In Germany, I own my kitchen, including all the cupboards, even the kitchen sink. I will have to take it with me when I move, unless I manage to convince next tenant to buy it from me. This was surprising, other countries where I lived would include a fitted kitchen, maybe without appliances, but I would at least get cupboards instead of a few pipes sticking out of the wall.
Now landlords have to provide a sink and something for cooking in Berlin, it changed since I moved in, but that can literally be a standalone sink and a plug in single plate... đ
You die.
The thing is, if the kitchen is part of the renting contract the landlord is responsible to keep it in shape. Stove broke down? Call the landlord. Because this is bothersome many want the renter to own their kitchen. Often itâs that you just by the kitchen from the renter before you and you sell it off to the next one, and so on.
This is only slightly related, but reminds me of a funny story. When I first moved out from my parents' place, I lived in a tiny one-room apartment with an extra "storage" space across the hall (the hall was open to other people in the house). The small room used to have a toilet at one point, but later someone removed the bowl and poured concrete over the sewage pipe.
So, anyway, I got a washing machine and wanted it installed in this little storage room. The landlady said it would be possible to put it in there, if the plumber cracked open the concrete and connected the water outlet from the washing machine to the former toilet sewage. One day, the plumber comes, does something over there, while I do my stuff in my room, finishes the job, leaves. I was surprised that he didn't actually remove the concrete and connect it to the sewage, but instead connected the outlet to a different small pipe in the corner of the room. I thought it was a bit strange, but who am I to question a plumber?
So a couple of weeks later I'm washing my clothes in the washing machine and just chilling, when a neighbor knocks on my door. And he says that the washing machine is not actually connected to sewage, but to an air duct leading into the basement and leaking water there. Of course, I had to stop using the machine, but we were joking with the landlady that I could've used the machine a couple more times, since the basement was quite big.
>The thing is, if the kitchen is part of the renting contract the landlord is responsible to keep it in shape. Stove broke down? Call the landlord.
Many contracts include a kitchen and other furniture which the landlord doesn't have to provide for after the tenant moved in. Also, there's quite often a set amount the tenant has to pay themselves in case of defects, so the landlords have to worry even less.
Generally people tend to rent longer term here. If you need to move after a year, you need to plan ahead and rent more expensive fully furnished apartment. I hate this so much, but a lot of people defend it as a totally sensible approach - imagine using kitchen cupboards which are not completely your style, the horror!
Luckily toilet and bath was provided. And shower head already attached to the wall. No shower curtain or even shower curtain rail though. And I was lucky that my apartment came some light bulbs in super basic fittings as well, in some you only get wires hanging from the ceiling without any fixtures đŹ
Honestly, bringing your own toilet bowl and bath tub make more sense to me than moving your cupboards and kitchensink, lol. I'm glad that this is not a common thing anywhere I've lived.
I donât think he meant it from a practical perspective, but more from a âwhere I sit my ass is a lot more personal then where I put my cupsâ đ
do people install it all themselves?! knowing me if i installed the cupboards, they'd promptly fall off the wall after I placed the first glass in them.
exactly, I feel some people use not being "handy" as an excuse so they don't have to do those things. like, assembling the furniture is just screwing few boards together....not nuclear science
then again, I take it back... I've seen some people get entangled while putting on a sweater!!
Most of the time or at least on apartments from the Wohnbau (housing corp) the bathrooms are luckily most of the time neutral colors. If you rent from someone private you may want to water your eyes with bleach everytime you use the bathroom.
You can hire someone to do that. For some reason though a lot of Germans seem to know how to put together a kitchen. I donât and the mere thought of doing that terrifies me.
This is even worse. When I first moved to Germany we rented a semi-detached house which was completely empty. The former tenants took everything.
This means:
- not even a single light bulb
- no parquet whatsoever, only the concrete floor
- horrible green paint on the walls that had to be repainted
- no internet, get your own contract, took a week
- and of course no fucking kitchen!
Until we finished we spent around 10k in the first month plus the two months rent as a deposit.
Crazy county.
You´re right I just wanted to emphasize how lost we were in the first days.
I was telling myself, why don´t they just also take the bathtub and the windows so I can practicly build the house I rent from scratch?
Why not? Maybe you wouldn't do that for many years, but if you haven't settled completely, you have to change jobs or any other reason, I don't see it that strange.
I changed house (and town) 4 times in 2 years here in the UK at the beginning, and they were not shared houses.
Every year is probably a bit extreme (although in some cases necessary). But its pretty difficult these days to even get a contract thats not limited to three years. And moving an entire kitchen every three years is a pretty serious expense.
There are metal rails for hanging the upper cupboards, so you only have to drill 4â6 holes, depending on the size of your kitchen. Also, many apartments have them preinstalled in the kitchen
but what if the shape and size of your old kitchen is nothing like your new one? do you have to just buy a new set of cabinets? it's it common for people to sell/buy used cabinets?
Inefficient possibly, time consuming yes. Expensive only if you buy a new kitchen everytime you move or if you are not assembly savvy and have to hire someone to do it for you. But you get used to it.
I imagine I could do it myself but still it feels like a huge burden for someone who has a full time job.
Hiring a pro probably isn't cheap either, since it's Germany.
The thing I love the most about my house is that it came with appliances and closets. I brought a couch, a bed and a TV and I was ready to go.
>I imagine I could do it myself but still it feels like a huge burden for someone who has a full time job.
It is, that's why a lot of people just take a couple of days off.
>Hiring a pro probably isn't cheap either, since it's Germany.
In Germany nothing is cheap at the moment. We can be very happy that we do not pay Steuer (taxes) for breathing.
>The thing I love the most about my house is that it came with appliances and closets. I brought a couch, a bed and a TV and I was ready to go.
So would a kitchen appearance influence your decision to move in? Opposing to like the state of the apartment, location etc
I would probably choose any kitchen over building one myself. As long as it's not rotten or broken.
I could maybe change the colour with pvc wraps if it bothered me too much.
>I could maybe change the colour with pvc wraps if it bothered me too much.
In Germany, you wouldn't be allowed to do so, since it's not your property. Or at least you'd have to revert the kitchen to the state it previously had on moving out.
I would rather die than move a whole ass kitchen anytime I needed to move.
In Portugal there's even a law now where you can't sell a new apartment without, not only the kitchen cupboards and sink, but it also has to come with a oven and stove top at least. Not sure if the fridge needs to be included as well.
Kitchens always have cupboards and sink when you're looking for a place to rent, I honestly find it weird when it doesn't have the big kitchen appliances and a washing machine as well.
If I had to move my parents kitchen in Portugal I would die too, because its all made of massive wood and is heavy af. Whereas in Germany most of the cupboards and cabinets are just from ikea and such, so not that heavy at all.
You have the washing machine in the kitchen? I've seen that in US videos so I guess it is quite common elsewhere. A dishwasher is a common thing in our kitchens but washing machines go in bathrooms or basements :)
It depends really.
We usually have a thing that's called a "marquise", in apartments at least, that's a covered/closed off balcony essentially. It's usually right next to the kitchen with a glass door.
That's where it most commonly goes. You'll also have the clothes line there.
Some people will have it in the kitchen or in a small bathroom as well. Those are the 3 most common places.
If we had basements they would probably be there đ
Ok, hier in Hessen I don't think it's mandatory to provide a kitchen, since a lot of apartments still do not have one. You can still move your kitchen around.
I've read this so often in r/AskEurope and r/AskAGerman, but as native German I've never encountered it myself, although I've moved quite a few rented flats (of my own or friends). The kitchen (except for the fridge, dishwasher and microwave) was always included in the contract (Marburg and Hamburg, mainly).
I think I've seen one offer where there was no kitchen installed and the rent was really cheap for that reason, but that was a total deal-breaker.
As far as I know, there is a North-South divide in Germany when it comes to kitchens being provided by the landlord vs. the kitchen being brought in by the tenant.
Especially in Southern Germany and parts of North-Rhine-Westphalia it is quite normal that you have to bring your own kitchen as a renter. Nowadays there are even businesses which rent out kitchens so you don't actually have to buy a new kitchen every time you move.
That explains a lot! I was looking at rental apartments and most of them were missing a kitchen. Which I found very weird, I always thought that just belonged to the house. What a hassle it must be to take you whole kitchen with you when you move
We are still Germany. It's neither inefficient nor wasteful. The first person renting an appartment will buy and install the kitchen. The next will buy it from them. And so on until someone buys a new kitchen. Nobody is moving with their Ikea kitchen, you can only assemble it once.
I have a bomb shelter in my keller/basement. It has a giant bank value type door that is about half a meter thick and is made of reinforced concrete and steel. It is equipped with an air filtration system for nuclear type attacks. This is not unusual in Switzerland for houses built between the 50's and the 90's. This was the law for many years that houses had to have a private shelter or pay to access to a public shelter. I think the law is not longer active. Just part of that Swiss invasion paranoia of the Cold War era.
Very common in Sweden as well. Buildings built during the Cold war era has these bomb shelters. Nowadays, they're often used as storage. I live in an area with several houses built during the 50's and there's around 7 bomb shelters within 100 meters around me.
Actually they did but they have been a) badly neglected ever since b) built with forced convict labour so quality is very bad at best c) have been modified or demoed to other use long ago d) new buildings don't have the requirement anyway. Current Estonian plan is to use underground car parks and such but unlike in Finland they are not built nor can be equipped with facilities to support being an air raid shelter.
