America is diverse and diverse, but if Americans as a nation are in solidarity in something, it is in their denial of duvet covers, in the habit of drinking everything – from water to coffee — with a fair amount of ice and in their willingness to carry vacuum cleaners without a murmur.
We tell you about the life of an American family and the American way of life as it is.
Depending on where an American family lives — in their own house or in an average apartment — their way of life will be radically different. But there are still common points: for example, American apartments and houses are usually described not by the number of rooms, but based on the number of bedrooms. That is, the Russian “two-bedroom” would be held in America in the category of “one-bedroom” apartments (one-bedroom apartment), the “three-bedroom” would be called, respectively, “two-bedroom” (two-bedroom), and the “one-bedroom” would be considered a studio.
This classification is true for American housing to a greater extent than ours, because the kitchen and living/ dining room in an American house usually exist in the same volume, while the area where food is prepared is separated from the rest of the room only by a low partition or a bar counter. In Puritan America, however, it is more often called breakfast counter (breakfast counter), because it is really very convenient to have breakfast in a hurry without setting the table.
Houses and apartments are most often sold equipped with kitchen furniture and appliances corresponding to the class of housing. American cuisine in its archetypal form is standard and artless. And yet Americans are quite conservative in their ideas about the interior in general and about kitchen furniture in particular. The middle class tends to traditional forms, so in a budget apartment you will most likely find cabinets made of reddish solid wood with paneled overhead doors separated by rather wide imposts.
Separate bathrooms in America are rare even in private homes, where, it would seem, there is no shortage of space. But in houses where there is more than one bedroom, there are also often several bathrooms: one can be connected to the master bedroom, forming a kind of hotel “suite”, the other is used by children, and a small toilet room with a sink is provided for guests. In ads for the sale or rental of real estate, this arrangement is referred to as “2 ½ bathrooms” — literally, “two and a half bathrooms”. Half is considered a guest bathroom in addition to two full ones.
In a private American house, there is a basement by default, and in the basement there is certainly a place for a washing machine the size of a small car and a drying unit of the same size. Until recently, Americans in principle could not understand why a washing machine combining the functions of a “washer” and a “dryer” was needed — they simply did not exist on the American market. Now they are available, but they are still not in demand, since in the USA they are sure that the effectiveness of the combined model is no higher than that of a hybrid of toothpaste and shoe cream.
It would seem that “two in one” is an ideal option for those who live in a small apartment, of which there are most in Manhattan. But not quite like that. The fact is that studio apartments sometimes cannot accommodate even the tiniest model, besides, a washing machine is an extra ballast when moving. The way out of the situation is quite simple: in most modern apartment buildings in the basements there are laundries for a dozen washing machines and dryers intended for general use. You load the laundry, add your powder, throw coins — and wait, reading a book to the measured hum of drums. Just like in the movies. Then you dry it the same way.
