Bluegrass Lass

Hmmm, my mother's house is less than 2 years old in a new development, and every home has their own mailbox located at the end of the driveway. I've only seen what you are describing in apartment/condo complexes. Personally, I'd refuse to buy a home that subscribed to such a setup. I'm not spending hundreds of $$ on a home, and then not have mail delivered to my home, esp as I buy online very frequently. I'm not going to post office everyday (esp when they are now closing at like 4pm) to pick up overlarge packages.

Guindalf

Has anyone mentioned the fact that light switches go the opposite way yet?

Jerseygirl

and the taps are the wrong way around.

If you plug in too many appliances the lights dim.

kimilseung

Vestibules seem rare in the US

DavidLemon

Tons of them round here in Boston

N1cky

as do conservatories. That's probably because you actually sit outside in the US though without getting pi$$ wet through.

Bluegrass Lass

Wouldn't vestibules be the same as a foyer?

SultanOfSwing

Conservatories are great for keeping the bird shit off though

N1cky

and the mozzies

kimilseung

I should have paid more attention to the post warning about regional variation.

I am in the PNW

SultanOfSwing

Aye.

We, I think, may actually have lived in the only house on our road that didn't have a conservatory (or at least it seemed that way anyway).

N1cky

My MIL had one put on her tiny house, then her neighbors followed, the glass between them was around 4 inches apart, it was like they were sat in the same room with them

Made much worse by the fact the neighbor often walked around with his knob out

SultanOfSwing

I bet your mother in law rarely eats sausages

In our first house, we had an addition put on the back that was more of a sunroom than a conservatory but that was about it. Once we moved house, we never got around to getting one, though my ma was forever banging on about it.

We had 7' fences around the garden though, so no danger of seeing our neighbours' knobs ...

Englishmum

US homes have insect screens on the windows and doors.

They don't in the UK (but you don't get horrible large flying insects there, just the occasional fly).

Come to think of it, there aren't any insect screens at our rental apartment in Switzerland either. There was an American expat with my husband's company who was in the apartment before us and she had a very ugly temporary insect screen up (blocking the view of the lake) but no-one else on the condo has insect screens, the insects there seem to be the same as in the UK.

Also the main difference between UK and US houses is probably that it is almost unknown for homes in the UK and Europe in general to have air-conditioning. ( I would imagine that generally in the UK only the super-rich eg. Russian oligarchs and Arabs, hedge fund managers etc. who tend to dig out their basements in Belgravia to install swimming pools, are likely to have air-con in their residences )

Our house has the forced-air combined heating and air-con system. At our house in Essex, England it originally had a warm-air heating system. We hated it and replaced it with radiators instead (gas central heating). I do think that radiators are the norm in the majority of British homes?

To the O/P; when they do the repeat visit (3 months later?) after you move in to your chosen house, you really ought to put up a washing line or get one of the rotary retractible clothes lines and show them just how everyone in the rest of the world dries their clothes lol! They will think it's either 'quaint' or be horrified!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=pd_lpo_k...0251C9DB12NX7W

http://washinglines.org.uk/

Nutmegger

I don't think there's anything lazy about it -- the mileage on most postal rounds in the US is far greater than anything a UK postman has to deal with. In the city, the delivery is usually made to the door by a walking postman, but in the suburbs the driver can't be expected to get out of his truck and walk to every house. It would take forever!