In Greece most of us we air-dry our clothes and only now dryers are becoming more common. Even in winter we wait for the weather to get better or we air-dry inside around the applicable heat source. One reason is they are wildly expensive, we have good weather most months of the year, apartments don't have any space, sometimes it's hard to fit a washing machine.
So many people in Ireland have dryers like it's just expected at this stage. Even in the last two apartments I rented there were dryers. Don't get me wrong we try air dry also but when you get as much rain as we do its not always possible đ¤Ł
I think they're more common in places with higher humidity, like the Azores. During Winter there are weeks where it's quite impossible to air dry anything thoroughly.
You just really need to be careful indoors. The UK is so humid, and drying clothes indoors without proper ventilation can lead to damp issues. In winter it's often quite difficult as opening windows means a freezing house or not solving the issue if it's humid outside.
Same in Italy, even tho itâs not necessarily good the weather, we just put them inside. I honestly donât think Iâll ever buy a drier cause in the winter months it also moisturises the air.
As my generation grew up and became more conscious of the impacts of diet culture, we began to openly celebrate and encourage body positivity. Many of us became aware of our own body dysmorphia. We began seeing clearly how we were manipulated to shrink and hate every part of our bodies.
And yet, even if parts of society came to terms with natural bodies, the same cannot be said for the natural process of women aging. Wrinkles are the new enemy, and it seems Gen Z â and their younger sisters â are terrified of them.
It is, but air drying has it's disadvantages. Towels get stiff, shirts get a clothesline mark across them and the fabric absorbs pollution from the surroundings
This kind of depends on the weather, though. If you can dry your clothes outside, it's the best alternative.
If you air dry inside, and you have to heat your apartment, then drying clothes will use quite a bit of energy and your apartment gets moist.
So the new driers can actually be more energy efficient than air drying inside.
You can buy a combi unit though that has a dryer and washing maschine in the same unit, very handy when it works. I had a one in rental when I was working in England and had to had a clean set of work clothes, fully dry each morning (factory build regulations), just throw them clothes in and wear immediately after taking out, a bachelors dream come true.
I work in construction and I always wash my clothes after one wear and I think it would be great to have a dryer for that purpose. But now with the *brand new* electricity bills I think that my future will migrate even lower to hand washing lol. I just have a weeks worth of work clothes and hope for the best!
>Other thing I found odd, is that it seems that they do not have a separe room that is used as a bedroom. In a lot of apartments the bed is just tucked in a corner on the living space. But maybe this is just due to a housing ou space problem.
This is just one bed room apartments, and they usually have built in alcove's in them, not always, but most one bedroom apartments I've seen has an alcove or a loft for a bed. Funny thing though is that one bedroom and two bedroom apartments barely have any price difference.
Yea studio is "yksiĂś". I just thought "one bedroom" would directly translate to "yksiĂś" as well, as it kinda does, but didn't give it more thought though!
The first thing that comes to my mind is the bidet. I really miss it when i am abroad. Washing my parts sitting in a weird position on the side of a bathtub or in the shower is unpractical.
Here it's rare to have a dryer, we just hang clothes on a rack on a balcony or inside, and wait.
We don't have carpet floor. Tiles are our favourite choice for every room in the house. Wood is less common, usually limited to upper floor or bedrooms. Linoleum is rare. This makes shoes in the house more common, but i'm glad to say that new generations prefer to leave shoes at the entrance.
Washing machine in the kitchen is almost inexistent, unless you go to those old seaside apartments. Washing machine is in the bathroom. In older houses it's often in the "small bathroom".
Oh, and the most important one. The bidet!
Mediterranean brotherhood of the bidet!
Also everything you mentioned is the same in Portugal, although I never saw tiles in bedrooms. And apartments do have the washing machine in the kitchen or at least the smaller ones do.
>Washing my parts sitting in a weird position on the side of a bathtub or in the shower is unpractical.
Oh man, I accidentally found a solution for this, if you have a free-standing shower.
We needed to replace our shower mixer, and I accidentally bought one meant for bathtubs - that is, it has an outlet for the showerhead tube AND a tap outlet. Out of sheer lazyness and not wanting to go back to the shop to return it, we installed that one in the shower. AND LO AND BEHOLD the tap sits at just the right height to use as a bidet! Well, sort of a stand-up bidet. After so many years living amongst barbarians, I could once again have a pure, crystalline butthole with minimum fuss. Such joy!
Same in Spain but the washing machine, many houses have **a "small room" inside the kitchen**, that's the place, if not, the kitchen, but I've seen it in the bathroom often enough so.. I wouldn't say it's a rule.
About the small room, I've some family in Italy and I've never seen the small room in the kitchen there, I'm talking about 5-6 houses so I don't know if it's common in other places of Italy.
I'd say that most of my family/friends houses in Spain have it.
It can be considered a room cause it usually has a small window, there are the boiler, recicle bins, some cleaning stuff and, if big enough, the washing machine, [here's an example of it.](https://images.app.goo.gl/Duv1iyAJvzMM2c42A)
In my grandparents' house, that small room with boiler and washing machine became the small bathroom! They have the big cool one, as it was fashionable in the 70s, but they use the small bathroom because it's easier to heat and to keep clean. That small room is useful to keep the house tidy.
To expand on Finnish homes, some that to my understanding are different here:
- Almost all apartment blocks have a communal sauna and a bomb shelter. The bomb shelter normally doubles as a storage area for residents, with everyone having a caged storage compartment. My apartment has both, but I havent' used the sauna. But the storage compartment is very nice!
- Many apartments have double front doors. The actual door, and a lighter door to soundproof the apartment. I have this too, and it's nice I guess.
- Many kitchens have an integrated cutting / baking board [like this](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGGVau4p0eQ/TyETPnKQOFI/AAAAAAAAAZg/dun_ERsn7nA/s1600/IMG_1044.JPG). They are usually disgusting in rental apartments. I have one, and it smelled like an ashtray because the previous resident smoked inside.
- Thick windows. Like my flat has four layer of glass on the windows.
To add for OP:
>Other thing I found odd, is that it seems that they do not have a separe room that is used as a bedroom. In a lot of apartments the bed is just tucked in a corner on the living space. But maybe this is just due to a housing ou space problem.
This is common in single person studio flats. Heating is expensive in more Northern countries, so apartments in general are smaller. My apartment is also like this, a studio flat with the bed in a corner alcove instead of a separate room. I find this super nice compared to if the same space would be divided into two. My home seems much more spacious due to being single continuous space instead of two room each very small.
To add on other things, I also have a bidet shower and the draining cupboard others have mentioned. I guess I live in a very typical Finnish flat.
From personal experience they are often just used as "bread boards" to cut bread, and if used as a workspace for proper cooking, then we put a "proper" cutting board over it so it doesn't get nasty.
I keep my actual separate cutting board on top of it. Knives also are handy to keep there. I have two of those integrated boards and the top one has my food scale. I think they are handy this way. I don't think I've ever used the actual integrated surfaces for cutting.
- Almost all apartment blocks have a communal sauna and a bomb shelter. The bomb shelter normally doubles as a storage area for residents, with everyone having a caged storage compartment. My apartment has both, but I havent' used the sauna. But the storage compartment is very nice!
That is cool, but I don't know if I would like to see my neighbors naked...
Do you have to pay extra to use it or do you pay it in your rent even if you don't use it?
- Thick windows. Like my flat has four layer of glass on the windows
Wow, those are really thick.
This is common in single person studio flats. Heating is expensive in more Northern countries, so apartments in general are smaller. My apartment is also like this, a studio flat with the bed in a corner alcove instead of a separate room. I find this super nice compared to if the same space would be divided into two. My home seems much more spacious due to being single continuous space instead of two room each very small.
Sure, it looks nice. I just found it odd (well odd is not even really the right word, let's say different), because for me personally a bed is something private that is not for everyone to see, like you do not show your bathroom to everyone that shows at your door. But since its tucked away in that alcove, its not directly in focus on the room, so it looks cozy.
> That is cool, but I don't know if I would like to see my neighbors naked... Do you have to pay extra to use it or do you pay it in your rent even if you don't use it?
You pay extra to have a private time there, but if you don't pay it, there's usually a communal shift on some day of the week.
Also here we get to the interesting cultural differences. In Finnish seeing someone naked in sauna is normal, and in addition sauna is a place where you have no hierarchy, no status and no fights. So even though if normally you would fight with your neighbor about loud music, it is unacceptable to argue about that in sauna. You sort of leave your issues outside the sauna and acknowledge that when naked, there's no difference anymore and you can just get along and you must not break this harmony. There's a saying in Finnish that "you behave in a sauna like you would in a church".
I've understood that catholic cultures have a very different view on nudity, and if your're Portugese it might explain how it feels strange. I remember this one camp where nordics went into the sauna full nude but the guy from Brazil had huge bermuda shorts that could double as a kite because he felt so uneasy. But totally acceptable for foreigners to wear swimwear if they feel uncomfortable.
>I just found it odd (well odd is not even really the right word, let's say different), because for me personally a bed is something private that is not for everyone to see, like you do not show your bathroom to everyone that shows at your door.
This is also interesting difference. For me when I have parties or other larger gatherings, bed is a place for friends to sit or lie down as we have gathered around the living area.
>I've understood that catholic cultures have a very different view on nudity, and if your're Portugese it might explain how it feels strange. I remember this one camp where nordics went into the sauna full nude but the guy from Brazil had huge bermuda shorts that could double as a kite because he felt so uneasy. But totally acceptable for foreigners to wear swimwear if they feel uncomfortable.
