Are we?
We look at the houses in American tv shows and they’re massive.
I’ve only ever lived in 3 bedroom 1 bathroom houses my entire life. Most people i know are in similar boats. The newer suburbs in Darwin are building 4 by 2 but t they’re on smaller properties and everything isn’t that big to begin with.
Maybe i need to go south to see
In my neck of the woods the new houses are monstrous. Double story. Filling the complete block. Probably 3 or 4 bathrooms. White. Imposing. Ugly. It’s true where I’m from.
I suspect dense cities like NYC counter the larger surburban houses, compared to Sydney and Melbourne which aren’t all that dense by international standards.
Also, TV shows are frequently vehicles for product placement these days (even more so than the past), so the houses and cars aren’t going to be reflective of reality. Or just because having a show set in a small apartment isn’t as easy to do well.
Not sure what it’s like in Darwin, but here in QLD all of the old 3 bedroom homes have been renovated with their verandah/patio/etc converted into bedrooms. Often increasing them from 3 bedrooms to 5 bedrooms.
And if they’re on stilts… people raise the homes up and add an entire new home - might now have 9 bedrooms in a home that used to be 3. You can rent that downstairs living space out for 500 bucks a week so it easily pays for itself.
If the house can’t be renovated, you can sell the unobtanium old growth rainforest timber for a pretty decent price then build a large modern concrete home in it’s place.
The average american home is 2,000 square feet. The average Australian home is 240 square metres (2,600 square feet).
Keep in mind America has cities with half the population of Australia and people living in those cities are not living in huge homes.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
With a chill out soundtrack and a colour palette of overwhelming whiteness, the YouTube video promoting the Artisan 55 display home takes us into a double-height ceiling above the dining room.
Along the short, but wide and handsome Appian Way – bisected by a grass tennis court – are stately Federation homes, set back from the footpath by lush front gardens.
They are stationed apart from one another – verandas and gardens and paths establish clear boundaries, turrets and gables showcase wealth and taste – each a miniature castle built for a new world.
As federation neared, local councils were determined to dispense with the smaller terrace homes and workers cottages of the past, the slums which had proven unsightly and problematic in the larger cities.
During the height of the second world war, when battalions of the renting class were out fighting and dying in foreign lands, the dream of “one little piece of earth with a house and garden which is ours; to which we can withdraw … into which no stranger may come against our will” was extolled by the prime minister of the time, Robert Menzies.
Alongside the shift within family dynamics, some have likened modern suburbia to places of miniature fortresses, where unscheduled interaction with others – neighbours and strangers alike – is limited by the retreat into our ever-larger homes.
The original article contains 2,244 words, the summary contains 226 words. Saved 90%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
