average person just manages their money poorly here. We have a credit system that allows us to live beyond our means and the average American does just that.
Everything she showed is pretty standard…the flexible kitchen faucet is unique…it’s a style choice…there are about 50 different designs to pick from… the garbage disposal is in every home…screens on every window…typical…the reclining couch…everyone loves to relax that way…ice makers in the freezer with in-door dispenser..and in door water dispenser…most homes have this arrangement…that is a pretty nice refrigerator/freezer combo…I have had it…the air conditioning…is essential over here…the mailbox Delivery/pickup aspect has always been a part of American life…the red flag goes up telling the mailman there is some outgoing mail..as long as you have properly put a stamp up in the corner..back yards….fenced or not…,it’s up to whoever lives there…what they want to do…most have huge wooden fencing…for privacy…but some don’t…it is a choice…showers are usually nice and large as well…either a walk-in shower or shower with tub…and sliding glass doors…
My family had 6 cars for 4 people when i was a teenager. My niece has 2, my other niece has a pickup, an SUV and a Toyota Corolla for her and her husband. My mom used to get anxious when there weren't 2 cars in the driveway, what if one broke down. Her parents have $$$. That recliner is common.
3:29 having been born and raised in the US. I can confidently say I don’t know many people who have two cars for themselves, unless one of those cars is specifically for work, like a work truck. 3:59 oh, I miss this. And this is not something you get all over the US, at least not at this time. For example, in eastern Nebraska where I grew up, absolutely you had central AC and heating. When you have to deal with 100+ degree heat as well as 100% humidity for days on end, AC is really crucial. And having that nice toasty heat in the winter is just wonderful. Where I moved to in the US, up until the last 10 years or so, central air was considered an oddity. It never really got enough long enough to be considered a necessity. But as the climate continues to shift towards hotter and hotter temperatures, it is starting to become a very common place thing to see AC units hanging out of windows, as well as seeing people get air-conditioning of some type installed in their homes. 5:20 ummm… y’all don’t have screens to keep the bugs out when you open windows? O.o
I think it is common to keep a car that is paid off when you buy a new one. You cannot get around (conveniently) without one, and it is not uncommon for a repair to take several days to weeks. If you had to rent one, it would add to the cost of the repair by possibly several hundred dollars. and no car dealer wants to give what a car is worth as a trade in.
Apartment complexes, trailer parks, multiplexes often do have locked letterboxes and the mail carriers do have keys. More often there will be one large box for residents to deposit outgoing mail and the carrier will have a key to unlock that one box. Sometimes there will be a large community box for delivered parcels. The carrier would open the parcel box with his key. Then there would be keys inside that box for residents receiving parcels. The carrier would take one of those keys and deposit it into the residents personal mail box and the resident can then use that key to retrieve their parcel from the parcel box. You can have an individual mail box that locks with permission from their local post office. That would enable the carrier to drop letters into the box but not parcels and the resident wouldn't be able to send mail out using their mailbox. People can steal from others' mailboxes but that is classified as mail fraud and is a felony. It's taken extremely seriously.
Not having screens on windows is mind boggling.
I agree especially as it’s a relatively inexpensive thing to do!
BRB. Gonna buy and ship a bunch of screens and frames to take to England. Probably make bank doing that.
My brain blue screened when he said they didn't have screens. Like, y'all out here just raw dogging the outside?
@@gothnate😂😂😂
Yep I went to England and the weather was nice so our hotel had the windows open in our room there were flies everywhere.
As an American, I think it's funny you call the recliner a cinema chair. Where I'm from, recliners were standard in homes when I was growing up, and reclining chairs at the movies only became a thing about 10 years ago lol.
you're lucky. in my area, only the super expensive imax theatre has chairs like that. everything else is one step up from stadium seats- annoying fixed plastic chairs with cushions. The better the theatre, the more cushion.
The recliner as a standalone chair has been around since at least the 1970s. Reclining seats in couches are newer. I don't remember seeing them before ~20 years ago.
Well, recliners aren't standard in the way that the house comes with them installed like a kitchen sink. But yeah, it's rather common that people have at least one recliner in the house, or even couches that can recline.
And you can get recliners with massage and heat.
Recliners are a trademark of older Midwest homes. My in-laws each had one and I thought they were the laziest people, especially because they were obese. My mother’s first impression of my mother in law was the woman sitting on the recliner with her fat naked feet up in the air and she didn’t even get up to meet my mom. Ugh!
It blows my mind that after a thousand years people in Europe have not discovered insect screens
Or iced drinks.
We dont need them, most days its too cold to open the windows so on average I get maybe 10 houseflies come in through the window a year. Maybe a wasp or two. Don't really get mosquitos here.
Or air conditioning. LOL
@@SpiklethingGermany disagrees 😂. They apparently open windows all year round to get fresh air, temperature be dammed.
@@Spiklething But how do you keep your cats inside? Or your toddler-age, curious and active children?
The laundry room with a washer and dryer! I discovered that when I moved to the States. I designed mine in this house and it is huge so I can have the dog and cat food, cat litter, a sink, an upright freezer, a clothe line for delicates, room to store laundry baskets, brooms, detergents and shelves and more shelves. It is one of the best investment I made. I do like the French windows better because they have shutters that you can actually use. Here, they are only decorations. They are great to for insolation, privacy and protection. I also have fallen in love with recliners. Were I to move back to Europe, I would take them with me. And finally, the size of the houses, and the rooms inside. I love the feeling of openness in large rooms. Same with cars which, to my delight, are fully automatic. This European loves the American life style.
I love seeing this UK guy reacting so excitedly to things we just take for granted here in the US. He put a smile on my face with his cheerful enthusiasm.
I thought he was a Comedian being silly 😂 Noo screens
Was just about to say the same!
I'm just happy to finally see a video comparing US vs. ??? and not have it bagging on everything US.
Ha yeah right ;)@@zugmeister314
Those rubbish disposal systems are unbelievably polluting! Imagine all the stuff that gets to the waste water treatment plants and has to be filtered out of the water instead of just being put in the compost or the “green bin” which is collected by the municipality and ecologically disposed off!
The air conditioning for humidity control doesn’t get the love it deserves. Just getting the moisture out of the already cool air is so nice.
I am a janitor at a school in southern Texas. 104 degrees with heavy humidity. For some reason, the school district decided it would be a great idea to save electricity by turning the AC off in the schools in our town. Because ‘no one will be there anyway during the summers ’. Ummm/ you have a group of employees doing labor intensive work all summer. It gets about 80 degrees in the classrooms WITH added humidity. Makes it reallllyyy hard to be a peppy efficient employee. 🥵
@@CinderellaRaptured333and with modern buildings being sealed so tightly how mold is a major problem when A/C and it's dehumidifying functions are turned off.
@@tsiefhtes Yeah. We have those clocks that have the time/date/temp/humidity information on them.
Our particular school feels very humid when the AC is off. I’m assuming the builders cut corners to save money, bc it’s not insulated well at all! It’s an older school. One day, the air in the classroom went out. The teacher was irritable and complaining that it was SO humid and hot! Upwards of 80 degrees according to the clock. They fixed it for her. I told her, “Yeah- imagine the whole school feeling like this! Because we work in this all summer.” She couldn’t believe it. She was like, there’s no way I could do that! That’s so sad they make yall work without cooler air like that.
@@CinderellaRaptured333They did that in some districts here in North Carolina last year resulting in mold so bad school was delayed by weeks and cost millions in remediation. Administrators are often quite stupid.
@@zuzuspetals9281 Agreed!!!!!
Recliners are absolutely normal. Not everyone has them, but quite common.
Yeah, not everyone has a reclining sofa, but a lot of people at least have a reclining chair. I don't - not enough room for one where I live now - but my dad has a recliner that also lifts up in the back to help him stand up. Full disclosure though, he's over 80 so I doubt he'd be able to get out of a stuffed chair without the help.
I have a reclining sofa and a couple old la-z boys, loooove them
Recliners are a love hate thing in the USA. Men love them. Women hate them because they are ugly.
But I've never seen one in a cinema...the space is way too small to recline or stick your feet up.
@lynnw7155 every movie theater I've been in in the past 5-10 years has had recliners for seats. I used to think the same thing, but they take out entire rows of seats to put them in. It cuts the seating by 50-75%, but it is so much better. No more getting your seat kicked or not being able to see over a tall person.
In the US, most people don't have more than one car for a person unless they have specific needs for it, for example work trucks, farmer's tractors and crop harvesters, or full size vans for large families. The primary exception to this are people who repair and resell cars for a hobby or as part of their job. I know a mechanic who works for the state who also owns 11 cars, and fixes them up on the side.
Also, you always want to run the water while running the garbage disposal because it helps pulverize the food waste.
Middle class here, and we've got 3 daily drivers (1 is for friends and family if visiting) and 3 project cars .. but no kids so we can afford them.
They missed, probably one of the bigger conveniences of America versus Europe, is the laundry room. Typically in Europe, the washer dryer combo machine is either in the bathroom or the kitchen. There are a lot of dedicated laundry rooms in bigger homes in the US. Or just a dedicated laundry closet in the hallways.
Yes. Some homes also have the laundry setup in the basement.
My wish is to design a large, multi-functional laundry room with large storage closets for Christmas decor, extra China sets and glassware, gift wrapping table, folding area. I do not understand why builders put the laundry 🧺 in the scary basement, (think of the scene with Kevin McAllister in Home Alone) or near the kitchen. I don’t keep my clothes in the kitchen. A laundry should be near the bedrooms. Hats off to all those poor women who had to schlepp heavy laundry down and then back up two flights of stairs. Whether here in the U.S., or in Europe, we have to begin to think more creatively and practically about homes and design. And bathrooms should not be near dining areas. Just sayin’.