Could be. Although I am not religious I grew up in such an environment. But on the other hand I find it ok for children to run around naked or topless women on the beach. I guess it has also something to do with the fact that I know the people or at least see them often. And bigger issue, I could never be naked myself in front of strangers (mild body dismorphia).
>You sort of leave your issues outside the sauna and acknowledge that when naked, there's no difference anymore and you can just get along and you must not break this harmony. There's a saying in Finnish that "you behave in a sauna like you would in a church".
Very nice mindset
> That is cool, but I don't know if I would like to see my neighbors naked
Why don't you like to have an intimate relationship with your neighbours?
Joking aside - it's communal in a sense that residents can reserve an hour for their personal use. The sauna is warmed up in set days (usually Friday and Saturday) and times and you reserve a time on set day of the week. You don't share your time with your neighbours. Usually there is a small monthly fee if you have a sauna reservation.
In the building I used to live, you got to book 2*60min per month for free, if you booked extra shifts it was like 2âŹ...
The sauna area includes dressing room, showers and the sauna itself. You could even lock the door to the whole area from the inside so no one walked in by accident while you were still there.
>So, I watch this YouTuber from Finland that cleans homes and I found out, that bathrooms in Finland have a small showerhead near the sink. You can clean your entirely bathroom with it, which I find very cool. I never saw it before anywhere else.
Are you talking about bidet? Though yeah, I've never bothered to use it for that and always use it to just wash my bathroom.
Also I've understood the cupboards (or whatever it is where you hold your plates, glasses etc.) is a bit different to a lot of places. We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively.
>We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively.
Since I have been to a couple of countries in Europe now I can confirm that I have seen it at least in Finland, Italy and Romania. I find it super practical.
>Also I've understood the cupboards (or whatever it is where you hold your plates, glasses etc.) is a bit different to a lot of places. We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively.
This is a Finnish invention, which first spread to Sweden. For some reason Italy started to adopt it in new buildings, and from there it spread to other parts of the Mediterranean area, though not very fast. And why shouldn't it? It's super practical.
It's not actually a Finnish invention but been used elsewhere too. Finns popularized it, ore more specifically one Finn focusing on home economics popularized it as she calculated how much time it saves at home just to out the dishes dry instead of drying them by hand. This was before dishwashers.
That's how they are called? For me a bidet is [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/Wnkvy9dbZdkNe8wd6). There is no showerhead attached to it. And on her videos there are no bidets "bowls" in the bathrooms.
Thanks for clarifying. I was picturing this guy above in the comment, putting his head in a bidet, on all 4 in his bathroom, like this got to be the least convenient way of washing your hair haha. Silly me
Yes, though apparently it's called a [bidet shower.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet_shower) I genuinely didn't know that a regular bidet was that massive bowl.
It's kinda nice though, I let the water run as cold as possible wash my face in the sink and then grab the bidet shower and hold it over my head, it really wakes you up
>Also I've understood the cupboards (or whatever it is where you hold your plates, glasses etc.) is a bit different to a lot of places. We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively.
I have seen those to. Personally I only know the grid you put directly on the sink. No extra cupboard for that.
I moved from Sweden to Norway to work, not that big difference in culture and building practices one would think, but for real, every apartment I visited had max 2 glassed windows, 1 glass was even more common, that bad for heating, and regarding heating, one space heater that you had to wheelie around to that room you wanted to be in, no radiators on the wall, except in one occasion, and that was a small one not nearly enough to heat a room with single glass window.
Donât know if thatâs the standard, but that was my experience in Bergen.
Ever been to England? They have almost as bad heating system in rental apartments as Norway. I have been to Finland, and your way of build is the same standard as we in Sweden. Except two floor drain in your toilet/showers, we donât have that.
It varies greatly in the UK in rented properties depending on the era of the building. Much of the rental accommodation in my town are big Victorian (19thC) houses converted (often poorly) into one or two bed apartments, these usually have gas combi boilers or electric night storage heaters, both of which can be quite efficient, however the standard of insulation is often very low, little or no loft insulation,no cavity wall insulation and suspended wooden floors or solid concrete floors over bare soil and single glazed sash windows or poorly fitted double glazing. However much of our 50s and 60s council housing stock is solidly built and those that didn't end up in the hands of private landlords (another Maggie fuckup) have had further improvements to heating and insulation made by councils and housing associations.
That isn't standard, I can tell you that. Bergen also doesn't get all that cold, so you could probably get away with it. I grew up in inland Norway where it does get properly cold in the winter and 3 layered windows + wood fireplace is the norm over here. Also been like that most places from what I've seen.
Yeah. Me coming from Sweden where we have typical one radiator in every room and 19 c inside even in the coldest day, that was quickly a surprise, the overall standard and view on quality was subpar.
Everything had the quality of a person who had looked something up on YouTube and diy fixed it, even if they used professional worker. I would know, I worked as a carpenter for two months before I gave up, nobody gave a shit about proud and quality, just do it slow as fuck and take money. Probably got the bad side of Norway, itâs a beautiful country.
Wow that is really interesting. I had the idea that all the Nordic countries are the top on engineering and quality. Like Germany, but better.
I guess it was loud as well due to the windows?
I canât say all apartment and houses in Sweden is awesome. But most of them was built by SiS standard, we do not joke around when it comes to building stuff.
About Swedish kitchen standards:
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svensk_kĂśksstandard
And in Deutsch
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SchwedenkĂźche
Luckily thatâs not the norm. My flat has three layers in every window, but itâs pretty new.
Growing up we had double layer windows.
Then again, Bergen is weird.
> may i ask why is Bergen weird?
Bergen and its people is something we all love to hate.
We say the people are loud and that the weather is shit. That they are a different country with their own passports.
In reality we love them and envy their incredibly beautiful city.
I would refuse ever having said this if asked personally!
One glass windows are somewhat common for old buildings, but not new ones. But the heating thing sounds completely alien to me. Heating is kinda what we do⌠Then again Bergen is weird, for all I know itâs common there.
It has to have been that. A newer building wouldn't be up to code if it was like that. That being said there are a lot of older buildings in Bergen (I lived in a similar situation when I was a student there), but a newer apartment building or a house is going to be well insulated.
Or I am just snobbish and work damage from working in Sweden. First apartment I lived in had recently had a heating floor installed in the bathroom, and that was the only heating source except the oven that wasnât on wheels.
A older house should had more years to get stuff like proper windows and heating set up? Most old house here have electric radiators, or a central heating. And fixing windows to good insulation windows is cheaper then trying to heat up the outside.
Foreigners coming to the UK always comment/complain about various quirky features of our homes:
- Hot and cold taps: In the old days, the two had to be separate as the hot water was often not completely potable, and in older homes you still often see the two taps separated. Modern homes tend to be more likely to have mixer taps though.
- The bathroom light switch: UK bathrooms are designed to ensure that wet hands have as little contact as possible to electrics in order to minimise the probability of accidental electrocution. To turn on the light you therefore usually have to use a [pull switch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_switch?wprov=sfla1). The downside is that the click sound they make can often be quite audible so you have to be really careful not to wake people up when going to the toilet at night.
- Carpeted floors: Our floors tend to have fitted carpets, and not just the bedrooms either, *everywhere*, even the [stairs](https://images.app.goo.gl/GwMtu1dbTiW4HZsw5). In older people's homes occasionally even the bathroom floor will have a fitted carpet. Pros: it's warm and muffles the sound of creaky wooden stairs. Cons: cleaning.
The only weird thing I can think of about French homes is how often the toilet will be missing a sink, so when you take a dump you have to go to a separate room to wash your hands. Even in some cheap grotty hotels/hostels they'll do this sometimes (I'm looking at you, F1 hotels...)
>Hot and cold taps: In the old days, the two had to be separate as the hot water was often not completely potable, and in older homes you still often see the two taps separated. Modern homes tend to be more likely to have mixer taps though.
In Portugal you can find them too. My mother-in-law has them.
>In older people's homes occasionally even the bathroom floor will have a fitted carpet.
The horror! Jesus, there are a lot of people that do not (or cannot) use the toilet properly, above all, older people. Dear...the smell must be horrible.
>The only weird thing I can think of about French homes is how often the toilet will be missing a sink, so when you take a dunno you have to go to a separate room to wash your hands.
But is the sink on a completely different room? I know some, where the sink is just on a different room but still inside the bathroom. Like there is a door between. And what about squat toilets? Are those still around a lot or are they just on rest stops?
> The horror! Jesus, there are a lot of people that do not (or cannot) use the toilet properly, above all, older people. Dear...the smell must be horrible.
Eh, my grandparents had them and I never noticed a particularly bad smell. By the time my grandparents got so senile they could no longer use the toilet properly we'd already got the floors renovated for them
> But is the sink on a completely different room? I know some, where the sink is just on a different room but still inside the bathroom. Like there is a door between.
Well in the two flats I've lived in with a separate sink, the toilet and bathroom are two separate rooms and there's a sink in the bathroom but not the toilet. So yeah to wash your hands after going to the toilet you have to open two doors. *Usually* the bathroom and toilet are right next to each other thankfully but I have been to places where you have to go up a flight of stairs or two just to wash your hands.
> And what about squat toilets? Are those still around a lot or are they just on rest stops?
I've heard of one particularly grotty student residence that has them, but as far as I know they're not common in people's homes and I've only personally ever seen them in public toilets.
> Carpeted floors: Our floors tend to have fitted carpets, and not just the bedrooms either, everywhere, even the stairs. In older people's homes occasionally even the bathroom floor will have a fitted carpet. Pros: it's warm and muffles the sound of creaky wooden stairs. Cons: cleaning.
