Housing
Housing is a manifestation of human being, it expresses our lifestyle. In the past, people lived in caves and they decorated their that dwellings. Housing has been shaping up along with people. Through shacks and palaces, we come from caves, to super modern houses. In every country, there is a different styles of housing. However it has something in common – people, who live in a house, should feel pleasantly. I live with my family in a small village. We reside a detached house, which is surrounded by a quite large garden. The house is made of bricks, which are covered in plaster and painted with white colour. The roof is made of roofing tiles and there are two chimneys. The house terrace leads to backside of the garden; we use it mostly in summer. The garage is atteched to the front of the house. The house has two floors - basement floor and ground floor. On the basement floor there are launadry, father’s kitchen and boiler-room. On the ground floor, there is a hall, through which you can come in. In the hall, there are two doors - double-wing door to the first living room and classic sash door to the second living room. First living room is situated to the centre of house. Furniture is oak colour; walls, carpet and sofa with armchairs are green. We spend most of time there.
Housing in the Slovak republic is still different in cities and villages. You can see thatched roofs in the countryside. In villages and small towns, you can see a lot of semi-detached houses and detached houses as well as cottages. Houses, which have only one storey, are typical too. Houses might have stables, because some people keep livestock. An advantage of living in the village is that people have more privacy. The five-or six-storey flat blocks are the most typical buildings in Slovak cities. A flat is situated on one floor and is designed for one family. However, terraced houses formed many neighbourhood units too. One of disadvantages of living in the city is that people cannot escape from city’s noise. The main difference between our country and England or the USA is that almost nobody in England and the USA actually builds his own house. Instead, people normally buy their houses either from commercial builders or from the people who are already living there. The buying and selling of houses is a big business there. Almost half of all British families own the houses in which they live. In order to buy a house a family in Britain does not need to have all the money. It is possible to borrow up to 90% of the value of the house from many special banks. There are several types of houses in Britain. Terraced houses are built in a row and are joined one to another to form a street. Two houses joined together by one common wall are called semi-detached houses. A detached house stands by itself and is not joined to another house. A bungalow is a one-storey house, which is useful mainly for old people, because everything is on one level. A cottage is a small village house. Some people live in flats not houses. Many of the flats that people do live in are in big old houses, build in the days when families were bigger. The British people are fond of gardening; a beautiful well-kept lawn is a pride of every British family. Village life is not as different from town life as it is here.
Living conditions of American people depend on money they have. Many wealthy people have very large houses with many rooms, tennis courts and swimming pools. On the other hand, there are also people who are homeless. However, as the standard of living is generally very high in the USA, an average American family can live comfortably and well. In the centre of big American cities many people live in apartments (flats) situated in large apartment buildings. They usually rent apartments, which are owned by big companies or private owners. Most of Americans live in single-family houses with a front and back gardens. The houses are well furnished and equipped with modern household appliances. Each child of the family has his or her own room. The Americans usually do not stay in the same house their whole lives. Some families like to move to other parts of the country and change houses more than once a decade.Choosing a place to live is a problem, which everybody has to deal with at the beginning of his adult life. After choosing the place and the type of our future dwelling, we have to start thinking about money because buying a flat or a house is usually very expensive, but we do not need to have all money. If you work, you may take out mortgage. Young people who cannot afford to buy a flat or a house often choose to live in rented accommodation. However, it is expensive too, so nowadays it is quite common for students to live in hostels, or for young families to live with their parents.
My dream house is a Victorian house, painted in bright colours, especially blue. The most important thing is that house must be comfortable. The house should have large garden with lots of plants, well-kept lawn and with children's playground. The roof should be dark-brown or black. The house shouldn’t have more than three floors and a staircase has to safer for children. I hate cleaning, so I would like to have office cleaners. The house should have at least one guest room, three spacious bedrooms and three bathrooms of American style, so showers could have Jacuzzi heads, which give a massage while washing. I want big double bed with baldachins. In addition, the house should have big kitchen with modern equipments, which would do many things instead of me, and dining room for special events and family dinners. I would like to have a small computer system that controls all the different electronic gadgets. It would turn the heating on, switch on the light and the radio etc. The house should have a large room for the whole family where we would watch television, play games, listen to music and things like that. Our World is not never-ending, so buildings are built rather skywards than abroad. People kill vegetation for their homes. Every year million acres of fertile soil are turned into asphalt and parking lots. From my point of view in a few years, there will be minimal greenness, so people ought to think of our atmosphere.
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