And Americans have dryers not dehumidifiers for drying the laundry. You can have a load of towels and jeans dry in 20 minutes!
@@user-es9mb8wi3m We are a retired couple and when we downsized, there was no laundry at all. So we took the second bedroom and made it a laundry room/walk-in closet.
@@TallulahB58 Good move, Tallulah. The importance of the laundry in the function of a home is grossly underestimated. It seems always to be an afterthought, the smallest, often windowless room in most cases. Often just a closet. Space is needed for moving around, folding, hanging clothing, and storage. It should be a pretty, pleasant room in which to work because we spend quite a bit of time in there. Enjoy your lovely laundry room.
No...the mailman does not have a key. It's unlocked, but considering that messing with someones mail within their mailbox is a federal crime, it's not a big risk, at least where I live.
Another deterrent being 90% of anything recieved in the mail being taxes.
yea you don't wanna commit a mail crime, the Post Office has Federal Agents who are armed, and I mean ARMED BOI.
OMG, every house I have been in in the last 50 years has a recliner chair, and for the last 20 years they have all been electric
It depends on your neighborhood. In newer developments you’ll often see a set of mailboxes on a big post that also contains two or three package boxes and an outgoing mail slot. You have as assigned box and use a key to,open it. Of course the mail carrier has the master key to open the entire box. We have that kind of set up in our development, there’s a mail box on every block, mounted on the sidewalk at the edge of the curb so the mail carrier can fill the boxes and collect outgoing mail without leaving their vehicle, unless the package you’re receiving is too large for one if the package boxes and then they leave it on your front porch.
Mine actually does have a lock. There's a slot for the mail to be put in once the door is opened. You need the key to open it to get the mail out. Anything too big to fit through the slot, is brought to the house.
Everyone’s talking about the screens on the windows. I’M still trying to wrap my head round HIM trying to wrap his head round the fact that you can send letters or small packages from your mailbox! 🤣
Lolol
@@fex144
Well, by your logic the UK doesn’t have internet or phones either, since they still have post boxes! 🤣
Her mother is upper class daughter living abroad in a house on a lake (she said mid-west where you can get bigger houses then on the east or west coast specially cities)
She lives in a more upper middle class area. That is not how a lot of Americans live. Lake front properties are rare and very expensive. Owning 6 TVs is a lot, 3 is more like it. The two vehicles in the driveway are usually a sedan and a truck, and if you have a third vehicle, mostly due to having young drivers in the family over the age of 16. Her parents live in a very large house, and most Americans live in smaller square foot homes.The recliners are very common for living rooms.
I think they are squarely in "upper class" territory here.
She is definitely upper class. I'm middle class. 3 bedroom home, 1 car, 1 tv, minimal debt, but no savings. Living paycheck to paycheck.
@@Phoenix_DarkMoon It depends, midwesterners used to buy or build these lakefront properties as vacation homes that would be shared and funded by extended family. I'm middleclass in michigan and my extended family does this still with a lakefront home that was built by my great grandfather in the 1950's or 60's...
Multiple cars is definitely not the norm... Her parents are probably upper middle class. My parents have an extra vehicle. It's a truck for hauling things.
Thank you. I came here to say this is not the typical home here. Also, the size of the yard. Most houses would be lucky to have half that size depending on the age. The newer houses might be lucky to have 1/8 an acre.
It is a federal offense to tamper with someone's mail. People will steal packages off your porch but they won't touch what's in your mailbox
Not all places have flags on their mailboxes. In one apt I lived in, outgoing mail would go in the frame around the mailboxes.
I was going to say the same exact thing LO.L
Probably because more often than not the only thing in your mail box are bills, and who wants to steal that? XD
Frausters are brazen now and will alter checks from your mailbox. That's for the old school people who still write checks and buy stamps. Online payments or bill pay from ur bank account is easiest and cheapest way to pay the bills.
Mail tampering does happen occasionally, because people are idiots. But yeah, it's definitely not *worth* it, because you can get in way more trouble than it's worth. If you're going to commit a felony and risk the consequences, there are far more appealing and potentially lucrative ways to do it, than reading your neighbor's mail. Frankly, there are more appealing and lucrative forms of completely legal unskilled labor, like working a cash register.
I worked as a rural postman in one of the poorest and most crime-ridden parts of my state, for a brief time only. One of the things I learned, extremely quickly, is that no one, not even the craziest junky, messes with the mail. For two main reasons: They deliver the checks. And they have the oldest, and most fuck around and find out police force, founded in 1775 by Ben Franklin.
It's also worth realizing that these days, the blue mail drop boxes are becoming a rarity, so your option for mailing letters is either you mailbox or taking it to an actual post office.
Not many people know about the Posral Service private Feds. Perhaps in bad neighborhoods they're more common.....
Postal Inspectors trump the FBI
True story
I find it hilarious
Philly?!😂😂
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Blue mail drop boxes are still relatively common where I live(VT). Usually 2-3 per town.
My coworker took a vacation to Florida and had never seen the screened enclosures surrounding swimming pools in people's backyards. She told me, "there's a whole room of screened walls and ceiling connected to the houses". Having lived in Florida for 30 years, I know why they are built. As soon as the summer sun dips in the sky, around 4pm, the mosquitoes come out. You would never use your pool after 4pm unless you want to get eaten alive. The screened enclosure also protects kids from the neighborhood coming in to swim in your pool. If the kid drowns, it's the homeowner's fault even if the kid was trespassing. The enclosure also keeps debris from trees falling into your pool and making it dirty. And lastly, it helps to keep alligators and other wildlife from using your pool as a lake. The one thing I didn't like about the enclosure is that the pool water temp is colder with the screens vs without. However on hot, humid, summer days the cold water feels nice!
Enclosed pools like that also keep out the alligators!
I lived in Florida for a year and I've never seen a screen completely surrounding a pool. My apartment did have a screened patio though. That was really nice.
Florida has their pools enclosed bc venomous snakes, gators, etc
Your "lastly" part should have been your "firstly" (and only needed) part.
Yes, us Floridians love our lanais. GREAT invention. I think originated in Hawaii?
As others have noted, it's worth noting that this appears to be a wealthy family. Some families do have several cars to a family, but usually only very wealthy people have more than one car per person. That kitchen is also quite large, although it is relatively common in newer homes to have that detachable faucet and a garbage disposal. In American apartments built before those things were common, it's not unusual to have neither of those things. That view is also a wealthy people view.
What's funny is that recliners have been somewhat common in America for a while, so when cinemas started to have them my thought was "wow this is a recliner just like my grandma's," not "my grandma's house is just like a cinema chair."
I was thinking that too about the recliners. It’s only been in the last decade that we have gotten those kinds of cinema chairs and they are only in one of the rooms at the movies while the other 14 or so have the old straight back ones. We have had recliners in homes since I was a little kid (and before.) It’s funny how that’s backwards.
Yes, that is a high end home. Those refrigerator are very expensive. I certainly don't have one.
i would mostly agree, but it feels like buying broken down "project" cars and fixing them up is becoming more common these days with how messed up car prices have become.
I used to live in a one vehicle per occupant home, but then one of the occupants was no more. One vehicle is used for transporting big things, but isn't very fuel efficient. The other is fuel efficient with 60 miles of electric range. The electric range is enough for 95% of my driving. Round trips to the airport are outside the range, but not that frequent.
I have never been to a theater with a full reclining seat. Even the newly built on just has seats that tilt back a little. I live in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh.
Something I miss with new houses in America.... porches and patios. Now some houses will have one or the other or they will have a wooden deck. My grandmother's old house had both a porch out front with rocking chairs and out back was a large patio with a fire pit. During the day (mostly on Sundays) we'd sit out front drinking ice tea and marvel at her flower garden. At night we'd move to the back patio and tell stories around the fire pit. I loved the patio, it looked out over a grassy field with a few apple trees and her huge vegetable garden. Although when it's harvest season the size of that vegetable garden was painful. The grandkids would spend the day picking vegetables while the mothers were cleaning and prepping them, and grandma was manning the stove canning all the vegetables. I know, tell me you're Gen X without saying you're Gen X. lol
GenX _or prior._ We weren't the only generation to see this en masse - just the last to see it that way.
It depends on the builder, my development was built seventeen years ago and when you picked out your floor plan, you also had a choice of three different variations of the exterior but they all included covered porches. Also a large patio was included in the back of your house.
I still see porches and patios but it's like the front and back yards, it's getting smaller. But you're right, you can see it slowly being less common than it once was.
My last house only had a front stoop and a concrete patio out back. When we got our new home a couple of years ago...I finally got my front and back porches. Love them!
In my part of the country, if you step foot outside in the summer, you'll get attacked by gnats, flies, mosquitoes, chiggers.
Not only do screens let in air but also the sounds of nature. Air conditioning is not just for cooling but removing humidity which helps with the feeling of comfort.
That depends on the region. Where I live, the HVAC system has a humidifier that adds moisture to the air. Other places have de-humidifiers, and some places have both.
and if you have allergies the air conditioning helps a lot
I live somewhere very dry, so swamp coolers reign supreme. I actually struggle with a dry cough sometimes because of systems that remove humidity when it's already kind of dry after growing up with the swamp cooler...
Edit: I COULD'VE SWORN I MADE SURE IT SAID LIVE, NOT LOVE, BUT!
