HOUSING

HOUSING. HOME AND FAMILY LIFE, LIFE IN CITIES AND VILLAGES

There are many types of houses or apartments where people can live or stay. In suburbs of towns, the most common are detached houses and semi-detached houses. Detached houses have an entrance hall with stairs up to the first floor. On the ground floor there will often be a large kitchen and dining area, a toilet, cloakroom, utility room, a couple of reception rooms and a living room. Upstairs there are four, maybe five, bedrooms, some with bathrooms en suite, and a separate family bathroom and toilet. The attic may have been converted into a study, a studio or is used just for storage. These houses stand alone and are usually surrounded by gardens. Semi-detached houses are two houses joined side by side. They have fewer rooms than detached houses and smaller gardens. Terraced houses were built in industrial cities during the 19th century. Simply it is long line of houses that look the same. The interior is quite small (2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen) and there must be room extensions built out into the yard for bathrooms and toilets. These 3 types of houses are usually two-storey houses (have two floors). Bungalow is typical for Mediterranean area but also for the USA. This house is a one-storey house (have one floor). House that is favourite among US citizens is called a ranch house. It is usually on only one level, with a roof that does not slope much. Cottage house, chalet, cabin and shacks are mostly built in the countryside. Cottage is a small house often with big garden. In Britain typical cottage is an old romantic house with thick walls, old-fashioned windows and garden full of roses and herbs surrounded by a picket fence or a low wall. Chalet is a small wooden house which can be found in mountain areas, especially in Switzerland. Shack is extremely simple and small building made from pieces od wood or other materials. Cabin is made of wood usually. There is special type which is called log cabin and it is made of tree trunks. Also, I would like to mention mobile homes, also known as trailers. This type of building can be moved using a vehicle. Special kinds are travel trailers or caravans, that are wheeled and either motorized itself or pulled by a vehicle. In big cities and town centres people live in skyscrapers (high-rises), block of flats. Skyscraper is really tall modern building with many floors. It is typical for big cities. Block of flats (apartment building) is a large building with many flats. It is common that flats could be rented, also. But you can own a flat too. There is also interesting difference between USA and Europe when it comes to saying which floor you are on. In US the floor you enter is the first floor. In many parts of Europe, the same floor is called ground floor and then you go up to the first floor.

I live in a block of flats. The building itself consists of cellar floor, ground floor, first, second and third floor, attic. I live on the third floor. Our maisonette consists of two floors. On the first floor you can find small corridor where we have pictures and pegs for coats or jackets. Also, there are two doors – one leads us to bathroom, the other to the toilet. Corridor leads from the entrance door to kitchen. Our kitchen isn’t small but isn’t big either. In kitchen we can find black fridge and kitchen unit with a built-in oven and dishwasher. On a kitchen unit there is gas stove and near is sink. We eat only in kitchen so there is a kitchen table with four chairs. Next to the table there is entrance to balcony and a pantry. Our balcony is currently jungle full of flowers and plants. Our living room looks really roomy. There is big beige coach, wooden coffee table, a few cupboards. There is also a television on the wall in front of the sofa. We have also build-in bookcase. The floor is a wooden parquet floor. If you open the first door you will see my sister’s bedroom. Usually it is messy. We used to live together in this room when we were younger. Next door leads us to my parent’s bedroom. It is the coldest room in our flat. They have big double bed and huge built-in wardrobe. The staircase from the living room leads us to the attic rooms. First is my bedroom, then there is bathroom with wash basin, bath tub, shower bath, sauna for one person and washing machine. In my bedroom you can find wooden wardrobes, bookcase, double bed, desk, telescope, keyboard and violin, easel, lot of airplane models and glowing star stickers above my bed. Some people say that my family is kind of different. Mainly it is because my mum isn’t cooking at all. Chief cook in our family is my father. I sometimes cook too, but I am more into baking. When it comes to cleaning – well it is mainly my role. My sister helps to fill up the dishwasher. But she is kind of more into the internet. So sometimes my mum is doing it. Because we live in a block of flats we need to take care of housing premises. The stairs need to be moped. The area around the house shouldn’t be full of litter.