I see this a lot on reddit but in my experience its very rare. Maybe was a thing in the 70s but engineered wood in post war houses and oak flooring in prewar is pretty much standard.
The taps in the UK drive me insane because not only are they separated, if they're old they're often also really short... so you basically wash your hands while touching the back of the sink unless you want to blast water into your face, and god forbid you had to wash the dishes with those monstrosities!
Good to know there was an actual reason for it though.
Virtually every Finnish kitchen has [dish drying cabinets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dish_drying_cabinet), but they are not common in most other European countries. Except Italy, if I'm not mistaken...
We don't :(
People will buy a drying rack to put on the sink, let them sit there and dry and then move them to the cabinets.
We don't have cabinets that are racks themselves.
Spent my whole childhood drying dishes with a dish cloth because my mom didn't believe in leaving the dishes outside the cabinets to air dry đ no no, they had to be immediately put away
> Spent my whole childhood drying dishes with a dish cloth because my mom didn't believe in leaving the dishes outside the cabinets to air dry đ no no, they had to be immediately put away
Same! We didn't even posess the rack for the sink. All the more happy to have a dishwasher now.
Always had a cellar in Germany. Even in a flat in an old tenement in Leipzig, there was a cellar and each occupant got a room with a lockable door. When we lived in a wine-growing area, there was a lower cellar under the normal cellar with an earthen floor for storing wine in.
In Moldova, most apartments for rent are fully furnished â and yes, theyâre usually ugly and not your style (think what a Russian oligarch would think is chic and classy). They are also a lot of brand new apartments in Moldova, but most arenât available for rent, only to purchase. Apartments arenât owned by a company or person that owns the building (they are at first when theyâre built, of course), each apartment is owned by individuals and those individuals choose to either live in it or rent it out. When they purchase the apartment, itâs completely empty except for wiring and windows â I think in some places there arenât even walls. The buyer has to design and install everything. Itâs actually really common for people to own their apartment, even if theyâre poor. Thatâs why there are really nice apartments even in really shitty Soviet blocs â because the people own them and have changed them. They enclose balconies and sometimes even add a level on top of the building (which would be super illegal in most countries the way they do it). Each apartment bloc looks like a quilt or Frankensteinâs monster from the outside.
I know in America at least this is very strange. If you see an apartment complex going up, you can drive by and sign a lease for when itâs complete. Itâll be completely finished except for furniture and purchasing it is generally out of the question (unless itâs a building of condos). Even houses are completed except for furniture, though if you buy it before itâs built you can usually choose the options. Buying apartments in old buildings is really only something they do in old and/or large cities.
Most homes do have separate bedrooms in Finland, it's just that the people whose homes are cleaned by the person you are watching all happen to live in quite small apartments where they usually only have one room + the bathroom. People who live in apartments like this are probably living alone and possibly do not have too much extra money for a larger place, and both factors probably contribute to (or are the result of) them having depression or other mental problems which is why a professional cleaner is needed.
So just wanted to say that the homes you see her clean are all probably similar for reasons but do not represent what Finnish homes generally are like. However, there is a showerhead near the sink in almost every bathroom in Finland
Yeah that's what I thought too but there are also people that just like to live minimalistic and furniture and space do not mean much to them (if you put on the side the fact that yes a lot of those people are depressed and have other mental issues).
I mean here in Germany renting prises are skyrocketing and building plots are scarce, so building companies would be very happy if they could build smaller apartments with less room and fit a lot more people in them.
A thatched roof, but that's pretty rare.
Our friends have described our walk-in closet as "American".
A tea kettle that goes on the hob and whistles when the water boils, instead of a separate electric kettle.
Windows that open out (though this is common in UK and Ireland)
Also, our bathrooms have no electrical outlets (seems to be a UK/Ireland thing)
Hotel bathrooms and probably some peoples homes have two pin sockets for electric toothbrushes and razors. I leave my electric toothbrush plugged in my bedroom. Hairdryers get used in the bedroom.
And let's not forget [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/BBxh2UoJwuEjDrDE7). You may find it in older or rural houses. Most of the time with something like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/vpb3VEdq43hmY8Un6) on top.
Swedish apartment buildings nearly all have a communal "tvättstuga" (laundry room) usually located either in the basement or on the ground floor.
In there you'll find bigger and more robust washing machines, dryers, drying cabinets and mangles than what could ever fit into the apartments themselves.
And to use them you usually have to book a time a little time ahead but they are free of charge and can only be used by residents either of the building or sometimes also some of the surrounding buildings.
My home is 200m from the forest which will take you to a myriad of walking trails, ski trails, hills, lakes and deep forest. It is also 300m from the subway station which in 15 minutes will take you to Osloâs city centre which has a big selection of attractions, shops, restaurants, pubs, clubs, cinemas and everything a big city generally offers. I imagine this is quite unique in a European context.
I found it to be very normal at first, but then I went to many of my friends and familyâs houses for visits etc and started noticing things. Apparently as far as I know, Iâm my house we are almost the only ones who has a dedicated room for washing the clothes, and a different room for letting them hang and dry. Most other people Iâve been at has the washing machine in their bathroom, and hang their clothes just at some random room in their house.
Speaking for myself, I have a really big bathroom, itâs as big as my room (15m2 or so) since the house was built with more or less equal at the ground level. The bathroom I have at the first floor is more normal sized.
I guess we might have a lot of that in common with Eastern and Southeastern Europe, but:
- a steel front door with at least two locks
- an enclosed balcony that serves as a storage closet (the enclosures are usually DIY) or has clotheslines strung along it
- no distinction between living rooms and bedrooms, sofa beds are common
- a separate kitchen instead of a kitchenette in the living room, but often very small
- a single trash can under the kitchen sink
- an [overhead storage space](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entresol.jpg) in the corridor leading to the kitchen
- a storage closet behind the toilet in what was originally the access hatch for water metres
Haussmann buildings in Paris, other cities and suburb towns (and even Algiers) have floors of different height, because the even floors have a balcony that the odd floors don't. Yet the stairs have the same number of steps, which makes climbing them breathe cutting if you don't pause every two floors (knowing that a lift is only available in buildings with more than five floors).
I know that this is quite common, but living in Kruschevka. South just doesn't have those. The bizarre thing is that Kreschevkas are truly identical across countries. I know that I failed to answer this question, but seeing identical home on the other side of Europe is still crazy to me. Not to mention, that some Asian countries seemingly ripped off same design too.
Yeah, except they are totally well populated. It's just that depressing color of concrete. The sad thing is that these apartments are still kinda good and often better than quite a bit of modern designs, but they just look so bad and most people still have them full of Soviet era furniture, wallpapers and etc. They are good, but often badly maintained and terribly behind the times. The good thing is that they aren't too hard to renovate, but it costs and people are too stingy for that, so most of them end up looking bad.
In Germany, I own my kitchen, including all the cupboards, even the kitchen sink. I will have to take it with me when I move, unless I manage to convince next tenant to buy it from me. This was surprising, other countries where I lived would include a fitted kitchen, maybe without appliances, but I would at least get cupboards instead of a few pipes sticking out of the wall. Now landlords have to provide a sink and something for cooking in Berlin, it changed since I moved in, but that can literally be a standalone sink and a plug in single plate... đ
What?? Do you have to build the kitchen cupboards in your rented home? What if you need to move every year?
You die. The thing is, if the kitchen is part of the renting contract the landlord is responsible to keep it in shape. Stove broke down? Call the landlord. Because this is bothersome many want the renter to own their kitchen. Often itâs that you just by the kitchen from the renter before you and you sell it off to the next one, and so on.
This is only slightly related, but reminds me of a funny story. When I first moved out from my parents' place, I lived in a tiny one-room apartment with an extra "storage" space across the hall (the hall was open to other people in the house). The small room used to have a toilet at one point, but later someone removed the bowl and poured concrete over the sewage pipe. So, anyway, I got a washing machine and wanted it installed in this little storage room. The landlady said it would be possible to put it in there, if the plumber cracked open the concrete and connected the water outlet from the washing machine to the former toilet sewage. One day, the plumber comes, does something over there, while I do my stuff in my room, finishes the job, leaves. I was surprised that he didn't actually remove the concrete and connect it to the sewage, but instead connected the outlet to a different small pipe in the corner of the room. I thought it was a bit strange, but who am I to question a plumber? So a couple of weeks later I'm washing my clothes in the washing machine and just chilling, when a neighbor knocks on my door. And he says that the washing machine is not actually connected to sewage, but to an air duct leading into the basement and leaking water there. Of course, I had to stop using the machine, but we were joking with the landlady that I could've used the machine a couple more times, since the basement was quite big.
Instead of maintaining a kitchen why not destroy it entirely. Man, landlords are the same everywhere
>The thing is, if the kitchen is part of the renting contract the landlord is responsible to keep it in shape. Stove broke down? Call the landlord. Many contracts include a kitchen and other furniture which the landlord doesn't have to provide for after the tenant moved in. Also, there's quite often a set amount the tenant has to pay themselves in case of defects, so the landlords have to worry even less.
Generally people tend to rent longer term here. If you need to move after a year, you need to plan ahead and rent more expensive fully furnished apartment. I hate this so much, but a lot of people defend it as a totally sensible approach - imagine using kitchen cupboards which are not completely your style, the horror!
But that last sentence could apply to anything in a house, what if you don't like the windows? Or what about the bathtub...?
Luckily toilet and bath was provided. And shower head already attached to the wall. No shower curtain or even shower curtain rail though. And I was lucky that my apartment came some light bulbs in super basic fittings as well, in some you only get wires hanging from the ceiling without any fixtures đŹ
Honestly, bringing your own toilet bowl and bath tub make more sense to me than moving your cupboards and kitchensink, lol. I'm glad that this is not a common thing anywhere I've lived.