@@JanMaynz the one thing I don't like very much about swamp coolers is the smell, and it wasn't just one particular home, it was a common thing to smell that 'swamp cooler' smell everywhere that used them. That being said, I'd happily deal with the stink of swamp coolers if the only alternative was living without screens on my windows.... I can't cope with having mosquitoes, june bugs, and other unsavory critters getting into my home
Where I live in the UK average maximum temperature is 64F, definately dont need AC.
The one big thing she left out is the laundry room. We have an entire room for the washer and dryer, which are 2 separate units. In the UK, I believe there's usually a washer/dryer in the actual kitchen, and it's only one unit.
Not all homes in America either. Where I live its more common to have your washer/dryer in the basement or bathroom if you haver enough rom. Also there is a 50/50 split between the separate and 1 unit washer/dryer.
@@keegansmetanko3755 Certainly. I've seen those all as well. Those are also things you don't often see in the UK. Looking at the house in this video, I would shocked if it didn't have a laundry room, but I digress. I'm more specifically saying that in the US, you don't see washer/dryer units under the kitchen counter in the same location you'd find a dishwasher.
I noticed that as well. I would definitely need a dryer for clothes. I don’t think that’s real common in the UK. Comment please of it is common to have a dryer in the house.
@@keegansmetanko3755 - a one unit piece of stacking washer dryer - or a one unit piece that you put clothes into once and it washes and dries? . . . . No moving clothes into a dryer (whether stand alone or a stacking unit)
Spent a couple months in Europe last year and always felt weird bringing my dirty laundry into the kitchen 😮
Aside from the typical bells and whistles for most U.S. houses, construction means and methods differ across the U.S. due to the environment. Just hear in Texas, you have the Chihuahuan desert of El Paso in the west and the costal “swamp” of Houston in the east. Hence, building is different. Not to mention - equidistant north from El Paso - you have alpine environs of Colorado.
I am from Florida and could not imagine a life without AC or window screens. The heat, humidity, and insane number of bugs here, will literally kill you. Growing up we always had at least three vehicles. Dad wanted a spare in case one was broken, so he was never late to work, & we couldn't get to school. I have continued that thought process into my life with children. Public transportation is not readily available in the country or rural areas. Most US houses at least have a tv in the main living room and bedrooms, but it is not uncommon to have them in a workout room, kitchen, or back porch for parties. We are not rich, nor do we have the massive house or amazing view as this poster, but we have all the items listed.
Can't forget the garage.
Also helps keep snakes out, those window screens.
I could’ve imagine it either !
That home is beautiful but definitely expensive. Her parents have money, that's for sure.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm an American in the mid-west. I do not own a TV anymore but growing up we had two, one was small black and white and the other color, then we migrated to two color. Only have one car per person. Now scenic view out the windows, just neighbor's' homes. That type of sink faucet is about $100 or more, and I've never seen a sink that large in anyone's home in my life! Also, I've never lived in a home with that much space. Definitely not a typical American home unless you are the upper middle class.
The backyard lake view is a giveaway. That's an expensive home.
@@matthewcollins4157 You need to get out more. You are in the minority.
probably purchased when it was only like 150k. lol but if they're in the midwest the price may still be "somewhat" low compared to other states.
@@Shirayuuki1 My 3/2 2000 square ft house on a just under 1 acre lake lot in rural MN costs half what I paid for my winter home in S Florida that has a teeny lot and is 1500 sq ft 3/2 on a drainage pond they call a lake. My MN house is on a 1000 acre lake. But in FL the gators are free ha ha ha.
I love watching videos like this because it helps me stay humble and appreciate America. I'm in Florida. Everyday is beautiful and life is very good. I love seeing people's faces when they see things we take for granted over here. It reminds me NOT to take things for granted. I hope you're able to visit us one day!
I'm in Orlando!!
We have those large mailboxes on the streets too, usually in busy areas. The pickup hours are posted there, too.
Different vehicles have different uses too. I have a little car for most of my commuting, but I also inherited a pickup which is useful for moving things around. I use it more than I'd ever think.
I just recalled, many years ago my family had a relative visit from the U.K. She was amazed how big everything was, especially the cars. The first time she stopped by to visit my parents and me, my mother ushered her to our back yard. She looked astonished and asked if the entire back yard belonged to us. My parents yard wasn’t an especially large yard, but my mother worked hard every spring planting flowers and making everything beautiful. The thing that shocked my dads cousin the most was a few minutes into her visit while she was sitting enjoying the garden, was a squirrel who ran and hopped off a tree, standing on the grass looking at her. She jumped up, screamed a little, and ran back in the house. My mother and I had to work hard to get her into the yard again. She wanted to know what the wild animal was.
😂
I don't know why she would be scared of a squirrel, have you ever seen the size of the rabbits in the UK??? They are the size of dogs! And I don't mean a Chihuahua.
@@Kammy44 She might not have recognized it because of the coloring. UK squirrels are generally red, while most American squirrels tend to be grey.
@@SubeTheWenchyes I thought that was strange. There are plenty of squirrels in the UK They just look a little different from American squirrels but you can still clearly tell they are squirrels
Funniest mailbox quote I just came up with:
"The key to my mailbox is a federal appointment. You're either appointed as the mailman, or appointed a jail sentence."
Too bad it isn’t a law upheld. I’ve had mail and packages stolen and post office and police don’t care 😂
@@SmokinSeshnot the [local] police, the [federal] postal inspector!
@@stephaniefoster1964 nobody did anything. Lol. This was few yrs ago
I think a key to U.S. consumerism is that we spend a lot of time and income on 'removing' daily annoyances so that we can be more productive as people. Many of these same conveniences one can also find in our work places. When it comes to multiple vehicles, it largely depends on the part of the country one resides. In Northern winters it's safer to drive an SUV or truck (snow, ice.) When the 90F summers arrive it's less costly to drive a sedan or commuter (fuel.) Many in the UK and Europe don't realize how drastic our weather changes through the seasons here. Especially in the North.
Just admit it..US consumers are very spoiled and could get by with a lot less.
It is NOT safer to drive a truck in snow or ice unless it's 4wd.
@@therealimnotjiminyIf you are in snow country you have 4x4. 2wd is about non-existent in the north.
@@jeffmockus5400I live in Minnesota. I have never had 4wheel drive, but rather front wheel drive. I have driven through snow storms safely and watched the idiots with 4wheel drive blast past me and then see them in the ditch. As far as I am concerned, 4wheel drive just gets you in the ditch that much faster and more efficiently! (Also, I know when it is better to just stay home and wait for the plows to come through.)
@@nancykaminski8600 Correct. 4wd is definitely better than a 2wd pickup, which is useless in snow because there's no weight over the rear wheels, and a rwd car is better than a rwd/2wd pickup. Front wheel drive is the best in snow.
Example: BIG, N50/15 rear tires, a posi rear and a couple hundred pounds of weight in the trunk of a '69 Dodge Coronet will out drive any 2wd pickup in snow. This I know for sure. I learned this in the Poconos (East Stroudsburg), as I drove past my friend in his Dodge pickup, which was - really - in a ditch. (He did it twice that year.) Don't even get me started on going up snowy hills.
As a former postal worker. In class they told us the Office of the Postmaster General Inspector is the 2nd highest police force in the country. The only people that outrank them in civilian service is the secret service. Stealing/putting anything in a mailbox that is not your is a felony. They will find you if they want to. The mailbox on each property is TECHNICALLY the federal government's property. You are technically only allowed to replace it with certain boxes but the mailman usually lets it slide if they like you.
IIRC, that's mostly because mail that's going from one side of the country to the other via truck passes through hundreds of jursidictions. The result is that in order to figure out where it was stolen, the Postmaster Inspector General has to have that level of authority.
Then why is our mail getting stolen daily left and right in some big cities in the US?
@@tonette11000 murder is illegal and people still kill lol if you want you can file a report on continued theft and they will eventually get around to you. I wasn't in the dept but it is all true. I'm with UPS now and have done Amazon both stressed DAILY DO NOT PUT IT IN THE MAILBOX. mailmen that care will take the packages back to the post office and the UPS driver will get them next time he goes to drop off a bulk of packages along with a report on where and a warning of a fine/escalation if it keeps happening.
Not all houses have such great views. Some are close together and you have fenced yards for dogs and safety if there is a pool back there.
Your reactions crack me up! 69 year old American here. I lived in Brazil for 4 years where there were no screens. But where we lived, there weren't a lot of bugs either. We closed all the windows at 5 PM before the mosquitoes were out. But in the U.S., even when I was a child and we were poor, there were always screens. We lived in a place that was too cold for bugs and still had screens! :) But I agree with one of the comments, the house in the video belongs to someone relatively wealthy. Double ice makers, 6 TV's, more than one car per person and that beautiful view are not the usual in the U.S.
It's actually pretty common in rural areas.
No, they're not poor, but could be anywhere from mid-to-upper middle class.
@@alanlight7740if you haven’t noticed the middle class is shrinking rapidly in America. So even if they are Upper middle class that’s makes them very well of in todays economy compared to the AVERAGE American.
The building code in the US requires screens in certain rooms. That doesn't mean they won't get damaged over time. I remember kitchens being one required room to keep flies away from food preparation areas.
That house is definitely upper middle class, tho from the size of their driveway it could be in a rural area. Having a gorgeous view like that is not the norm in the US, however, even in rural areas.
@@alanlight7740Agreed. You don't necessarily have to be rich to have all these things but as far as the beautiful view goes, you may not be wealthy but you will probably be spending the bulk of your savings on it lol.
