Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Houses

For the record, there is a guy in my direct eyeline wearing a US flag bandana around his head. He appears to be going for a Karate Kid sort of look. Needless to say, he looks ridiculous.

Anyways, let's discuss housing. Homes, if you will. There seem to be different sorts of criteria for these things over here than in America. You see, I have been watching both Relocation, Relocation and Location, location, location a lot on television. This means I now fancy myself as somewhat of an expert, despite the fact that I blatantly am not. Both of thse shows are just house hunting shows, where people go along and look at the hosts as if they are crazy and sometimes end up buying a house.

One of the things that intrigues me most is the sheer variety in British housing. Despite the fact that, in my mind at least, a good proportion of the houses are just bricked terraced things, they are not at all the same on the interior. While 2 bedrooms seem quite standard, for some reason when a third one is tacked on its often the size of a small American walk-in closet. There's no living room or family room, just a number of 'sitting' rooms (which, quite frankly, sounds more relaxing than having to live or have family in a room). Bathrooms end up in odd places (downstairs behind the kitchen, for example). A yard is called a garden, even if its paved and plantless. There don't seem to be many basements, and being able to stand up in a room is negotiable (although usually not a problem). Oh, and it's really cheap to buy random houses in small villages in quaint European countries. Like France or Slovakia.

I think summer may have come and gone already. Like, it lasted maybe a week. It's cold, windy and rainy again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our summer was on July 4th. After I bragged to Mark that it would be sunny and warm every day until September in Oregon, it hasn't been. We've had many rainy days. We've had very few dinners on the patio. I really, really miss summer, and hope we have a nice fall!

Buehler Recipes said...

Anybody want a 60's era daylight ranch with a disaster for kitchen? I could drop ours in the mail.

Lisa Katzke said...

While house-hunting in San Francisco (I do it for laughs, really) I learned that in old buildings it is not uncommon for the bathroom to be right off of the kitchen (and laundry, if there is any) to be somewhat kitchen-centric as well. This is all due to the location of pipes and the somewhat lower water pressure in these buildings. But, from what I have seen, that is a fairly common arrangement.

It is summer-like here in SF. It has apparently been raining all week in France, but the weather is supposed to turn as soon as I arrive. Here's hoping.