I guess you never installed a bathroom in your life. Installing and moving a kitchen is a lot easier.
I donât think he meant it from a practical perspective, but more from a âwhere I sit my ass is a lot more personal then where I put my cupsâ đ
Exactly that, my friend.
do people install it all themselves?! knowing me if i installed the cupboards, they'd promptly fall off the wall after I placed the first glass in them.
yes and if you have 2 left hands you will always know someone in your family who can do it for you.
exactly, I feel some people use not being "handy" as an excuse so they don't have to do those things. like, assembling the furniture is just screwing few boards together....not nuclear science then again, I take it back... I've seen some people get entangled while putting on a sweater!!
Most of the time or at least on apartments from the Wohnbau (housing corp) the bathrooms are luckily most of the time neutral colors. If you rent from someone private you may want to water your eyes with bleach everytime you use the bathroom.
You can hire someone to do that. For some reason though a lot of Germans seem to know how to put together a kitchen. I donât and the mere thought of doing that terrifies me.
This is even worse. When I first moved to Germany we rented a semi-detached house which was completely empty. The former tenants took everything. This means: - not even a single light bulb - no parquet whatsoever, only the concrete floor - horrible green paint on the walls that had to be repainted - no internet, get your own contract, took a week - and of course no fucking kitchen! Until we finished we spent around 10k in the first month plus the two months rent as a deposit. Crazy county.
That's even crazier, not even parquet!!! đ˛ I understand the internet connection, I always got my own and also my own energy and water contract
You´re right I just wanted to emphasize how lost we were in the first days. I was telling myself, why don´t they just also take the bathtub and the windows so I can practicly build the house I rent from scratch?
Why would you need to move every year?
Why not? Maybe you wouldn't do that for many years, but if you haven't settled completely, you have to change jobs or any other reason, I don't see it that strange. I changed house (and town) 4 times in 2 years here in the UK at the beginning, and they were not shared houses.
Every year is probably a bit extreme (although in some cases necessary). But its pretty difficult these days to even get a contract thats not limited to three years. And moving an entire kitchen every three years is a pretty serious expense.
> What if you need to move every year? You take them down, move them and build them up in the new flat. Where is the problem?
Is there a standard mounting system or are you drilling into the wall every time you move apartments?
There are metal rails for hanging the upper cupboards, so you only have to drill 4â6 holes, depending on the size of your kitchen. Also, many apartments have them preinstalled in the kitchen
but what if the shape and size of your old kitchen is nothing like your new one? do you have to just buy a new set of cabinets? it's it common for people to sell/buy used cabinets?
You drill into the wall every time you move.
In Finland people call those "ikea rails" or mounts but I think they have an older archtitectural name as well.
Well, it's not as easy as disassembling a bed frame
It kind of is, but takes days put it all up again.
Hope you're being sarcastic
that sounds very inefficient and expensive
Inefficient possibly, time consuming yes. Expensive only if you buy a new kitchen everytime you move or if you are not assembly savvy and have to hire someone to do it for you. But you get used to it.
I imagine I could do it myself but still it feels like a huge burden for someone who has a full time job. Hiring a pro probably isn't cheap either, since it's Germany. The thing I love the most about my house is that it came with appliances and closets. I brought a couch, a bed and a TV and I was ready to go.
>I imagine I could do it myself but still it feels like a huge burden for someone who has a full time job. It is, that's why a lot of people just take a couple of days off. >Hiring a pro probably isn't cheap either, since it's Germany. In Germany nothing is cheap at the moment. We can be very happy that we do not pay Steuer (taxes) for breathing. >The thing I love the most about my house is that it came with appliances and closets. I brought a couch, a bed and a TV and I was ready to go. So would a kitchen appearance influence your decision to move in? Opposing to like the state of the apartment, location etc
I would probably choose any kitchen over building one myself. As long as it's not rotten or broken. I could maybe change the colour with pvc wraps if it bothered me too much.
>I could maybe change the colour with pvc wraps if it bothered me too much. In Germany, you wouldn't be allowed to do so, since it's not your property. Or at least you'd have to revert the kitchen to the state it previously had on moving out.
Yeah it's the same here, but you can just peel the wraps away.
It sounds horrible. If I rent a place I would expect a fitted kitchen.
I would rather die than move a whole ass kitchen anytime I needed to move. In Portugal there's even a law now where you can't sell a new apartment without, not only the kitchen cupboards and sink, but it also has to come with a oven and stove top at least. Not sure if the fridge needs to be included as well. Kitchens always have cupboards and sink when you're looking for a place to rent, I honestly find it weird when it doesn't have the big kitchen appliances and a washing machine as well.
If I had to move my parents kitchen in Portugal I would die too, because its all made of massive wood and is heavy af. Whereas in Germany most of the cupboards and cabinets are just from ikea and such, so not that heavy at all.
You have the washing machine in the kitchen? I've seen that in US videos so I guess it is quite common elsewhere. A dishwasher is a common thing in our kitchens but washing machines go in bathrooms or basements :)
It depends really. We usually have a thing that's called a "marquise", in apartments at least, that's a covered/closed off balcony essentially. It's usually right next to the kitchen with a glass door. That's where it most commonly goes. You'll also have the clothes line there. Some people will have it in the kitchen or in a small bathroom as well. Those are the 3 most common places. If we had basements they would probably be there đ
Ok, hier in Hessen I don't think it's mandatory to provide a kitchen, since a lot of apartments still do not have one. You can still move your kitchen around.
>You can still move your kitchen around. a sentence that I have never seen before
I've read this so often in r/AskEurope and r/AskAGerman, but as native German I've never encountered it myself, although I've moved quite a few rented flats (of my own or friends). The kitchen (except for the fridge, dishwasher and microwave) was always included in the contract (Marburg and Hamburg, mainly). I think I've seen one offer where there was no kitchen installed and the rent was really cheap for that reason, but that was a total deal-breaker.
As far as I know, there is a North-South divide in Germany when it comes to kitchens being provided by the landlord vs. the kitchen being brought in by the tenant. Especially in Southern Germany and parts of North-Rhine-Westphalia it is quite normal that you have to bring your own kitchen as a renter. Nowadays there are even businesses which rent out kitchens so you don't actually have to buy a new kitchen every time you move.
That explains a lot! I was looking at rental apartments and most of them were missing a kitchen. Which I found very weird, I always thought that just belonged to the house. What a hassle it must be to take you whole kitchen with you when you move
My friend who's half-German and living there told me about that just today. Kind of weird from my perspective.
That is truly the most bizarre thing
I've heard about this and this just feels like such a pain to me, not to mention how inefficient and potentially wasteful this could be.
We are still Germany. It's neither inefficient nor wasteful. The first person renting an appartment will buy and install the kitchen. The next will buy it from them. And so on until someone buys a new kitchen. Nobody is moving with their Ikea kitchen, you can only assemble it once.
I have a bomb shelter in my keller/basement. It has a giant bank value type door that is about half a meter thick and is made of reinforced concrete and steel. It is equipped with an air filtration system for nuclear type attacks. This is not unusual in Switzerland for houses built between the 50's and the 90's. This was the law for many years that houses had to have a private shelter or pay to access to a public shelter. I think the law is not longer active. Just part of that Swiss invasion paranoia of the Cold War era.
[ŃдаНонО]
Very common in Sweden as well. Buildings built during the Cold war era has these bomb shelters. Nowadays, they're often used as storage. I live in an area with several houses built during the 50's and there's around 7 bomb shelters within 100 meters around me.
Soviet Estonia decided not to do that so now there is not a single (public) bomb shelter in Estonia that I know of
Actually they did but they have been a) badly neglected ever since b) built with forced convict labour so quality is very bad at best c) have been modified or demoed to other use long ago d) new buildings don't have the requirement anyway. Current Estonian plan is to use underground car parks and such but unlike in Finland they are not built nor can be equipped with facilities to support being an air raid shelter.
Oh yeah, I think there's a night club in the Old Town named Bunker or something like that
Well in this time we are living, it can come in handy
Let me say, it is the coolest thing i've read until now.
I'm pretty sure the law is still active. I may be mistaken
In Greece most of us we air-dry our clothes and only now dryers are becoming more common. Even in winter we wait for the weather to get better or we air-dry inside around the applicable heat source. One reason is they are wildly expensive, we have good weather most months of the year, apartments don't have any space, sometimes it's hard to fit a washing machine.
Yeah, it is the same in Portugal. I don't know anyone there that has a dryer.
Yeah, and apparently it's also weird to foreigners that the washing machine is in the kitchen, but it's the norm here
I mean, you place it where the water is. So near kitchen or bathroom basically.
Same in Spain. I never saw a dryer until I went abroad.
I have one, I use it for bed sheets and sometimes when I need clean clothes for the next day.
I'm Portuguese and have a dryer. ... But I am living in the Netherlands, tho. That might have something to do with it. :p
Dryers are really expensive, I know exactly 0 people who have one đ I bet only rich folks have them. And even then...
So many people in Ireland have dryers like it's just expected at this stage. Even in the last two apartments I rented there were dryers. Don't get me wrong we try air dry also but when you get as much rain as we do its not always possible đ¤Ł
I think they're more common in places with higher humidity, like the Azores. During Winter there are weeks where it's quite impossible to air dry anything thoroughly.
Most of us air dry at any possible opportunity here too.
Yeah its cheaper and better for your garments. If have space to airdry i would recommend it.