Yes, the "cinema chair" lol, is very common if America. They have been for decades.
They've been in houses a lot longer than they've been in cinemas! 🙂
How cute his reactions are! I’m 62, I redid my kitchen. I have the garbage disposal, a very large and deep hand hammered copper sink, a full size refrigerator with a big ice maker, and I have a 24” beverage refrigerator too. I live alone, and have two cars. I have whole house air conditioning, a whole house automatic generator, and a 2200 square foot house, with two recliners in my living room. I worked my ass off for all of it, and I’m happy and grateful for what I have. I wish every good person had the same too.
While many homes do have garbage disposals, if they are older homes (and many homes are in my area) they often do NOT have garbage disposals. Personally, I think they are not ideal. We should be composting our food waste, and not just throw it down the drain. A head of lettuce in a landfill takes 50 years to degrade. In a compost pile it takes about two weeks.
Congrats. You sir are living the American dream
@@Kammy44 it’s minimal what goes down my disposal. I live on 9 acres. I throw everything out for the animals. It’s just scrapings from plates mostly. I feed the woodland creatures.
Gotta love a nice hand hammered copper sink 👌
Stuff like screened windows is standard, but keep in mind with things like the fridge this family is upper middle class. This is not an average home.
I dont think the video fridge was so upper midd.e class. This is a pretty common fridge. More and more the freezers are on the bottom.
@@angiemeloy2142 That's still an expensive fridge. Did you not see the rest of their house?
, I grew up in a solidly middle class, single mom home, even in the 70s we had an ice maker.
That was one nice ass fawkin fridge! LOL, we have a pretty decent Samsung fridge, side-by-side fridge doors up top, freezer on bottom that's split into 2 separate freezers with 2 doors, so that general style of fridge is pretty common and accessible these days. But that one in the video specifically is a damn rocket ship😂
@@sandracox4341 no one's talking bout the ice maker.
The window screen is a metal or plastic mesh (with tiny tiny holes) that lets air through but not bugs. The mesh is mounted on a rail that is affixed just behind the actual window on the bottom in it's own track. It can be pulled out for repairs or to clean the windows. LOVE SCREENS. Also, we have SCREEN DOORS that have mesh instead of glass that are mounted in the door jam about 3 inches in front of the outside door so you can open the door and bugs not come in. The handle can also be locked to help prevent instrusion.
FYI: Window screens are typically mounted in frames that can be slid up and down or removed altogether, so people can escape out the window in the event of a house fire.
You can also get pet screen, which is a thicker black plastic, but you can still see through it very well, and it keeps cats from ripping the screens to shreds, which any cat will do if you let them get a chance at a regular screen window. We had it on our porch outside in Virginia. Costs more but absolutely worth it.
In my neighborhood in the US the mailboxes are a bank of lock boxes. Each house gets assigned a number and given a key to their box. If there's a package there are package bins where they will secure the package and deposit the key in your mailbox. To send letters, there is a specific slot that is communal that people can put their letters in, but no one besides the post office has the key to open that.
One thing about air conditioning is that the entire contiguous part of the USA is more southerly than London. Things get pretty warm in the summer, even in the northernmost, snowiest, cities.
Exactly. Here in Minnesota it’s absolutely freezing in winter and boiling hot in the summer with temps sometimes over 100° Fahrenheit
Yeah, I am from Pennsylvania at the northernmost part, and the one year we hit a US record for cold temperature, but during the summer it was one of our hottest summers too like 98 f
Yes, most of these things are standard in American homes: window screens, ice makers, garbage disposals. We don’t have a recliner, but my parents have had recliners as long as I can remember. They’re so comfortable, you can literally sleep in them.
I literally stayed in a recliner at my parents house for a week after I'd had abdominal surgery, and wasn't supposed to sleep completely laying down, or on my side like I usually do. They are definitely comfortable enough for sleeping, (pretty much only left it for the bathroom for about 4 days, until I was ready to start moving around)
I'm literally here to say I'm staying up too late watching this video... While laying in a power recliner while recovering from abdominal surgery!
@@ringringbananarchy Tbh I sleep in recliner pretty much every single night for the last year… I tend to get pretty bad migraines if I lay down flat or rather if I have migraine (which I get pretty often) they get much worse if I lay down completely flat. So I started sleeping in my recliner whenever I had a migraine, which progressed into me just sleeping in the recliner every night now. Lol
I’ve literally slept in recliners also. No one messes with anyone else’s mail.
@@spinthepickle1244Hope you feel better.
Vehicles here in the States are like shoes. You have different cars/trucks for doing different things.
True
Absolutely this
😂 ok
I have a summer car, good fuel efficiency and fun to drive, and a winter SUV, because my car stranded me in the snow four times the first winter I owned it. Now if the weather permits in the winter I will drive the car and if there's ice or snow it's the SUV.
If you can afford it. Most people do not have this luxury
Recliners are very common brother, so are fine mesh screens for windows, and no the mail man does not have a key to our mailboxes (it's a federal crime to steal mail, you get more jail time for that than assault or any other kind of theft)
Not THOSE kind of recliners. Most Americans don't spend $5000 on one like that.
If someone lives in an apt complex, the postal worker has a key.
Community mailboxes are getting more commonly installed in new subdivisions and yes, the mailman has a key to the back which opens all the boxes. Then each resident has a key to their individual box.
Still has a slot for outgoing mail though.
@@loverlyredhead I grew up in the 80s, and our neighborhood had community mailboxes for each end of the block. It was usually my job when I got home from school to walk the dog & get the mail. Every apartment I've lived in (including current one) has had community mailboxes as well
Summertime here in North Carolina 31-34 Celsius is an average day. With 85% + humidity. Air conditioning is a must.
If you go due west from London you will find yourself in Hudson Bay. That fact explains a lot about who has air conditioning and who doesn't.
This is too entertaining! Yes, almost everyone has recliners, screens on the windows, 3 to 5 tv's. Funny to think how different we all are.
We have post office drop boxes, but if you have an individual mail box, the mailman will pick up the letters you want to send. You see this arrangement in less densely populated areas like the suburbs or the rural areas. Yes, someone can steal your mail, but getting into someone else's mail or mailbox is a federal offense.
We put the flag up every day on our mailbox by the road. We leave a nice cold bottle of water for our letter carriers. They love it and every now and then they thank us for thinking of them, especially when it's hot outside.
The mail one only applies to mail boxes. Those aren't nearly as common as people think, due to movies. Literally my entire city doesn't have them at single homes (non-apartments). Nearly everyone here has a letterbox as well. Like, a little box hanging next to the door, and some even have those slots in the door like you might have seen in movies, too. But we have a secondary thing to send letters. My house has slot with a hinged little door, but it's IN THE WALL next to the door. To it slides down the little cutout on the inside of the wall. Then above that slot on the outside, we have a clip, you know, like you press down on the little ends, and the clip opens, like you'd use to close up a bag or something? We have a metal one that we put letters in that we want to mail. The postman knows that's what it's for and takes the mail from it to send out. Some homes here have 2 letter boxes. Where it's just an actual box attached to the house next to the door, with a lid you can open, and they will be labeled which one is for incoming, and which is for outgoing. And yes, technically your neighbors COULD steal the mail, but it's not common, because it's a federal crime, which is mandatory prison time. And mail theft like that, can easily be a 5 year prison sentence. Enough to stop any idea from most people.
Fences are eh..Some do some don't. Cars though..I can explain that. It's called having an extra just in case. You're telling me if your car suddenly has a problem, and you work 2 cities over (sometimes further here, my stepdad used to work over an hour drive away), you're just gonna walk? Or hope you can catch the bus? Nah, have a backup car. For example, like you said "one for mom one for dad", what if mom is at work and dad's car has a sudden problem and he needs to get to work? You have an extra car for that.
The reason we all have AC, is because the US generally gets WAY hotter than the UK. Like A LOT hotter. You guys were just recently complaining about it being a record high of the mid friggin 80s (30 for you guys). That's literally the LOW for the ENTIRE SUMMER here. Sometimes that even drags on into autumn, and starts late spring. This entire summer, I'm in the northern part of the US where it's nowhere near as hot as it CAN get, and it's constantly in the 90s (32-37 for you), and even for a week was around 100 (37.7 to you). And a couple years ago, it got 114 (45.5 for you), for a day. And again that's in the NORTH of the US. Literally Washington, the state on the top left of the US map. You can't go higher than the states at the top. Can you image those days in the south half where it's HOTTER!? Screw that. Not having AC can mean literally life and death for many people.
On the window, yet. that is netting. It's a mesh netting in which the holes are small enough that no bugs can get through it.
With the ice, I can't say 100% for sure, but I don't think she's right. I think that's just her mom lol Every single person I've ever met that has a fridge with a built in ice machine like that, does NOT make a separate thing of ice. It's not needed. They get the ice from the ice machine part. No need to make a whole big tub of it like that. We don't have one in this house, so we HAVE to make ice the old fashioned way, in the trays in the freezer, but not a single person I know does that, that has the built in ice machine.
I'm in southern California up to 120 in the summers, and I don't have air conditioning.
