England is a mixture of the old and new. I like how, rather than tearing down an old house, they will often keep the shell intact and completely refurbish the inside.
We visited some neighbors that live in such a house. The exterior is something similar to the house in this photo. As soon as you step inside, the house has a completely modern feel.
 |
| Old Exterior |
I grabbed these pictures from an Internet site of houses for sale in the area. They show a typical refurbished kitchen and bathroom in older houses.
 |
| Modernized kitchen |
 |
| Updated bathroom |
Our neighbor friends are Ex-Pat Americans who are renting. They gave us a tour of their updated older house. The inside was completely gutted and redone. So you would think it would have all the modern conveniences. Not so.
Oddly enough, the bedrooms have no closets. Wardrobe furniture is required to store clothes.
The kitchen was equipped with a modern American-style refrigerator, as opposed to a smaller European model. However, it had no ice-maker. That's pretty un-American.
The bathroom was sleek and modern but modern bathrooms in America have a separate room for the toilet. Not here. The "throne" sits right out for all to see. There is also hardly any storage in the bathroom. No linen closets. Very few cabinets.
The washer and dryer were the smaller European models even though larger American-style ones are available here.
The house was wired with an intricate security camera system with monitors to view the interior and exterior of the house.
I was left with the feeling that the house is a meshing of the old and new. Yet the interior is all new, just not all American-style new. So what if there is no ice-maker, no closets, no separate toilet-room?
I wonder if the refurbishing attempted to keep some of the old English charm and character while adding modern conveniences. Or maybe the American in me has trouble seeing that some people are quite happy living without what I consider to be modern necessities. It has made me think about "new" versus "American".