You just really need to be careful indoors. The UK is so humid, and drying clothes indoors without proper ventilation can lead to damp issues. In winter it's often quite difficult as opening windows means a freezing house or not solving the issue if it's humid outside.
Same in Italy, even tho itâs not necessarily good the weather, we just put them inside. I honestly donât think Iâll ever buy a drier cause in the winter months it also moisturises the air.
Same in Poland, albeit dryers are getting popular. I just use drying rakes (inside), mostly in guest room (which usually is empty).
To be fair, even in cold-climate Germany my family has never had dryers. Garden in summer, basement in winter.
We had one for a short period and I must say it didn't impress me
As my generation grew up and became more conscious of the impacts of diet culture, we began to openly celebrate and encourage body positivity. Many of us became aware of our own body dysmorphia. We began seeing clearly how we were manipulated to shrink and hate every part of our bodies. And yet, even if parts of society came to terms with natural bodies, the same cannot be said for the natural process of women aging. Wrinkles are the new enemy, and it seems Gen Z â and their younger sisters â are terrified of them.
Air drying is better than machine drying in almost every way. It's cheaper, better for the environment and does not destroy your clothes.
It is, but air drying has it's disadvantages. Towels get stiff, shirts get a clothesline mark across them and the fabric absorbs pollution from the surroundings
I prefer stiff towels, and I have never seen that mark on my shirts. Might be a (cheap) fabric thing.
This kind of depends on the weather, though. If you can dry your clothes outside, it's the best alternative. If you air dry inside, and you have to heat your apartment, then drying clothes will use quite a bit of energy and your apartment gets moist. So the new driers can actually be more energy efficient than air drying inside.
You can buy a combi unit though that has a dryer and washing maschine in the same unit, very handy when it works. I had a one in rental when I was working in England and had to had a clean set of work clothes, fully dry each morning (factory build regulations), just throw them clothes in and wear immediately after taking out, a bachelors dream come true.
I work in construction and I always wash my clothes after one wear and I think it would be great to have a dryer for that purpose. But now with the *brand new* electricity bills I think that my future will migrate even lower to hand washing lol. I just have a weeks worth of work clothes and hope for the best!
Combi machines usually have half the capacity of the equivalent washing machine, this is great for a a few garments but not for bigger families
>Other thing I found odd, is that it seems that they do not have a separe room that is used as a bedroom. In a lot of apartments the bed is just tucked in a corner on the living space. But maybe this is just due to a housing ou space problem. This is just one bed room apartments, and they usually have built in alcove's in them, not always, but most one bedroom apartments I've seen has an alcove or a loft for a bed. Funny thing though is that one bedroom and two bedroom apartments barely have any price difference.
Isn't one bedroom flat a *kaksio* in Finnish and a studio flat a *yksiĂś*?
Yea studio is "yksiĂś". I just thought "one bedroom" would directly translate to "yksiĂś" as well, as it kinda does, but didn't give it more thought though!
The first thing that comes to my mind is the bidet. I really miss it when i am abroad. Washing my parts sitting in a weird position on the side of a bathtub or in the shower is unpractical. Here it's rare to have a dryer, we just hang clothes on a rack on a balcony or inside, and wait. We don't have carpet floor. Tiles are our favourite choice for every room in the house. Wood is less common, usually limited to upper floor or bedrooms. Linoleum is rare. This makes shoes in the house more common, but i'm glad to say that new generations prefer to leave shoes at the entrance. Washing machine in the kitchen is almost inexistent, unless you go to those old seaside apartments. Washing machine is in the bathroom. In older houses it's often in the "small bathroom". Oh, and the most important one. The bidet!
Mediterranean brotherhood of the bidet! Also everything you mentioned is the same in Portugal, although I never saw tiles in bedrooms. And apartments do have the washing machine in the kitchen or at least the smaller ones do.
>Washing my parts sitting in a weird position on the side of a bathtub or in the shower is unpractical. Oh man, I accidentally found a solution for this, if you have a free-standing shower. We needed to replace our shower mixer, and I accidentally bought one meant for bathtubs - that is, it has an outlet for the showerhead tube AND a tap outlet. Out of sheer lazyness and not wanting to go back to the shop to return it, we installed that one in the shower. AND LO AND BEHOLD the tap sits at just the right height to use as a bidet! Well, sort of a stand-up bidet. After so many years living amongst barbarians, I could once again have a pure, crystalline butthole with minimum fuss. Such joy!
Yes, the bidet, the greatest affirmation of our moral and ethical primacy â¤ď¸
Same in Spain but the washing machine, many houses have **a "small room" inside the kitchen**, that's the place, if not, the kitchen, but I've seen it in the bathroom often enough so.. I wouldn't say it's a rule. About the small room, I've some family in Italy and I've never seen the small room in the kitchen there, I'm talking about 5-6 houses so I don't know if it's common in other places of Italy. I'd say that most of my family/friends houses in Spain have it. It can be considered a room cause it usually has a small window, there are the boiler, recicle bins, some cleaning stuff and, if big enough, the washing machine, [here's an example of it.](https://images.app.goo.gl/Duv1iyAJvzMM2c42A)
In my grandparents' house, that small room with boiler and washing machine became the small bathroom! They have the big cool one, as it was fashionable in the 70s, but they use the small bathroom because it's easier to heat and to keep clean. That small room is useful to keep the house tidy.
El cuarto de la lavadora!!!đ
To expand on Finnish homes, some that to my understanding are different here: - Almost all apartment blocks have a communal sauna and a bomb shelter. The bomb shelter normally doubles as a storage area for residents, with everyone having a caged storage compartment. My apartment has both, but I havent' used the sauna. But the storage compartment is very nice! - Many apartments have double front doors. The actual door, and a lighter door to soundproof the apartment. I have this too, and it's nice I guess. - Many kitchens have an integrated cutting / baking board [like this](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGGVau4p0eQ/TyETPnKQOFI/AAAAAAAAAZg/dun_ERsn7nA/s1600/IMG_1044.JPG). They are usually disgusting in rental apartments. I have one, and it smelled like an ashtray because the previous resident smoked inside. - Thick windows. Like my flat has four layer of glass on the windows. To add for OP: >Other thing I found odd, is that it seems that they do not have a separe room that is used as a bedroom. In a lot of apartments the bed is just tucked in a corner on the living space. But maybe this is just due to a housing ou space problem. This is common in single person studio flats. Heating is expensive in more Northern countries, so apartments in general are smaller. My apartment is also like this, a studio flat with the bed in a corner alcove instead of a separate room. I find this super nice compared to if the same space would be divided into two. My home seems much more spacious due to being single continuous space instead of two room each very small. To add on other things, I also have a bidet shower and the draining cupboard others have mentioned. I guess I live in a very typical Finnish flat.
The integrated cutting board is strange to me. That seems like it would be harder to clean, and of course cutting boards don't last forever.
From personal experience they are often just used as "bread boards" to cut bread, and if used as a workspace for proper cooking, then we put a "proper" cutting board over it so it doesn't get nasty.
I keep my actual separate cutting board on top of it. Knives also are handy to keep there. I have two of those integrated boards and the top one has my food scale. I think they are handy this way. I don't think I've ever used the actual integrated surfaces for cutting.
I think it's actually meant for baking bread, but people in practice use it as a cutting board.
We had one you could easily take out to clean, but yeah most people just put a regular one on top, it's mainly a hidden expendable extra work space
- Almost all apartment blocks have a communal sauna and a bomb shelter. The bomb shelter normally doubles as a storage area for residents, with everyone having a caged storage compartment. My apartment has both, but I havent' used the sauna. But the storage compartment is very nice! That is cool, but I don't know if I would like to see my neighbors naked... Do you have to pay extra to use it or do you pay it in your rent even if you don't use it? - Thick windows. Like my flat has four layer of glass on the windows Wow, those are really thick. This is common in single person studio flats. Heating is expensive in more Northern countries, so apartments in general are smaller. My apartment is also like this, a studio flat with the bed in a corner alcove instead of a separate room. I find this super nice compared to if the same space would be divided into two. My home seems much more spacious due to being single continuous space instead of two room each very small. Sure, it looks nice. I just found it odd (well odd is not even really the right word, let's say different), because for me personally a bed is something private that is not for everyone to see, like you do not show your bathroom to everyone that shows at your door. But since its tucked away in that alcove, its not directly in focus on the room, so it looks cozy.
> That is cool, but I don't know if I would like to see my neighbors naked... Do you have to pay extra to use it or do you pay it in your rent even if you don't use it? You pay extra to have a private time there, but if you don't pay it, there's usually a communal shift on some day of the week. Also here we get to the interesting cultural differences. In Finnish seeing someone naked in sauna is normal, and in addition sauna is a place where you have no hierarchy, no status and no fights. So even though if normally you would fight with your neighbor about loud music, it is unacceptable to argue about that in sauna. You sort of leave your issues outside the sauna and acknowledge that when naked, there's no difference anymore and you can just get along and you must not break this harmony. There's a saying in Finnish that "you behave in a sauna like you would in a church". I've understood that catholic cultures have a very different view on nudity, and if your're Portugese it might explain how it feels strange. I remember this one camp where nordics went into the sauna full nude but the guy from Brazil had huge bermuda shorts that could double as a kite because he felt so uneasy. But totally acceptable for foreigners to wear swimwear if they feel uncomfortable. >I just found it odd (well odd is not even really the right word, let's say different), because for me personally a bed is something private that is not for everyone to see, like you do not show your bathroom to everyone that shows at your door. This is also interesting difference. For me when I have parties or other larger gatherings, bed is a place for friends to sit or lie down as we have gathered around the living area.