Pray for me, lol
Yes, stealing someone’s mail is a federal offense, not just petty theft. When I still live at home with my parents, my father would open up my mail. I would tell him it was a federal offense. So, he would say “I don’t care, it’s coming to my house”! The kicker is, he once worked for the post office!😂😂😂
Lol when I went to college, my mom would open my mail, then call and read it to me. I'd be like, madam, I'm reporting you to the police! 😂
I will send my kids a You've Got Mail MSG. Then a picture of it if it looks important. Like tax return/owed.Then they'll let me know if they're coming over soon or to open it and let them know what it is. If its just junk mail, I still give it all to them to do with what they want. Cuz. It's their mail. They still kinda get a kick out of opening it all. Except maybe the, you still owe this much. Lol
Yes, technically you could have reported him and gotten him in big trouble. Man, that is such a rude and disrespectful thing for your dad to do! I would never open someone else's mail, kid or no.
My stepfather was like that, it didn't matter whose name was on the letter he would open it and read it.
@@1024lafyeah some people can just be way too nosey… my moms husband (don’t like referring to him as my stepdad lol) opens other peoples mail a lot. He’s a very nosey person
It's a federal offense to steal from post box. Prison time
Yeah, because its such a widely enforced law...
@@Chris-fn4df Depends on the federal judicial district you live in as all federal crimes, just like state crimes, are charged and prosecuted based on the discretion of the prosecutor. I've witnessed many people go to federal prison or at least have their day in court for stealing low-value Amazon packages on porches while sitting through federal trials in a district court that had more aggressive prosecution overall. Other federal prosecutors elsewhere might've let them go. Because of the prevalence of Ring and other doorbell cameras, prosecution of mail theft is getting easier to prove so federal prosecutors have less excuses to not enforce. But there will always be prosecutors who decide not to enforce any type of crime. It's their call. But that's nothing unique to mail theft.
@@pd-ou1tg Maybe 10 yrs ago. Now carjacker, thieves and murders are out on the street.
There isn't anything valuable in your mailbox. The street value of your phone bill, or your letter from grandma, is zero dollars.
@@Tijuanabill let me catch someone taking anything out my mailbox. I have a surprise for them. The only person that should take mail from the box is the carrier or myself.
You can install a fence around your yard if you wish. There are many types available. Some you can see through, and some you cannot. Those are known as a privacy fence. You can have them installed or have them delivered or go to stores like Home Depot, or Lowes and pick it up if you own a pickup truck and install it yourself.
Middle Class American here - I would say this is a very affluent family that is NOT the norm in the US. I don't know anyone who has multiple cars per person. Typically one car per adult but I have known some who share one car. I've never seen a refrigerator with two icemakers and that looks like a very upscale fridge. Many of the homes I've lived in don't have garbage disposals, including the one I live in now. Where I live many people don't have a/c (but with climate change more and more people are getting it - my neighbors tend to have window units for one room). I have one television. Many people I know don't have a tv at all anymore because they watch what they want to on their laptops or phones or they aren't into tv. That view is extraordinary, but not all homes are like that. Again, pretty upscale there. We do tend to have front yards but often they have hedges or short fences around them. Regarding mail boxes, typically neighbors don't steal from them but there are theft rings that steal mail and peoples' identities. More and more mailboxes are replaced with locking varieties and the postal person has a universal key that opens them. (And I've heard of the post person's key being stolen too!).
For sure that family house looks rich. And even my parents are middle class. We have an because it would be insane not to on the East Coast. We don’t have a garbage disposal (the previous house we did) Our yards are generally open, I have seen some with front fences in the more bad areas.
I didn’t realize I was affluent.
My fridge looks like that and I’m far from affluent. The top ice maker is technically part of the door ice maker. That’s where the ice comes from for the door and you just have to pull it out if you want the ice in there
@padywac1970 Many Americans don't realize they are affluent, until they aren't anymore.
i have two cars- an everyday oen and a fun/project car that i enjooy- wifre has minivan and older son has car-
I am a 57 year old American that has lived my entire life in America only and though I know that there are many homes that have garbage disposals I personally have only stepped into one home that had one in my entire life. And that was a newly built house back in the 1990s that was on sale and my Mom was checking out. I have never lived in any home that had one and aside from that one house that was being sold, it just so happens that I also have never visited any home that had one. Just luck of the draw, I guess. LOL!
So needless to say, Not every American home has a garbage disposal. LOL! 😉👍
Where in the heck do you live? Never been in a house , condo or apartment that didn't have a garbage disposal.
Same, no garbage disposals except in 2 homes of my acquaintances. I'm guessing they're a bigger thing in big cities.. I personally think they're not worth it and will not be putting one in our kitchen remodel. We do have a garden and compost though.
@@alisonflaxman1566 I lived 47 years in New York City but I lived 10 years in Miami, Florida during my teen years. But I do visit Miami once in a while to see my Mom who still lives there. A huge chunk of New York City apartments don't come with garage disposals. And I have visited a few townhouses and penthouses of friends over the years. But even when living in Florida or visiting I still have yet to see one in someone's home.
Like I said, I guess it just has been the luck of the draw for me.
Update;
I just googled it. It said,
"There are garbage disposals in NYC apartments. Prior to 1997, they were illegal. Now they are allowed at the discretion of the building's board."
So that means that you might find a garbage disposal only in turn of the 21st century building construction and on. But most NYC buildings were built prior to that. Especially apartment buildings in upper Manhattan and in some areas in the outer burrows where you can find many pre-war apartment buildings. And then there are the low income housing. Garbage disposals, dish washers and washing machines are not considered an essential priority. They are considered a luxury and are also disapproved upon because fixing them and stopping an accidental flooding is more problematic and expensive deal with.
Yep I live in the country with a well and septic- no garbage disposal here. My parents and siblings have them though (they live in town and have city water/sewage service)
I've only seen a garbage disposal in real life once at a friend's house when I was young. They didn't even have it hooked up though cause they had dogs and no need. I've seen too many horror movies with people reaching their hand down there, no thanks
His mind is gonna blow when he finds out you can get sinks that you dont need to touch. I can just wave my hand in front of the sink and it will turn on and off. Is is needed? No. Is it great? YES.
Having air conditioning is a survival necessity in south Louisiana and Mississippi. I remember my dad putting in a window unit in our house in 1965. We lived in a rented "shotgun" house in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans (the part that was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina). I think we were one of the first families in our circle to have a/c in our house -- and we were dirt poor at that time. I now live in a 1 acre lot in a subdivision where most of us don't have fences around our entire property -- only the area closest to the back of the house to keep our pets in. It's also against the zoning in a lot of suburban areas to have fences in the front of houses in the US.
I am single - 2 cars: 1) smart car to commute and run errands 2) pick up truck - for horses care and haul large items.
Smaller, well kept, non-fenced front yard with fenced in back yard with my veggie garden and fruit trees (and soon to have chickens!) and a place for the dog to run.
Kitchen - meh, about the same, frige not so fancy but lots of ice (have to have special filter for water because ours is 'hard').
No tv in my house - just one computer screen
Screens on all windows and - not mentioned - 'storm' or 'screened' doors too!
And yeah, most have recliners too.
My house is considered 'smaller' even though it has 3 bed and 2 baths (1700 sq ft) Not fancy like the one shown.
I also live in sw us - so air conditioner is mandatory!
Like your video!
Multiple cars per person could be due to the work a person does, or a hobby a person does on the weekends. For instance, a guy might need a truck for work, but uses a car to pick up a date. Or someone might need a truck to pull their boat but uses a car that is cheaper on gas to drive around town. And yes, recliners (what you called a cinema chair) are very common in the US.
I was going to say, for the average couple without kids, it's not unusual to see two cars, sometimes three if one is really fuel efficient, or a truck.
The other thing is that if there are kids who are of driving age (or even if they're adults living at home with their parents) they might (kids), or will (adults living with parents), have their own cars.
and also not everyone trades in a car, they might also get passed down to a kid and then when that kid is grown up and gets their own car they just end up keeping the old one since they already have a newer car and have no reason to trade it in to a dealer.
@@zamboughnuts Yes, exactly.
Yep, and I know people that have a car for work commuting, a truck for the occasions when they need to haul stuff and/or pull a trailer, and a minivan for when they want to take the whole family somewhere.
We have a farm truck that gets bad mileage so we don't use it for non-farm errands. We also have a camper and a car (2 people)
6:42 The garbage/trash disposal in the kitchen sink is NOT for ALL of the trash. It's for the crumbs and small pieces of food that are left in the sink after hand-washing the dishes, but not for bones or large chunks of food; if the piece of food world take up most of the area in the bowl of a spoon, it goes into the trash can. If you don't run the disposal every day, do run it at least once per week, and ALWAYS run the disposal with the hot water running in the sink. These tips were told to me by the garbage disposal installer.
it's definitely not typical for people in america to have more than one car per person, this woman's mom is pretty darn wealthy. our home doesn't have a garbage disposal either. but wow, i never even thought of anyone not having screens, i feel so bad for those who don't.
I have to disagree most folk I know have more than one vehicle. But it depends upon where you live.
@@monarnyc most of the people you know have more than one car per person?
@@justbeeyourself Yes they work and have to drive a long distance. Many work 45-1 hour away so they need a vehicle that is reliable. So each adult has 2 cars just case one breaks down. And once the kids are 16 they have a hoopty (an old car). That way they can take their siblings to sports, dance etc.
Where I live screens are not mandatory. If your home doesn't have them you have to install them yourself. 🙄 I'm in the US.
@@justbeeyourself Yes, there is the commuter car that can be somewhat of a "beater" but gets good gas mileage. If one has a rural property, having a truck is important for home projects etc. Then if you have kids, one needs a SUV to take them & their equipment to sporting events. It's also good for Costco or big box store runs, so one can carry lots of things in a car. Then in areas that have cold weather like the Mid-West, if one has a fun car like a convertible or a soft top car, it can only be driven the warmer months of the year & garaged other times.
