Housing differences

Back in America, I was somewhat spoiled.  I am used to spacious houses with a front and back yard.  Here housing is very different.  To have a detached home is pretty expensive.  Many homes are in fact attached or are a block of homes all attached.  This seemed strange to me when I first visited, but I am now used to it.  Many homes are brick of some sort, you hardly ever see siding. The rooms are small compared to what we are used to in America.  There is hardly a thing (except in brand new homes) as en-suite bathrooms.  Most homes in fact, only have one bathroom.  If they have a second, this is just what we know as a half bathroom.  In most cases, your washer and dryer (if you have one) are in the kitchen.  Nothing like efficiency right??

I am not sure if there is central heating here, I am sure there is but most homes are heated by gas with radiators.  I kind of like this because you can choose to heat only one room, or the whole house. There is also no closets in bedrooms.  You use a clothing wardrobe.  At first, I couldn't stand this.  I felt like I had no space, but I am getting used to it.  Your back yard (if you have one) is called the garden.  Often times, it is just a small enclosed grassy area. Here is our communal garden.

We live in a one bedroom flat. We live on the second floor, but here it is called the first floor.  The first floor is called the ground floor. We have solar panels on our flat, which is nice because it reduces the amount of electricity we use during daylight hours.  One of my favorite things about England housing is the electricity.  They have on/off switches on every plug.  Not only does this save electricity by not always having it run... but it also saves little fingers who get curious around the power sockets. However, that being said it is hard for me to remember to turn those plugs off!

  I will show pictures of the rest of the flat later.  We want to get it painted first.  The renter before us had our bedroom painted hot pink and black.  Bright colors seem to be pretty popular here.