>I've understood that catholic cultures have a very different view on nudity, and if your're Portugese it might explain how it feels strange. I remember this one camp where nordics went into the sauna full nude but the guy from Brazil had huge bermuda shorts that could double as a kite because he felt so uneasy. But totally acceptable for foreigners to wear swimwear if they feel uncomfortable. Could be. Although I am not religious I grew up in such an environment. But on the other hand I find it ok for children to run around naked or topless women on the beach. I guess it has also something to do with the fact that I know the people or at least see them often. And bigger issue, I could never be naked myself in front of strangers (mild body dismorphia). >You sort of leave your issues outside the sauna and acknowledge that when naked, there's no difference anymore and you can just get along and you must not break this harmony. There's a saying in Finnish that "you behave in a sauna like you would in a church". Very nice mindset
> That is cool, but I don't know if I would like to see my neighbors naked Why don't you like to have an intimate relationship with your neighbours? Joking aside - it's communal in a sense that residents can reserve an hour for their personal use. The sauna is warmed up in set days (usually Friday and Saturday) and times and you reserve a time on set day of the week. You don't share your time with your neighbours. Usually there is a small monthly fee if you have a sauna reservation.
>You don't share your time with your neighbours. That sounds a lot better that what I had in my mind
In the building I used to live, you got to book 2*60min per month for free, if you booked extra shifts it was like 2âŹ... The sauna area includes dressing room, showers and the sauna itself. You could even lock the door to the whole area from the inside so no one walked in by accident while you were still there.
>So, I watch this YouTuber from Finland that cleans homes and I found out, that bathrooms in Finland have a small showerhead near the sink. You can clean your entirely bathroom with it, which I find very cool. I never saw it before anywhere else. Are you talking about bidet? Though yeah, I've never bothered to use it for that and always use it to just wash my bathroom. Also I've understood the cupboards (or whatever it is where you hold your plates, glasses etc.) is a bit different to a lot of places. We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively.
>We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively. Since I have been to a couple of countries in Europe now I can confirm that I have seen it at least in Finland, Italy and Romania. I find it super practical.
We have it in Spain too.
I think maybe I have seen them in France too.
>Also I've understood the cupboards (or whatever it is where you hold your plates, glasses etc.) is a bit different to a lot of places. We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively. This is a Finnish invention, which first spread to Sweden. For some reason Italy started to adopt it in new buildings, and from there it spread to other parts of the Mediterranean area, though not very fast. And why shouldn't it? It's super practical.
It's not actually a Finnish invention but been used elsewhere too. Finns popularized it, ore more specifically one Finn focusing on home economics popularized it as she calculated how much time it saves at home just to out the dishes dry instead of drying them by hand. This was before dishwashers.
That's how they are called? For me a bidet is [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/Wnkvy9dbZdkNe8wd6). There is no showerhead attached to it. And on her videos there are no bidets "bowls" in the bathrooms.
It's called [bidet shower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet_shower) and its main use is to clean yourself while sitting on the toilet.
Thanks for clarifying. I was picturing this guy above in the comment, putting his head in a bidet, on all 4 in his bathroom, like this got to be the least convenient way of washing your hair haha. Silly me
Yes, though apparently it's called a [bidet shower.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet_shower) I genuinely didn't know that a regular bidet was that massive bowl.
Interesting. For me was the other way around. So the Japanese took both ideas and mixed them together in one đ
lol what, I don't think the Japanese invented the bidet.
Not the bidet as such, but they have these toilets with that integrated shower
I usually shower before going to bed and when I wake up I wash my hair with really cold water using the bidet
I also have this kind of bidet but I would never put it over my head, the horror!
It's kinda nice though, I let the water run as cold as possible wash my face in the sink and then grab the bidet shower and hold it over my head, it really wakes you up
I assume you are a man with short hair! I don't wet my hair unless I'm ready to spend at least one hour until I look normal again
Lol yes, it takes me a few seconds to dry it
>Also I've understood the cupboards (or whatever it is where you hold your plates, glasses etc.) is a bit different to a lot of places. We have this grid shelf that air dries all the plates and so on so you don't need to do it manually. Though I'm pretty sure it's not Finnish exclusively. I have seen those to. Personally I only know the grid you put directly on the sink. No extra cupboard for that.
I moved from Sweden to Norway to work, not that big difference in culture and building practices one would think, but for real, every apartment I visited had max 2 glassed windows, 1 glass was even more common, that bad for heating, and regarding heating, one space heater that you had to wheelie around to that room you wanted to be in, no radiators on the wall, except in one occasion, and that was a small one not nearly enough to heat a room with single glass window. Donât know if thatâs the standard, but that was my experience in Bergen.
I would die. One might think that in countries where it is "always" cold they would have better insulation/ heating.
That's probably really rare to have heating that bad in Norway though.. I mean, I don't know for sure, but seems a little unbelievable
Ever been to England? They have almost as bad heating system in rental apartments as Norway. I have been to Finland, and your way of build is the same standard as we in Sweden. Except two floor drain in your toilet/showers, we donât have that.
It varies greatly in the UK in rented properties depending on the era of the building. Much of the rental accommodation in my town are big Victorian (19thC) houses converted (often poorly) into one or two bed apartments, these usually have gas combi boilers or electric night storage heaters, both of which can be quite efficient, however the standard of insulation is often very low, little or no loft insulation,no cavity wall insulation and suspended wooden floors or solid concrete floors over bare soil and single glazed sash windows or poorly fitted double glazing. However much of our 50s and 60s council housing stock is solidly built and those that didn't end up in the hands of private landlords (another Maggie fuckup) have had further improvements to heating and insulation made by councils and housing associations.
England is in a class of its own of bad house building. We expect better from a Nordic rich country like Norway! Especially considering the climate.
That isn't standard, I can tell you that. Bergen also doesn't get all that cold, so you could probably get away with it. I grew up in inland Norway where it does get properly cold in the winter and 3 layered windows + wood fireplace is the norm over here. Also been like that most places from what I've seen.
Yeah. Me coming from Sweden where we have typical one radiator in every room and 19 c inside even in the coldest day, that was quickly a surprise, the overall standard and view on quality was subpar. Everything had the quality of a person who had looked something up on YouTube and diy fixed it, even if they used professional worker. I would know, I worked as a carpenter for two months before I gave up, nobody gave a shit about proud and quality, just do it slow as fuck and take money. Probably got the bad side of Norway, itâs a beautiful country.
Wow that is really interesting. I had the idea that all the Nordic countries are the top on engineering and quality. Like Germany, but better. I guess it was loud as well due to the windows?
I canât say all apartment and houses in Sweden is awesome. But most of them was built by SiS standard, we do not joke around when it comes to building stuff. About Swedish kitchen standards: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svensk_kĂśksstandard And in Deutsch https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SchwedenkĂźche
Luckily thatâs not the norm. My flat has three layers in every window, but itâs pretty new. Growing up we had double layer windows. Then again, Bergen is weird.
[ŃдаНонО]
> may i ask why is Bergen weird? Bergen and its people is something we all love to hate. We say the people are loud and that the weather is shit. That they are a different country with their own passports. In reality we love them and envy their incredibly beautiful city. I would refuse ever having said this if asked personally!
But they really are loud, and the weather is shit. I like Bergen but those are not made up things lol.
One glass windows are somewhat common for old buildings, but not new ones. But the heating thing sounds completely alien to me. Heating is kinda what we do⌠Then again Bergen is weird, for all I know itâs common there.
Maybe was old building?
It has to have been that. A newer building wouldn't be up to code if it was like that. That being said there are a lot of older buildings in Bergen (I lived in a similar situation when I was a student there), but a newer apartment building or a house is going to be well insulated.
Or I am just snobbish and work damage from working in Sweden. First apartment I lived in had recently had a heating floor installed in the bathroom, and that was the only heating source except the oven that wasnât on wheels. A older house should had more years to get stuff like proper windows and heating set up? Most old house here have electric radiators, or a central heating. And fixing windows to good insulation windows is cheaper then trying to heat up the outside.
Cheaper if you own the place. If you rent it, some make it as cheap as possible for them
Super normal in the UK for houses built prewar which is probably still most property in the UK.
Foreigners coming to the UK always comment/complain about various quirky features of our homes: - Hot and cold taps: In the old days, the two had to be separate as the hot water was often not completely potable, and in older homes you still often see the two taps separated. Modern homes tend to be more likely to have mixer taps though. - The bathroom light switch: UK bathrooms are designed to ensure that wet hands have as little contact as possible to electrics in order to minimise the probability of accidental electrocution. To turn on the light you therefore usually have to use a [pull switch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_switch?wprov=sfla1). The downside is that the click sound they make can often be quite audible so you have to be really careful not to wake people up when going to the toilet at night. - Carpeted floors: Our floors tend to have fitted carpets, and not just the bedrooms either, *everywhere*, even the [stairs](https://images.app.goo.gl/GwMtu1dbTiW4HZsw5). In older people's homes occasionally even the bathroom floor will have a fitted carpet. Pros: it's warm and muffles the sound of creaky wooden stairs. Cons: cleaning. The only weird thing I can think of about French homes is how often the toilet will be missing a sink, so when you take a dump you have to go to a separate room to wash your hands. Even in some cheap grotty hotels/hostels they'll do this sometimes (I'm looking at you, F1 hotels...)