As others have noted, there can be older car for teenagers in the family, so they can drive to high school or go on dates.
Not having air conditioning or window screens are two things that are wild to me. The US is really behind on using heat pumps, or sometimes called Mini splits for heating and cooling both, but just not having anything at all like you mentioned is next level insane.
That seems like a million euro idea over in the UK. "We'll fit bug screens on your windows, no matter what kinda window you have."
We live on a farm in Indiana and we have a beautiful view here but not every place in the US is the same as in this video. For instance, we only have 2 TVs in our home. And as far as the multiple vehicles go, some people have work trucks and then maybe a car they use for personal transportation. Also some people have cars that they rarely drive and for pleasure like a convertible or they have vintage car and they take them to car shows. There could be multiple reasons. Yes we all love our ice here and our A/C. It can get extremely hot and humid here and especially in parts of the southern US it can get miserable in the summer time. But growing up we didn’t have A/C. It was a fan in the window but we always had window screens. 😊
The neighbors can have my mail - there’s never anything I want to keep.
😂😂😂
They can pay the bills while they have it 😋
😂😂😂 Facts!!!
This was an above average home, but nothing in it was out of the norm.
except the sink and the rediculous ammount of insulated cups .. and the ammount of tvs
very... very above average home....
the duel ice maker system i had to look taht up because i never seen it before, first comments where from a year ,ago so those must be new, i would say kind of higher on the above average.
if it's typical i would say mail boxes, but electric recliners. i wouldn't say typical still since i only see one person my life have one. although we just inherited a set from buying a house, they where trying to move without taking to many thing
Beyond an "average home"....her parents are well off💯somebody has financial privileges lol
@@XerouEffect13yeah but again, everything was still pretty much the norm… most house have multiple tvs and a garbage disposal. My sink is quite small though. Had a house fires like 2 years ago and the kitchen for re-done. They put in a garbage dispose which we didn’t have before but they also put in a pretty small sink. (Tbh the contractors did a very poor job overall in multiple areas but I digress.)
I live in Arizona, as we have mild winter here, and we love our swimming pools during the summertime, we also have TV in our patio/outdoor living room.
While the homeowner has to buy and install the mailbox it is actually Federal Property. Tampering with the mail or mailbox is a federal felony. The postal service actually has its own force of postal inspectors to investigate and arrest people.
In my area a neighborhood had about 20 mailboxes vandalized in one evening. One of the guys that did it had a prior criminal record. He got a 18 month prison sentence and a $12,000 fine along with restitution.
I never thought about that before, but you're right. WE have to pay for, install and upkeep Federal property.
@@suran396 So who do you think pays for the construction and upkeep of anything involved with the government?
The government doesn't have a penny the taxpayers didn't give them. (outside of all the bribe money...the big guy needs his 10%).
@@JoeBLOWFHB well, yes. Of course. This is more direct, though, and I just never realized I don't own my mailbox.
@JoeBLOWFHB The post office isn't funded with taxpayers' money.
@@srwater1 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 ok...hold on....nope, still.laughing..🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I reside in Phoenix, AZ, where air conditioning is an absolute necessity. We endure more than 120 scorching days with temperatures exceeding 100°F (37°C), and a staggering 55 days surpassing 110°F (43°C). Suffice it to say, air conditioning is a big deal here. 😄
Not quite as bad here, but I live smack dab in the swamps of Florida and god I could not imagine a house without AC, especially in the summer.
Y'all really in the wilderness huh 😂
you forgot to mention the 6-10 days over 120
@@dragonspirit996 i'm up in duval. lived in az too. i'm still not sure which is worse. there's a point (in a dry heat) that it just doesn't matter
@@dragonspirit996Yes!!!
I live in FL too and we had no electricity after a hurricane. Spent 4 days without ac…. I was dying by day 1!
Re: cars. I usually have 4 vehicles. A “daily driver”, a pickup truck, a “summer” car (or collectable car) and an RV, and sometimes a motorcycle, too! I will usually have a snowmobile and a 4 wheeler as well !
I’m a Canadian who lives in the BC mountains, though.
And my wife has her car, too!
Peace
A lot of people have a truck and a car too once kids are 16 they probably have them
Chances are her folks have a fishibg boat and/or a pontoon and some sea-doos.
@@KS-ip5xn I can think of a lot of reasons for it . Work truck , small business . My dad always had more cars than could be driven because he liked to buy sell trade and fix them too
My family would save their old cars and hand them down to a teen driver. Then, they would go finance a newer car. I mean a car only lasts so long, and if a teen is coming to that age it makes more sense to just hand over the old one instead of buying a used or newer one. I feel like that's a typical American thing that happens with families.
I live in Illinois . We had the same when I was a kid . But now , just one car .
In many countries as well as some places in the US, the sewage system cannot deal with garbage disposals. They are also not recommended for anyone with a septic system instead of municipal sewers. I have one window a/c for my small house which I rarely use. (I have ceiling fans.) I specifically bought a fridge without an ice dispenser because they are so trouble-prone. I love my recliner! I have 3 TVs but only 1 large one.
American here:
1. Yep - neighbors can access your mailbox (when they look like the one in the vid), but it's a federal offense (illegal nationally). There are lock box style for shared spaces like apartments.
2. No fences in front is definitely normal for suburban life. The back yard is usually fenced but it's a toss whether the fence is tall or short - really depends on the neighbors and area.
3. Multiple cars is a thing but I wouldn't say that's a rule. My parents have 2 cars for 2 people, my wife and I have 2 cars for 2 people, my sis has 1 car for 2 people. FWIW I'm a car nut, too.
4. AC is a NEED where I live in the southern US. I hear Europeans complain about temperatures and when I do the conversion to °F it becomes apparent we are in extremely different climates. For example, in London the mean daily max in July is 23.6°C while our mean daily max in January is 27.1°C.
5. We do have window screens, but reference #4 to get a feel for how often we open those windows. Other parts of the country are much more temperate, though, so use windows a lot.
6. We do have a sink like what she's showing but that's usually only in high end kitchens (we splurged on our kitchen, but have a modest house). We do not have a waste disposal.
7. Ice is real and I can confirm that in France you'll get 1 piece of ice if you ask and none if you don't. This is extremely accurate. I do have an ice tray with a scoop for the ice, but we do not have a door ice maker.
8. Recliners are very common, but we don't have any. We like the Stressless which I suppose is more European in design. My in-laws use recliners extensively and my parents have a chair and a couch that both recline.
9. We have one TV. I don't know what kind of rich person BS she's peddling. We can't have basements here due to water level, so there's no man cave in our house and I never grew up with a TV in the bedroom so et voila we don't have one either. We do, however, have multiple computers so maybe that offsets the TV requirement.
As an aside, I live in a city that is too small to be considered big but too big to be considered small. Essentially what that means is we get decent amenities but still get to have a yard and good sized housing. Our house is on the smaller side here but it would be considered massive by French standards. That and our bathrooms are just unequivocally better - even my extremely cramped bathrooms stand head and shoulders above the ones I experienced in France.
I have to add here, that her mother's house is not typical. It is a "nice" home. The average American lives in a house much smaller than that, and with less amenities. I will say that most of my friends have multiple cars and televisions; that part is true. I have one TV and I rarely watch it. If the weather is bad, the TV comes on. Our refrigerators do have multi-functions but mine again, is just standard. I'm not bougie. I agree that a lot of Americans keep their homes ice-cold but I prefer 68 degrees year round. I won't live without screens, so if I do move to Scotland in a couple of years, I will reinstall windows with screens. It will happen, and yes, I will have a garbage disposal. A good dog can do most of that work but there are times when you just need to cram a bunch of things down the disposal and be done with it.
It's pretty typical and you don't know how big it is. The average is about 2350 sqft.
@@therealimnotjiminy Americans don't typically have lakefront houses. Those are expensive, expensive, expensive. This is not a typical house.
I would also recommend against just cramming a bunch of things down the garbage disposal. Mostly because, while convenient, they generally aren't made with large amounts of food in mind (especially since most people don't clean their garbage disposals like they should). Then again, it's your sink, so do what you want. It just might save you some plumber bills.
I wonder if midges are small enough to fit through screens
@@therealimnotjiminyMight be typical in your circle. But this is not the home of most people
Again, it's obvious her parents have money. Most Americans don't have a lakeside view. :D And most of us, if we have a recliner, it's the single yank-the-handle type as well. That cinema-seat sofa is....well, not cheap.
The mail thing, yes normal and people don’t tamper with your mail. The recliner thing is fairly common too. Also, screens are on all our windows, yes. And AC is common as well, even if it’s just a window unit and doesn’t work super well. The rest of the stuff is stuff you see in the homes of people who are better off than I was/am. I have 1 TV, I don’t have a recliner, I don’t have an ice make in my fridge. I do have a garbage disposal in my sink but I didn’t have one growing up. And I have one car and even growing up, my family usually just had one car to share.
My mailbox is down a hill that can get snowy and icy in the winter. I use 'informed delivery' from the post office. They scan the outside of my mail and post it on the site. I can see if I've had any deliveries or if what's in the box is important. That saves me from going out in -5 weather just to learn I've no mail, or it's all advertising. The recliners are typical and well-known as 'dad's chair.' Even my little 3 yr old grandson has his own mini-recliner.
Want to really blow your mind? Recliners (cinema chairs) often come with heat and cool settings, massagers, and power ports for your electronics.
With cup holders and wireless chargers too.
they come with anything you want if you pay for it but average ones are still just manual ones not even electric like in video for us mere mortals.
