Houses

In my experience, once you get outside the crowded older east coast cities (e.g. New York, Boston, Philadelphia), the average American home is significantly larger than the average British home.


Our London home is a mid-terrace Victorian three bedroom house. Mid-terrace means the two sides of our house share a party wall with a neighbour; good for heat efficiency, but not so good for noise and general privacy. Victorian means it was built during the reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901, but we know it was almost certainly built before 1860. The house is less than 1,000 square feet, and the front door lets directly onto the street, with no off-road parking. Why should there be? There were no cars in 1860!

The house has tons of character and I've loved living here for the past 15 years, but it's starting to feel a tad cramped, and that's before we factor potential children into the equation. We've occupied the two "spare" bedrooms with our hobbies, and the living/dining room can serve only once function at a time, though it does run the length of the house.


In Eugene we'll be able to afford a house at least double the size in square feet, not counting a double garage. That's like knocking a doorway through to the house next door, having their whole house to add to ours, and then borrowing the front rooms of the next two houses along to park our cars in. We'll have a bigger garden too, our current paved yard being just large enough to swing a cat.


It's all a matter of space.