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Home and Housing topic

Home and Housing topic 

A.

Choosing a place to live in is a problem which everybody has to deal with at the beginning of his adult life. The choice is wide – you may live in a village, in a suburban area of a large city or somewhere in the countryside far from other people. There are several types of dwellings in Great Britain you may choose from:

Types of buildings

Almost half of all British families own the houses in which they live. In order to buy a house in Britain does not need to have all the money. There are many banks offering to borrow up to 90% of the value of the house. Of course, not everyone wishes to buy a house and renting is very common, too.

A typical British house is set in a small garden and has two storeys. It is usually designed for a family of four or five people. There is a hall, a front room, a back room, a kitchen, a pantry and a storage space downstairs. A garage is attached to the house. Upstairs, there is one big bedroom and two smaller ones, a bathroom and a lavatory. In comparison to the houses built some fifty years ago, modern houses have central or gas heating installed and the windows double-glazed.

The front room is a sitting room with a fireplace, couch and the armchairs, the wall unit with the hi-fi system, television and video, bookcase and a coffee table. There is a carpet on the floor to make the room feel warm and comfortable. The back room is a dining room containing a table, four or more chairs, and a sideboard. The kitchen furniture includes the kitchen cupboards, sink, stove and fridge-freezer. They are all built in. There is also a table with stools. The floor in the kitchen is tiled. The big room upstairs is the parents’ bedroom. It has a double-bed, built-in wardrobes, dressing table with the mirror on the wall and a stool in front of the table. The small rooms are bedrooms for children or spare rooms for guests of the family. A typical British house has a garden as the British people are fond of gardening. A beautiful well-kept lawn is a pride of every British family. The British like to spend their free time in their houses. Everyone in the family helps around the house to make it feel comfortable and nice.

Living condition of American people depend much on the amount of money they have. Many wealthy people have very large houses with many rooms, tennis courts and swimming pools. On the other hand, there are also people who are homeless. Homelessness is a big social problem in the U.S.A. Many homeless people are alcoholics, mentally-ill or just unemployed people left without living means. But as the standard of living is generally very high in the U.S.A., an average American family can live comfortably and well.

In the centre of big American cities many people live in apartments situated in large apartment buildings. They usually rent apartments which are owned by big companies or private owners. The majority of Americans live in individual, single-family houses with a front and back gardens. Since most of America has a four season climate, the rhythms of life around the house tend to follow the seasons.

The houses are well furnished and equipped with modern household appliance. There is usually one or more phones and TV sets stereo and video system, microwave and fridge-freezer in every house.

The American home is a busy, lively place and living in a house is a time-consuming responsibility. There is a lot of work around the house throughout the whole year and the people like to do the work by themselves. In many American families, children are expected to help around the house. They are given “chores” to do every week and often are rewarded with an allowance of about 10 dollars a week. These tasks might include washing the dishes, vacuuming, mowing the lawn. Not every family believes children should be paid for working around the house. Some people believe that in a family everyone should contribute something for the good of all.

The Americans usually do not stay in the same house their whole lives. Some families like to move to other parts of the country and change houses more than once in a decade. The moving to other places is never a big charge for a family as the standard living is much the same throughout the U.S.A.

When people want to buy a house many of them think a lot about the best way of furnishing it. They often get some unit furniture which is very popular and practical too. There is everything from bookshelves and cabinets to writing desks and units for stereo sets. Besides, unit furniture is easy to rearrange when the fancy takes you.

In the kitchen you can introduce various improvements and innovations. People often have a fan installed above the gas stove to prevent kitchen smells from spreading around the house. You can buy a dishwasher – no more washing up, wiping the dishes and cleaning up the sink. There are many kitchen appliances which can save time and work. They should be close at hand, too.

As for the bathroom you can decorate it with some beautiful patterned ceramic tiles and vinyl flooring. You should produce an elegant interior and avoid an over-decorated look. It will take several months to get all this done but in the end you will be able to say: “My house, my castle.”

After choosing the place and the type of your future dwelling, you have to start thinking about money because buying a flat or a house is usually very expensive, but you do not need to have all the money. If you work, you may arrange a mortgage with a bank. Young people who cannot afford to buy a flat often choose to live in rented accommodation. Nowadays it is quite common for young people and especially students living in large cities to rent a flat/house and share the costs.

Some things you are supposed to do (and not to do) in your house or flat:

Living in the countryside

Living in the city

Human specific.

Example:

I would like to have a house in a hot country near the sea or ocean – for example in Florida or Jamaica or at least France or Italy because I love hot weather and summer sports so I could go swimming and I could sunbathe at the beach. I would like to have a big house with a garage. It should be comfortable and it should have a big garden with a sportsground or a tennis court. I would also like to have a swimming pool. There should be a modern kitchen and a bathroom with a shower and Jaccuzi. The house would be painted in bright colours – green, yellow, white. I would like to have a cleaner because I don’t like cleaning and also a gardener who would look after the garden. The house should have a large living room where we would watch television, play games, listen to music… I would paint it orange because I like that colour and I would have a big TV on the wall. I would buy modern furniture and a comfortable sofa and many plants. I would also build a fireplace. We would sit by the fireplace and relax there if the weather became colder. 

Home is an emotional word that consists of many parts including geographical location, emotional ties, housing, interior furnishings and décor. People usually try out several different places till they find the one that suits them best. Inside their homes, people surround themselves with beautiful and meaningful things, making their home, their sanctuary, their refuge.

What makes a home so distinct from a house? A little child thinks it is “Mummy and Daddy, plenty of toys and bedtime stories”. An efficient woman said, “Home means a lot of drudgery if you want have it clean and comfortable.” A man of forty said it was a place he returned after work to enjoy a hearty meal and his well-earned rest. A working woman said home was a place she never forgot trying to remember all the things she had left undone before leaving home in the morning and those to be done on her way home and on getting in. An architect said: “A home is any dwelling, from a royal palace or a castle to the most humble cottage, plus the people living in it as a family unit.”

Old towns – New housing estates

Many towns are now made up of two different parts – the old own and the new town. In the old town there is usually an impressive square with a town hall, a church, a theatre, a memorial or a fountain. Not many original buildings dating back to the 17th century or earlier have survived to the present day. They have either burnt down or been rebuilt.

The other part of the town, the new town is a vast housing estate, and often more people live there than in the original town. These new housing developments are meant to solve the housing problem in the country. But it will take many more years yet before everybody can get a flat instantly or can even choose where he would like to live. Some people, for instance, would like to have a fine view of the surrounding countryside from an upper floor of a town block, while others would prefer living on the second floor of a low-rise building so that they could keep an eye on their children nearby.

When the first people begin to move into a new housing estate, it is usually far from finished, and more blocks of flats are still under construction. But when the estate is finished, it is a pleasant place to live in.

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