American Living in London for 12 Years: AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arsenal or Spurs?

So much sadness. Just a few years ago the question was Arsenal or Man U. Sigh. I do love Son Heung-Min though and 'arry Kane. Deli's kind of leaving me cold. I don't think he's done much at all since his long vacation away with an injury.

[Anonymous]

Bloody hell OP, 6 pages and still ghosting this thread?! Total bollocks.

[Anonymous]

^ Time difference - OP is probably sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you typically weekend or vacation?

What places outside of London would you recommend?

We live in North London so we spend a lot of time at Hampstead Heath or in Primrose Hill (big parks) with friends or at museums or our children's many activities. We vacation all over Europe and America and Asia for vacation!

My favourite places outside of London are the Cotswolds/Oxford, Windsor, and Leeds.

I’m the pp and I love the Cotswolds, too!

The Cotswolds - a hidden gem!

Well, not anymore ... DOH!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op tell about your housing situation. Everything seemed so crowded and small and London is outrageously expensive. What is your kitchen like? Also tell us about your medical care.

This
And your dental care.

[Anonymous]

I'm also an American living in the UK. I've only been here 8mos though. Right now, the UK is an odd hybrid of EU systems combined with 10 years of neglect of public institutions by right wing governments.

I live in the commuter belt about 50 miles outside London. There are amazing fast trains between cities, but getting around our small city is tough, as the bus system is unreliable.

My home is a three bedroom house with the same square footage as my 2BR condo back in DC. The main problem is the condition of the housing. It tends to be run down, with flimsy construction. Homes don't tend to have clothes dryers or dishwashers. I have never seen a garbage disposal here. Landlords are poorly regulated. I had several people refuse to rent to me because I have a child (!). Most homes come with gardens, though.

The state schools are more academically challenging here. (Yay!). Getting your child into a school, whether public or private, is a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am assuming your children attend independent schools. How are the fees compared to Sidwell?

Do you have private health insurance?

Do you employ Polish or Slovakians as household help?

I’m sure OP will answer, but generally UK independent schools are MUCH cheaper than in the US.

Take Thomas’s Battersea for example, which is the school little Prince George attends. The fees are something like 6,500 pounds a year. They go up to 7,200 when the kid is 8-13 years old.

https://www.thomas-s.co.uk/our-schools/battersea/admissions/fees-and-bursaries

Didn’t read through the entire post to see if someone corrected this, but those are termly fees, so multiply it by 3 for a full school year.

-NP/American living in London

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op tell about your housing situation. Everything seemed so crowded and small and London is outrageously expensive. What is your kitchen like? Also tell us about your medical care.

I’m not the OP, but a American expat in London. We live in Islington, about two miles from St Paul’s Cathedral. We are a family of 4 in just under 1000 sq ft with 1 bathroom and no clothes dryer. We do have a dishwasher. We’d be going insane during this lockdown save for the big back yard. We of £3100/month.

We have private insurance which has been amazing here. But my experience with the NHS has been good as well. I like having the two options.

[Anonymous]

British houses are smaller than their American counterparts. Quite often much smaller. Take this upmarket new build in an affluent London suburb: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68201313.html you can see from the floorplan how small the house really is. And because of the cooler and damper climate, houses were rarely built with large open rooms but rather multiple small closed rooms, which were easier to heat. It's only been recently that you started seeing the open kitchen-family room great room combination in newer properties.

On the other hand, there's also plenty of very large houses in Britain. Leagues of gorgeous old rectories, Victorian villas and Georgian houses all over Britain. But most British people do live in much smaller quarters than Americans do. Generally speaking you get more space the further away from London.

Housing quality varies, especially for new builds. Lots of cheaply built flats and terraced houses, but also amazingly well built bigger houses at the same time with solid masonry and slate, unlike in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:British houses are smaller than their American counterparts. Quite often much smaller. Take this upmarket new build in an affluent London suburb: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68201313.html you can see from the floorplan how small the house really is. And because of the cooler and damper climate, houses were rarely built with large open rooms but rather multiple small closed rooms, which were easier to heat. It's only been recently that you started seeing the open kitchen-family room great room combination in newer properties.

On the other hand, there's also plenty of very large houses in Britain. Leagues of gorgeous old rectories, Victorian villas and Georgian houses all over Britain. But most British people do live in much smaller quarters than Americans do. Generally speaking you get more space the further away from London.

Housing quality varies, especially for new builds. Lots of cheaply built flats and terraced houses, but also amazingly well built bigger houses at the same time with solid masonry and slate, unlike in the US.

It seems like most UK kitchens have those high gloss cabinets? I've never been a fan. Also, is central air/heat not a thing there? It's funny to me as an American to see those old-school radiators in each room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:British houses are smaller than their American counterparts. Quite often much smaller. Take this upmarket new build in an affluent London suburb: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68201313.html you can see from the floorplan how small the house really is. And because of the cooler and damper climate, houses were rarely built with large open rooms but rather multiple small closed rooms, which were easier to heat. It's only been recently that you started seeing the open kitchen-family room great room combination in newer properties.

On the other hand, there's also plenty of very large houses in Britain. Leagues of gorgeous old rectories, Victorian villas and Georgian houses all over Britain. But most British people do live in much smaller quarters than Americans do. Generally speaking you get more space the further away from London.

Housing quality varies, especially for new builds. Lots of cheaply built flats and terraced houses, but also amazingly well built bigger houses at the same time with solid masonry and slate, unlike in the US.