Multiple cars per person isn't actually very common. Unless someone has a particular job that requires them to have a work vehicle that they're not allowed to use for personal errands or they live on a farm or something. (Farm truck vs personal car for town.)
Also my fridge only has one ice maker. That lady has a pretty fancy fridge.
Reclining couches are pretty common. Not always electrified, though.
I never saw a fridge with 2 ice makers. I never even had one. I did have a garbage disposal in the kitchen remodeled myself and always had a dishwasher and laundry room. Now that I have moved to a senior apartment I have no dishwasher and laundry room is down down the hall - one on each floor. Still don't have an ice maker.
I have my mini van for kids and sports stuff, my husband has his car, then we have one specifically with 4 wheel drive that we got specifically for vacations. The last several years my whole family takes a vacation to 4x4 beach in NC where there are no roads and you have to drive 10 miles down the beach to get to the house. Also useful for harsh winters when we get lots of ice and snow. Then we have a pick up truck for what everyone else uses pick ups for lol. Lumber, bags of soil and gardening stuff, tools, heavy yard equipment, etc. and my 19 year old daughter has her own car.
We don’t buy anything new, always used or from auctions. Everything is paid off.
And we have 8 TVs 😂🤦🏻♀️
No recliners though.
The home this lady showed is not really a typical American home. Most of us have to choose which of these luxurious we have, and it's not super common to have everything she is showing in this video.
It kinda is, maybe not those nicer fridges with ice makers but the majority of them are basic necessities in a typical American house. You’d really have to be in the run down homes to not have them.
@@haechanlee5829 If you're in certain regions of the USA, it's not a big ask to have most or all of what is presented here. Most of us live in places where the sheer cost of everything shown is out of the realm of possibility without a large yearly income, which is dropping on average year by year. Your statement about run down homes is at best inaccurate and at worst classist. I've done work that brings me to homes of a wide variety of people, I've made friends with a wide variety of people, and I can tell you with 100% certainty, the lady in the video is at the VERY least Upper Middle class, but most likely comes from a legacy family from a more rural region where what we see in the video is a pittance of their wealth.
How many people do you know that make less than 30k a year and have two cars per person in the household? Probably very few, unless they are mechanics with broken vehicles.
The style of faucet is more common, though the potential cost of them often dissuade homeowners, and especially renters, from opting for it. (source: grew up renovating homes with my father.)
A/C blasting 24/7 is uncommon, even in some of the hotter regions of the USA. The cost of electricity skyrockets in the months you need A/C, and that is no accident. (source: i pay bills)
Recliners are fairly common, though what you see in this video is likely less than 3 years old, and appears to be a Flexsteel recliner, which cost upwards of $5000. That's not a common purchase. The average owner of a recliner likely purchased it when the dollar was worth something and it's 20 years old, or they inherited it from a dead relative. This is incredibly common, and people don't often tell you they inherited the thing you're sitting in from a dead person. (source: used to work for a furniture company and delivered furniture to customers 6 days a week.)
As I stated previously, these items are not individually uncommon in the USA, but they are absolutely not commonly owned all together.
Drive down to the brown parts of your city, you'll see how most of us live. Get out of your bubble, blue blood.
As people have said, that was a very nice home. None of the things she showed are unusual, but not everyone has all of them, and even fewer have such nice versions. Also it's rarely worth anyone's time to steal the mail, and messing with it at all carries stiff penalties. In most neighborhoods no one ever gets their mail stolen.
As an American that used to live in the UK, this was fun. When I first moved there, I thought some of the differences on the house were because I was broke/cheap. Then I started to realize that wasn't it at all. Another difference is the heating situation. Almost no one leaves the heating on for very long during the cold months. Most British buildings are significantly older so they're not built to insulate the heat well, making it more expensive to heat any building all day the way we Americans do. Let's just say you grow tougher skin.
0:35 It's rare for someone to mess with anyone's mail. On rare occasions you will get people driving around hitting them with baseball bats, but they leave the mail itself alone. Other times people- or snow removal services- will accidentally hit the mailbox with their vehicle. But that's about it for the mailboxes themselves, the front porch package thief is way more common.
6:18 That faucet isn't typical for most people as they can range from $100 to $200 or more. Also, the sink is a single unit, most are double with the occasional triple tub for washing their dishes-wash side and rinse side.
8:30 That style of fridge/freezer is becoming more popular here- called the French door freezer on the bottom design. The upright fridge on the left/right and freezer on the right/left used to be popular years ago, but it gave way to the freezer on top fridge on bottom design.
9:30 the couch recliner is becoming popular, but it's normally just a single person chair that is the recliner. I have a loveseat(2 person) with recliners for the seats. Hers is electric reclining which isn't as popular as the lever activated ones
That seating is called a recliner & yes, most American homes have them.
They're common in the UK, too. I have two electric sofas, and before we got these, we had the pull lever type (push with the backs of your legs to close).
I have no idea where in the UK this guy lives or why he hasn't seen these items here. The only things my family don't have are ... the disposal unit, mailbox, and the window screens - unfortunately, my windows open outward. Incidentally, disposal units are bad for the environment.
7:11 This specific faucet is a bit fancy (Honestly, the whole house is a bit fancy. Its a freaking lake house!) , but most kitchen faucets have a sprayer option either in the main faucet itself, or a separate sprayer attachment. Garbage disposal are common, and not ubiquitous, and are not that expensive, maybe about $100.
That refrigerator is not common at all. That's like a $4000 appliance.
This woman's family is NOT typical and definitely in the top 5% of incomes in the US. Probably, her parents were in the boomer generation who could afford such a large single family home in a rural or suburban area. The majority of experience in the US is vastly different. Many of the conveniences are there, but they are much more modest.
Typical for the Northeast
Yeah multiple cars are common. I have an SUV for commuting to work, clean errands, going out. I have a pick up truck for yard work, Home Depot trips, taking the dog for hikes, hauling my mountain bike, dirt bike and atvs around… dirty stuff.
I can’t imagine not having screens on the windows, it’s so cheap and simple. And we all have AC because even in the northeast, its in the 30s*C and 90% humidity in the summer. Which I’m fairly certain people in the UK literally die when there’s a “heat wave” that are just our normal summers.
But your normal summer is equivalent to a heat wave in northern Europe. It would be a waste of money to install AC to only use it a couple of times a year. My in laws in Calgary Alberta didn't have AC in their house because it was shaded by trees. And that was in Alberta where 40 degree days are not uncommon in the summer.
Air conditioning is completely overused in Canada. We only use it in the hottest days as usually opening a window is just as comfortable. Also ceiling fans help alot at night time, especially in bedrooms.
@@bubba842 if your climate allows, a window unit for the bedroom only costs a couple hundred bucks and you could only use it on uncomfortably hot and humid nights just to sleep. I have a ceiling fan in every room, large windows and a whole house attic fan… I have the windows open in the spring and fall. It’s just not feasible in the summer when most days require it. It would cost more money/take more energy to cool and dehumidify the entire house multiple days per week than have the AC running 24/7, maintaining 72*F @ 50-60% RH. I’ve actually run this experiment in my house in an effort to reduce my electric bill.
@@bubba842sad thing I've noticed recently is a lot of newer homes don't have ceiling fans which just boggles my mind. They're super good for helping keep a house cool and keeping that AC use low
@@bubba842 Right, I think that was his point. I note that the mid-latitudes of the USA are about the same as Southern Spain and North Africa, and Great Britain is way* North of the continental USA. There are plenty of places in the USA where it would be extremely uncomfortable bordering on lethal without AC, particularly the South and Southwest. In the Southeast, mid-90s is very common - like every day for months - with stifling humidity. The air conditioning lowers the saturated air temperature so water is condensed and just *pours* out of the drip pan, literally, a solid stream of water out of a 3/4" drain line and sometimes even a pump to pump it out fast enough.
I live in an older apartment building and was talking to a woman about what we most wished the apartments had. Hers was a dishwasher (I have a countertop one that I HAD to have), but mine was a garbage disposal. It is so disgusting having to clean the sink out. I literally would rather clean a toilet than the sink sometimes. But the big thing that wasn’t mentioned was the large washers and dryers. My sister lives in Ireland and has to spread out all the laundry on drying lines. This is a newish home, too. And the washing machines are sometimes in the kitchen, which I find bizarre. They don’t even get stuff clean. I was in Spain and the clothes that *had* to get clean just wouldn’t and I ended up throwing them out.
Most American gardens (we call them yards) don't have hedges or walls, which makes it so you can see across several from each house and everyone feels like they have an enormous space, even though it is shared with others. When I've been in European gardens with their high walls, it feels like everyone lives cramped in tiny boxes. Not many worry about security from having open yards, and if you want a little more privacy on one side, you might plant a few bushes or a low tree, but not block off the whole way.
Yes, most homes have at least one recliner (Cinema chair, you call it..)
Because America is big, most homes outside large cities are pretty spacious.
The reason for screens on windows originally was for public health, to block insects that carry disease from entering. Malaria is spread by mosqitoes and we used to have it here long ago.
I'm surprised bedroom closets was not mentioned. Older flats and houses in the UK does not have closets. People have armoires or buy like Ikea closets. The newer flats or homes within the last 25 yrs or so now have closets.
In America walk-in closets, whether any size, is normal here but they're not normal there.
I live in the SW, and walk in closets are not common here. Not unusual, but definitely not in every house.
Yes I agree.
I live in an 1840's New England farmhouse and there is a walk in closet in each bedroom.