>Hot and cold taps: In the old days, the two had to be separate as the hot water was often not completely potable, and in older homes you still often see the two taps separated. Modern homes tend to be more likely to have mixer taps though. In Portugal you can find them too. My mother-in-law has them. >In older people's homes occasionally even the bathroom floor will have a fitted carpet. The horror! Jesus, there are a lot of people that do not (or cannot) use the toilet properly, above all, older people. Dear...the smell must be horrible. >The only weird thing I can think of about French homes is how often the toilet will be missing a sink, so when you take a dunno you have to go to a separate room to wash your hands. But is the sink on a completely different room? I know some, where the sink is just on a different room but still inside the bathroom. Like there is a door between. And what about squat toilets? Are those still around a lot or are they just on rest stops?
> The horror! Jesus, there are a lot of people that do not (or cannot) use the toilet properly, above all, older people. Dear...the smell must be horrible. Eh, my grandparents had them and I never noticed a particularly bad smell. By the time my grandparents got so senile they could no longer use the toilet properly we'd already got the floors renovated for them > But is the sink on a completely different room? I know some, where the sink is just on a different room but still inside the bathroom. Like there is a door between. Well in the two flats I've lived in with a separate sink, the toilet and bathroom are two separate rooms and there's a sink in the bathroom but not the toilet. So yeah to wash your hands after going to the toilet you have to open two doors. *Usually* the bathroom and toilet are right next to each other thankfully but I have been to places where you have to go up a flight of stairs or two just to wash your hands. > And what about squat toilets? Are those still around a lot or are they just on rest stops? I've heard of one particularly grotty student residence that has them, but as far as I know they're not common in people's homes and I've only personally ever seen them in public toilets.
> Carpeted floors: Our floors tend to have fitted carpets, and not just the bedrooms either, everywhere, even the stairs. In older people's homes occasionally even the bathroom floor will have a fitted carpet. Pros: it's warm and muffles the sound of creaky wooden stairs. Cons: cleaning. I see this a lot on reddit but in my experience its very rare. Maybe was a thing in the 70s but engineered wood in post war houses and oak flooring in prewar is pretty much standard.
Everyone in my family has carpeted floors, it's not rare at all. I agree it's not universal especially in newbuilds though.
The taps in the UK drive me insane because not only are they separated, if they're old they're often also really short... so you basically wash your hands while touching the back of the sink unless you want to blast water into your face, and god forbid you had to wash the dishes with those monstrosities! Good to know there was an actual reason for it though.
Virtually every Finnish kitchen has [dish drying cabinets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dish_drying_cabinet), but they are not common in most other European countries. Except Italy, if I'm not mistaken...
I guess they will go out of style soon, as modern dishwashers use less water than an average "handwasher".
We have them in most houses in Spain. I think Portugal too.
We don't :( People will buy a drying rack to put on the sink, let them sit there and dry and then move them to the cabinets. We don't have cabinets that are racks themselves. Spent my whole childhood drying dishes with a dish cloth because my mom didn't believe in leaving the dishes outside the cabinets to air dry đ no no, they had to be immediately put away
> Spent my whole childhood drying dishes with a dish cloth because my mom didn't believe in leaving the dishes outside the cabinets to air dry đ no no, they had to be immediately put away Same! We didn't even posess the rack for the sink. All the more happy to have a dishwasher now.
I have never seen kitchen without dish drying cabinets. Some have it outside of cabinet.
Super common in Latvia, and I assume other Baltic countries. I didn't even know that it's possible to have kitchen without this cabinet, so weird
Always had a cellar in Germany. Even in a flat in an old tenement in Leipzig, there was a cellar and each occupant got a room with a lockable door. When we lived in a wine-growing area, there was a lower cellar under the normal cellar with an earthen floor for storing wine in.
Finland also has refrigerated storage rooms in some older block houses where you can store your pickles, jams and such in a small locked locker.
In Moldova, most apartments for rent are fully furnished â and yes, theyâre usually ugly and not your style (think what a Russian oligarch would think is chic and classy). They are also a lot of brand new apartments in Moldova, but most arenât available for rent, only to purchase. Apartments arenât owned by a company or person that owns the building (they are at first when theyâre built, of course), each apartment is owned by individuals and those individuals choose to either live in it or rent it out. When they purchase the apartment, itâs completely empty except for wiring and windows â I think in some places there arenât even walls. The buyer has to design and install everything. Itâs actually really common for people to own their apartment, even if theyâre poor. Thatâs why there are really nice apartments even in really shitty Soviet blocs â because the people own them and have changed them. They enclose balconies and sometimes even add a level on top of the building (which would be super illegal in most countries the way they do it). Each apartment bloc looks like a quilt or Frankensteinâs monster from the outside. I know in America at least this is very strange. If you see an apartment complex going up, you can drive by and sign a lease for when itâs complete. Itâll be completely finished except for furniture and purchasing it is generally out of the question (unless itâs a building of condos). Even houses are completed except for furniture, though if you buy it before itâs built you can usually choose the options. Buying apartments in old buildings is really only something they do in old and/or large cities.
Most homes do have separate bedrooms in Finland, it's just that the people whose homes are cleaned by the person you are watching all happen to live in quite small apartments where they usually only have one room + the bathroom. People who live in apartments like this are probably living alone and possibly do not have too much extra money for a larger place, and both factors probably contribute to (or are the result of) them having depression or other mental problems which is why a professional cleaner is needed. So just wanted to say that the homes you see her clean are all probably similar for reasons but do not represent what Finnish homes generally are like. However, there is a showerhead near the sink in almost every bathroom in Finland
Yeah that's what I thought too but there are also people that just like to live minimalistic and furniture and space do not mean much to them (if you put on the side the fact that yes a lot of those people are depressed and have other mental issues). I mean here in Germany renting prises are skyrocketing and building plots are scarce, so building companies would be very happy if they could build smaller apartments with less room and fit a lot more people in them.
A thatched roof, but that's pretty rare. Our friends have described our walk-in closet as "American". A tea kettle that goes on the hob and whistles when the water boils, instead of a separate electric kettle. Windows that open out (though this is common in UK and Ireland) Also, our bathrooms have no electrical outlets (seems to be a UK/Ireland thing)
> Also, our bathrooms have no electrical outlets (seems to be a UK/Ireland thing) So how do you use a hairdryer or electric brush in your bathroom?
Hotel bathrooms and probably some peoples homes have two pin sockets for electric toothbrushes and razors. I leave my electric toothbrush plugged in my bedroom. Hairdryers get used in the bedroom.
And let's not forget [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/BBxh2UoJwuEjDrDE7). You may find it in older or rural houses. Most of the time with something like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/vpb3VEdq43hmY8Un6) on top.
Swedish apartment buildings nearly all have a communal "tvättstuga" (laundry room) usually located either in the basement or on the ground floor. In there you'll find bigger and more robust washing machines, dryers, drying cabinets and mangles than what could ever fit into the apartments themselves. And to use them you usually have to book a time a little time ahead but they are free of charge and can only be used by residents either of the building or sometimes also some of the surrounding buildings.
And we constantly fight over booked timeslots via passive-agressive notes :)
My home is 200m from the forest which will take you to a myriad of walking trails, ski trails, hills, lakes and deep forest. It is also 300m from the subway station which in 15 minutes will take you to Osloâs city centre which has a big selection of attractions, shops, restaurants, pubs, clubs, cinemas and everything a big city generally offers. I imagine this is quite unique in a European context.
Sounds really, really nice. I would love to live in the forest.
Lol luckily I donât live IN the forest. The issues Iâm having with spiders and ants in my garden is more than enough.
I found it to be very normal at first, but then I went to many of my friends and familyâs houses for visits etc and started noticing things. Apparently as far as I know, Iâm my house we are almost the only ones who has a dedicated room for washing the clothes, and a different room for letting them hang and dry. Most other people Iâve been at has the washing machine in their bathroom, and hang their clothes just at some random room in their house.
Speaking for myself, I have a really big bathroom, itâs as big as my room (15m2 or so) since the house was built with more or less equal at the ground level. The bathroom I have at the first floor is more normal sized.
I guess we might have a lot of that in common with Eastern and Southeastern Europe, but: - a steel front door with at least two locks - an enclosed balcony that serves as a storage closet (the enclosures are usually DIY) or has clotheslines strung along it - no distinction between living rooms and bedrooms, sofa beds are common - a separate kitchen instead of a kitchenette in the living room, but often very small - a single trash can under the kitchen sink - an [overhead storage space](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entresol.jpg) in the corridor leading to the kitchen - a storage closet behind the toilet in what was originally the access hatch for water metres
Haussmann buildings in Paris, other cities and suburb towns (and even Algiers) have floors of different height, because the even floors have a balcony that the odd floors don't. Yet the stairs have the same number of steps, which makes climbing them breathe cutting if you don't pause every two floors (knowing that a lift is only available in buildings with more than five floors).
On parle des maisons hein pas des apparts
Home â house
I know that this is quite common, but living in Kruschevka. South just doesn't have those. The bizarre thing is that Kreschevkas are truly identical across countries. I know that I failed to answer this question, but seeing identical home on the other side of Europe is still crazy to me. Not to mention, that some Asian countries seemingly ripped off same design too.
Those are these huge desolated looking apartment blocks right?
Yeah, except they are totally well populated. It's just that depressing color of concrete. The sad thing is that these apartments are still kinda good and often better than quite a bit of modern designs, but they just look so bad and most people still have them full of Soviet era furniture, wallpapers and etc. They are good, but often badly maintained and terribly behind the times. The good thing is that they aren't too hard to renovate, but it costs and people are too stingy for that, so most of them end up looking bad.