It seems like most UK kitchens have those high gloss cabinets? I've never been a fan. Also, is central air/heat not a thing there? It's funny to me as an American to see those old-school radiators in each room.

The high gloss cabinet is a personal preference. Plenty don't and have lovely wood cabinets. This house is a certain style and wouldn't appeal to everyone. Here's several other listings in the same village:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-87821129.html

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68928168.html

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68207733.html

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67445643.html

Having said that, the wood "farmhouse kitchen" is definitely a bit of a dated look these days, just like in America, with the younger generation favoring the Scandinavian modern look.

Central air is very rare. Only maybe the most expensive properties especially renovated townhouses in London would have them. It rarely gets that hot to require a central air (although that may change with global warming). The old school radiators is steam heat fueled by a water boiler, which is much more energy efficient than electric heat and remains quite popular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:British houses are smaller than their American counterparts. Quite often much smaller. Take this upmarket new build in an affluent London suburb: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68201313.html you can see from the floorplan how small the house really is. And because of the cooler and damper climate, houses were rarely built with large open rooms but rather multiple small closed rooms, which were easier to heat. It's only been recently that you started seeing the open kitchen-family room great room combination in newer properties.

On the other hand, there's also plenty of very large houses in Britain. Leagues of gorgeous old rectories, Victorian villas and Georgian houses all over Britain. But most British people do live in much smaller quarters than Americans do. Generally speaking you get more space the further away from London.

Housing quality varies, especially for new builds. Lots of cheaply built flats and terraced houses, but also amazingly well built bigger houses at the same time with solid masonry and slate, unlike in the US.

It seems like most UK kitchens have those high gloss cabinets? I've never been a fan. Also, is central air/heat not a thing there? It's funny to me as an American to see those old-school radiators in each room.

Brit here who now lives here. Kitchen design (and design generally) is much more modern. The shaker cabinet, subway tile thing is unusual and I've seen it in only in a few houses where I think they are trying to emulate that style from the US. Much more common is the IKEA look, at the cheaper end, and German or Italian kitchens like Poggenpohl at the higher end. Most houses have what we call central heating, but it just means a centrally controlled system for the radiators, which you then adjust in each room as needed. I actually love this kind of heating! Most houses do not have a/c, generally because of the climate - it is rarely needed. For maybe 2 or 3 weeks a year you might wish you had it, but otherwise it wouldn't be needed. It is also rarely humid, even when it is hot.
House building materials are also really different. Here, houses are built with a lot of wood - they are framed, but in the UK breeze blocks are used - big bricks made of cement - and then inside walls are plastered, there is no drywall.

I grew up in a London suburb and we had a big house and garden. Not huge by US standards but it felt very spacious, and it was pretty big for London - it was about 4000sqft. This is not it, but this is a similar house in a similar suburb:
https://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/53957313?search_identifier=d05856ad99421d50318c008a7f69232e

This is similar to the first place I bought with my husband where we had 2 kids before moving here:

https://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/54442173?search_identifier=fc55af0384b0b12b2e7a3ac6cc932c7b

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:British houses are smaller than their American counterparts. Quite often much smaller. Take this upmarket new build in an affluent London suburb: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68201313.html you can see from the floorplan how small the house really is. And because of the cooler and damper climate, houses were rarely built with large open rooms but rather multiple small closed rooms, which were easier to heat. It's only been recently that you started seeing the open kitchen-family room great room combination in newer properties.

On the other hand, there's also plenty of very large houses in Britain. Leagues of gorgeous old rectories, Victorian villas and Georgian houses all over Britain. But most British people do live in much smaller quarters than Americans do. Generally speaking you get more space the further away from London.

Housing quality varies, especially for new builds. Lots of cheaply built flats and terraced houses, but also amazingly well built bigger houses at the same time with solid masonry and slate, unlike in the US.

Sevenoaks is not a London suburb. Hence, the property price! It is true that people commute into London from Kent but the equivalent is like living in Middleburg VA.

[Anonymous]

I've lived in London and other countries overseas. I've gotten the most comprehensive medical care outside the U.S. Every doctor that I went to wanted me to come back after my course of antibiotics for tonsilitis (London), ear infections (Kuwait, Belgium). I looked at the doctors like they have 2 heads. Come back? Doctors in the U.S. rarely want you to come back unless the infection and pain continue. The price was good too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:British houses are smaller than their American counterparts. Quite often much smaller. Take this upmarket new build in an affluent London suburb: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68201313.html you can see from the floorplan how small the house really is. And because of the cooler and damper climate, houses were rarely built with large open rooms but rather multiple small closed rooms, which were easier to heat. It's only been recently that you started seeing the open kitchen-family room great room combination in newer properties.

On the other hand, there's also plenty of very large houses in Britain. Leagues of gorgeous old rectories, Victorian villas and Georgian houses all over Britain. But most British people do live in much smaller quarters than Americans do. Generally speaking you get more space the further away from London.

Housing quality varies, especially for new builds. Lots of cheaply built flats and terraced houses, but also amazingly well built bigger houses at the same time with solid masonry and slate, unlike in the US.

Sevenoaks is not a London suburb. Hence, the property price! It is true that people commute into London from Kent but the equivalent is like living in Middleburg VA.

Wrong the direct train to Charing X takes 22 mins. That's a lot quicker than Middleburg VA to DC