Having an open front yard and keeping it well groomed is sometimes seen as a status symbol.
Multiple vehicles for residential homes is indeed fairly normal. Why? Because 1) you might need a back up vehicle in case one breaks down, or 2) not every vehicle is used the same way, for example, you might have a pick-up truck to do pick-up truck things, and then you might have a SUV or passenger car for traveling or work or school commuting. We had a family of four. We had 5 vehicles at one time. In our situation it was a back up vehicle. Our vehicle line up included our 1985 GMC Suburban, a 1988 Buick Park Avenue, my 1989 Ford Mustang, my sister's 1991 Ford Escort GT, and the back-up vehicle was a 1977 Forest Service Chevy pickup. It was our junker, but could be used in a clutch.
You are so right about a ‘back up’ vehicle. We’ve always had one. Actually the best vehicle we’ve ever owned is my 1993 Chevy 1500 Silverado pick up. My dad left it to me when he passed. The car I mostly drive is my 1998 GMC Jimmy. I have the most wonderful mechanics that keep both of these in running order.
My husband and I have three cars, it’s really convenient for times where one is being repaired. We have two suvs and a car, the car gets better mileage so we often take it on longer drives.
Mail theft isn't a big thing in our neighborhood. So, I don't really think about it. Plus USPS doesn't do package pick up out here. But yeah flag goes up, pop the mail in the box and they pick it up on their morning route. Then deliver the mail for us in the afternoon. Recliners are pretty common. We have them and we've not got money like her 'parents'. I think she grew up around people with money because what she considers common not a lot of Americans do.
Parents were somewhere in the middle class in the 60's. We lived in upstate NY. We had a summer house on the St. Lawrence River. Growing up in the 60's in the country we had no need for AC. Dad built the house in 1959. Sheetrock, hardwood floors, screens in windows, mailbox with flag, ice maker inside the refrigerator, Dad had a huge faux leather recliner, console color TV and eventually they finished the basement with 2nd livingroom with fireplace and TV. Dad always had a Stanley Insulated thermos. That was the 60"s.
Front yards in the USA typically either have no fence or short fences as a matter of safety, not convention. Most municipalities prohibit any kind of barrier that prevents law enforcement from being able to see onto the front of a residential property. This makes it easier, in theory, for LEOs to see any harmful activity, and facilitates necessary access to a property in order to put a stop to said activity as quickly as possible.
As a side benefit, it aids other emergency response persons when they are responding to medical emergencies, fires, and other such hazards.
She forgot to mention that in the USA you must have an egress in every room, so a door and/or window for every room. The only exceptions are basements and inner rooms. I watched some videos of houses being remodeled in France and was appalled at the lack of egress and learned that you don't need many to be in code!
You're so right! When searching for a home, I learned that for a room to be considered a bedroom in the US it must have a door, closet, and window!
I think that's city code rules, or maybe a few states have a law like that. In Texas if you're in the county you can build/design whatever you want in your home, as long as the bank you're financing with is ok with it. If you have cash you can really do whatever you want with your design.
It is very common in our American homes to have air conditioners, screens on windows, garbage disposals, furniture with reclining sofas and chairs, multiple TVs, a separate area called a laundry room with large washers and dryers, closets in bedrooms for your clothes, and usually a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, family room, dining room, and more. We are very fortunate to have great homes in America.
❤❤
I seriously can't believe how much you man 'splained that. "A separate area called a laundry room with large washers and dryers" like Europeans have never heard of any of those things before, lol. What, exactly, do you picture homes in Europe look like? No furniture, no laundry "area", no TVs, no closets, no family room or dining room? Is it just a big one-roomed mud hut with a couple of chairs and clothes thrown on the floor? It never ceases to amaze me to find out about how Americans think the rest of the world lives. There are great homes in other countries too. Know what else Europeans have that Americans don't? Free healthcare 🤣
@@mistresskupo nothing is free. Not ever.
@@mistresskupo Wow, you are very sensitive and insecure. Hope you feel better and thanks for the laugh.
@@ayabokti161 You're right, but we pay $1,200 a month for insurance and then copays and deductibles. You wanna tell me that if we had universal healthcare my raise in taxes would be over $1,300 a month? Of course not. Your basic rights in the US relate to "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", but we treat "life" like a luxury. Basic healthcare should be a right, not a luxury. We manage it for the military, no reason the richest country in the world can't provide healthcare as a basic human right. So my taxes go up a smidge but I'm not supporting a massive corporation and not wasting that much money every month. I see no downside.
New homes don’t have mailboxes any more. We have mail pods where there are lockable boxes. Much smaller than a regular sized mailbox. We can also sign up to see what is coming to the mailbox before it is delivered.
I live in a country subdivision where we have cluster mailboxes. It is a large metal box with maybe 15 smaller numbered boxes. Each property own has there own box with a number. & key that they keep until they move from that address. In my case, Ive had the same mailbox key for 35 years. . For large parcels, there is a large box. The postman leaves a numbered key in your mailbox to access the large box that corresponds to the number on the key. Once you put that key in to get your parcel you can't take that key out. You take your pkg and go......Most homes also have screens, which is a stiff netting, on our window and sliding glass doors. We can enjoy opening our windows and doors without flying bugs getting in. Especially at night, when your inside lights attract bugs. I wouldn't do without screens..That recliner chair is VERY common...We have 2..They are not that expensive but sure nice to put your feet up while watching TV.
You crack me up! You're so enthusiastic. Just an FYI I know no one with a garbage disposal, multiple ways for making ice or so many TVs.
Same here! I’m 45 years old and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a garbage disposal in real life. I understand it’s still a very American thing. But, I’ve never seen one.
I've never had a garbage disposal, only seen them in apartment buildings. Never had an ice maker either and I don't want something else to maintain. We do have two TVs.
Where do you people live? Never knew anyone that didn't have a garbage disposal. Even the house I grew up in that was built in 1956 had one.
@@alisonflaxman1566 Garbage disposals are not as common where people have septic systems vs city sewers. Septic systems usually can't handle that kind of waste.
@@alisonflaxman1566 I'm in NJ
Just FYI, thats not a typical American household. Most of us are barely living paycheck to paycheck. We have one car, two TV's(one I've had since the 90's), one reclining chair(that's broke), no garbage disposal, and my ice maker has never worked lol.
Although it is true that the average American is living paycheck to paycheck, that same household also has multiple vehicles, TVs, etc. etc. Our poor have significantly more than average citizens in other countries and the average person just manages their money poorly here. We have a credit system that allows us to live beyond our means and the average American does just that.
We have a TV for every room
Yes, window "netting" is a screen made of aluminum that keeps out bugs but lets the air pass through.
Everything she showed is pretty standard…the flexible kitchen faucet is unique…it’s a style choice…there are about 50 different designs to pick from… the garbage disposal is in every home…screens on every window…typical…the reclining couch…everyone loves to relax that way…ice makers in the freezer with in-door dispenser..and in door water dispenser…most homes have this arrangement…that is a pretty nice refrigerator/freezer combo…I have had it…the air conditioning…is essential over here…the mailbox Delivery/pickup aspect has always been a part of American life…the red flag goes up telling the mailman there is some outgoing mail..as long as you have properly put a stamp up in the corner..back yards….fenced or not…,it’s up to whoever lives there…what they want to do…most have huge wooden fencing…for privacy…but some don’t…it is a choice…showers are usually nice and large as well…either a walk-in shower or shower with tub…and sliding glass doors…
My family had 6 cars for 4 people when i was a teenager. My niece has 2, my other niece has a pickup, an SUV and a Toyota Corolla for her and her husband. My mom used to get anxious when there weren't 2 cars in the driveway, what if one broke down. Her parents have $$$. That recliner is common.
3:29 having been born and raised in the US. I can confidently say I don’t know many people who have two cars for themselves, unless one of those cars is specifically for work, like a work truck.
3:59 oh, I miss this. And this is not something you get all over the US, at least not at this time. For example, in eastern Nebraska where I grew up, absolutely you had central AC and heating. When you have to deal with 100+ degree heat as well as 100% humidity for days on end, AC is really crucial. And having that nice toasty heat in the winter is just wonderful.
Where I moved to in the US, up until the last 10 years or so, central air was considered an oddity. It never really got enough long enough to be considered a necessity. But as the climate continues to shift towards hotter and hotter temperatures, it is starting to become a very common place thing to see AC units hanging out of windows, as well as seeing people get air-conditioning of some type installed in their homes.
5:20 ummm… y’all don’t have screens to keep the bugs out when you open windows? O.o
I think it is common to keep a car that is paid off when you buy a new one. You cannot get around (conveniently) without one, and it is not uncommon for a repair to take several days to weeks. If you had to rent one, it would add to the cost of the repair by possibly several hundred dollars. and no car dealer wants to give what a car is worth as a trade in.
Apartment complexes, trailer parks, multiplexes often do have locked letterboxes and the mail carriers do have keys. More often there will be one large box for residents to deposit outgoing mail and the carrier will have a key to unlock that one box. Sometimes there will be a large community box for delivered parcels. The carrier would open the parcel box with his key. Then there would be keys inside that box for residents receiving parcels. The carrier would take one of those keys and deposit it into the residents personal mail box and the resident can then use that key to retrieve their parcel from the parcel box. You can have an individual mail box that locks with permission from their local post office. That would enable the carrier to drop letters into the box but not parcels and the resident wouldn't be able to send mail out using their mailbox. People can steal from others' mailboxes but that is classified as mail fraud and is a felony. It's taken extremely seriously.