We are enjoying this show, but Dabl is showing 2014, so we may be out of date.
Question 1- Reception room, sitting room, living room, snug? Now I get that last is a small “cozy” living room, but is there a difference between those others? So many names, and IIRC there might be at least one more…
We see a lot of big old houses with say 4-5 bedrooms, but only one bathroom (or shower room). Now those have been updated so it isn’t just that back in Georgian times it was uncommon to have more than one. Whole family, one bathroom? (once in a while there is a “loo” or “cloakroom” with just a toilet & sink off the utility room). Not all of them are like that, but quite a few.
Holiday let- is it the dream of every retired Brit couple to own a house in the Country with a rental? Are they everywhere?
Sitting rooms, lounges, drawing rooms, parlours and living rooms are all kinds of reception rooms. I’ve also seen dining rooms included under that umbrella.
Yes, this is fairly standard, not just in the UK, but most places, IME. Certainly is here in South Africa as well. An en suite in the main bedroom is catching on, but not the norm for anyone not rich.
It is fairly standard in older houses in the UK, even larger ones (which haven’t been redeveloped) - a master bathroom (generally upstairs) and a cloakroom downstairs. It should be said though that most modern new builds tend to have at least one additional bathroom/shower room en-suite to the master bedroom. There’s nothing we Brits like more than waiting our turn, even if it’s queuing for the loo.
To answer 3. there probably aren’t any more holiday lets in the UK by population than most other developed countries, although they have become a lot more common with the rise of easy lettings with AirBNB etc. A lot of the types you’ll see on Escape to the Country however are people moving from towns/cities and looking for a way to supplement their income in a form of semi-retirement, or to make up that they’ll be spending more travelling back to town for work. I think most don’t realise that being a landlord of any description is actually quite a lot of work.
Here in the northeast a majority of the houses were built with one bathroom. Most had a half bath added when put up for sale in the last 30 years or so. Yeah, we got a lot of old houses here in the mid-Atlantic.
Apparently Americans are weird like that–I’ve had people on Reddit find out our windows all have screens and they’re very intrigued about it. I think five seconds of video of a Texas mosquito swarm would settle the question quite handily. I think what’s going on is that the majority of Europe is at a considerably more northern latitude than most of the US so we have more bugs and more desire to avoid the fuckers. I’d also venture a guess that when you’re dealing with houses that are hundreds of years old it might be difficult to find off the shelf windows with included screens and the issue isn’t dire enough to bother doing custom fabrication. Maybe the UK just isn’t a terribly buggy place?
Having the actual toilet in a separate water closet from the bathtub/shower mitigates alot of the need for a 2nd “bathroom”. Though I still find a toilet in a room without a sink unsettling.