- Florida native Brittany Hayes, 31, moved to England together with her British fiancé in 2019.
- The couple purchased a $365,000 three-bedroom house that hasn’t been touched since 1971.
- As they renovate, Hayes has chronicled 4 issues in British houses that Americans would deem odd.
Brittany Hayes grew up in sunny Orlando, Florida, however she’s now a home-owner in grey Birmingham, England.
Hayes met her fiancé in 2013 whereas they each have been instructing English in South Korea. They adopted one another to jobs in Japan and at last to his hometown, within the UK’s West Midlands area, in 2019.
This 12 months, the couple bought a $365,000, three-bedroom house, with a dreamy backyard of plum, pear, and cherry timber. Ever since, they have been documenting their journey at @brickhousechronicles on TikTok.
A video Hayes posted in September documented the options of a traditional British house which can be baffling to her and different Americans. It earned 700,000 likes and over 5,000 feedback from defensive Brits and flabbergasted Americans.
“I’ve been getting used to the culture for so long, so some of it feels normal. But it’s a little tricky to figure out at first,” Hayes, who now works in advertising and marketing, informed Business Insider.
She broke down the structure and interior-design decisions — at the very least in old-school English abodes — that stand out to her probably the most.
Separate taps for cold and warm water
A typical function in British houses can be one in every of its most irritating, Hayes stated.
An overwhelming variety of previous sinks have two faucet heads, one which Hayes stated runs “extremely hot” and one other that runs “bitterly cold.” The setup power a hand-washer to dart backwards and forwards between excessive temperatures, determined for a center floor.
Hayes stated she believes the separate taps have one thing to do with an outdated fashion of plumbing that’s nonetheless prevalent as a result of England has so many aged houses.
Courtesy of Brittany Hayes
Newer homebuilders have phased out the two-headed system; the sinks within the Seventies home that Hayes and her fiancé purchased have a extra trendy one-faucet system.
No shops within the loos
Americans used to blow-drying their hair or charging an electrical toothbrush within the toilet can be hard-pressed to do the identical in England.
It’s a “cultural fear” that there is an excessive amount of water within the room to securely have electrical shops, Hayes stated, despite the fact that American houses routinely have them.
Hayes stated she arrange an arrogance in her visitor room to make up for the toilet deficiency.
The resistance to including shops has her stumped, she added.
“If we can do it in the US, there must be a way we can do it in the UK,” she stated.
Washing machines within the kitchens
A British kitchen usually comes with an additional equipment: a washer.
The models, which are sometimes smaller than American machines and haven’t got a companion dryer, are normally tucked below the counter.
Courtesy of Brittany Hayes
Hayes stated it is taken a while to get used to her new laundry room.
“It’s a weird thing to have your clean clothes in a room with a lot of food smells,” she stated.
The smaller dimension of the drum additionally took some adjusting. In bigger American machines, Hayes stated, she may do laundry as soon as every week. Now, they throw in a load almost each different day.
No air-con
The majority of British houses haven’t got air-con, Hayes stated, and its residents are “happy to suffer” throughout summer season’s most brutal warmth waves. They’ll sleep with ice packs or forgo garments round the home.
That was not an choice for Hayes. The very first buy of their new house was an AC unit for his or her bed room.
“It’s just essential to me,” she stated.
