# What kind of house do you live in?



## tvdxer

What kind of house do you live in?  

And, if you don't mind answering....how much living space is contained inside?  When was it built?  Do you own or rent?  How many bathrooms and bedrooms does it have?  

Here in northeastern Minnesota, most people live in detached, single-family houses, with apartments primarily being for either the old (65+) or young (<25).  Townhouses (semi-detached houses, rowhouses) seem to be becoming increasingly popular.  

About 65% or so own their homes.

Our house, which we own on a mortgage, has about 1,500 square feet of living space (around 165 m2) and was built in the 1940's, if my memory serves me right.  There's an unfinished basement and two above-ground floors, with 4 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms (one only has a toilet and sink, we added that one).   We're on 5+ acres of land in a semi-rural area.  This makes our house older and smaller than the normal American residence, but we have more land, living here out in the country.  We also have a garage and barn (the latter used for storage only), neither of them attached to the house.


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## BasedowLives

I live in an apartment right now, but over the summer I'm moving back to my parents house, then in the fall i'm renting a house with a few other people.

fun living situations.


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## Arila

I live in a house (about 250 sq metres) on a block of land of 700 sq metres. We have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a study. In Australia this sort of house is common, although lately the block sizes are beginning to decrease. We own our house on a mortgage and it was built about 15 years ago.


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## Laia

I live at my parents flat. At the same flat I've been living since I was born.
I'll become independent (or not  ) when I finish my degree and I find a good job.


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## Chaska Ñawi

We live in a stone farmhouse built around 1850.  The house and the surrounding hectare of land were severed from the rest of the original farm before we bought the property 12 years ago.

We have 3 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, living room, dining room, parlour, and my office (which is more of a store-room with a computer and desk).  One bathroom upstairs.  We also have a woodshed, at the moment full of gardening supplies and bicycle parts, a to-be-repaired woodstove ...but no actual wood.  

The woodshed is slowly sliding downhill, leaving the kitchen behind.

Work done by us to date: new roof, new driveway, some new insulation, new furnace, ongoing removal of 5 or 6 layers of arsenic-impermeated wallpaper (only one room left now) and 7 or 8 layers of paint on the wood.  Work remaining:  apparently endless (but as money permits next steps include repointing the house, catching the escaping woodshed, and building a garage).


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## diegodbs

I live in a flat, 75 square metres, two bedrooms and two bathrooms.


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## Mutichou

I live in a flat, as many other people around Paris do.


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## geve

I had hesitation before voting : I live in a flat, but call it a duplex : two rooms on separate levels, with a spiral staircase between them (and no, it's not just a mezzanine !) 
But still, it's an apartment.

Now I'll leave it to you to picture a 26m² duplex apartment.


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## GipSy AnNy

For some 9 months ago I'm living in an apartment, but for 25 years( since I was born), I was living in a very very big house, which had a lot of vegetation and it was a very special place for every family and friend, some friends called it: "the jungle", because of the big quantity of trees and also cuz I really love animals, special the cats and always we had a lot of them, me and my bros always brought home to every kittie found over the streets.  I still dreaming about my house...I really missed it  (_sniff..sniff..sniff...)_


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## Ilmo

I live in a mansion built of timber (pine) in 1718 in place of the anterior main building of the manor, burnt by the Russians in the war between Sweden and Russia. Of course it has been modernized a little during the almost full three centuries - there is now both the running water and the central heating. 
The dimensions are 13 by 30 metres, that is 390 square metres, but there are also a couple of habitable and heated rooms in the loft.
At present there are four people living in the building - we built a partition wall, a new kitchen and a new bathroom some twenty years ago in order to accommodate my son's family; he has at his disposal a bit more than one third of the total living area.
I guess I enjoy of an excepcional roominess, but in return the old rooms are not always as comfortable as the modern ones and besides the heating of an old building requires a bit more physical effort than the modern man is used to, though the cost is not prohibitive, when you are able to take wood to burn from the own forest.


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## maxiogee

Our semi-detached house is about 8 years old.
Downstairs: living-room, dining-room, kitchen and utility-room all off a hall which also has a guest lavatory off it. Newly added conservatory downstairs off the dining-room.
Upstairs: bathroom, three bedrooms, one with en-suite shower whb and lavatory. 
Converted attic affording den/office space. (Could be extra bedroom but fire laws prevent this use.)
Own outright - no mortgage.
I've never measured the livingspace but it is a lot larger than we had for the previous eleven years when we lived in a small terraced house.
We're on the southern edge of Dublin in the foothills of the local mountains about five miles from the city centre and surrounded by abundant green space.
I would be hard pressed to find somehere I'd rather live.


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## Mei

Hi there,

I live in a flat with two friends. 4 rooms, 1 bath... I think it's about 108 m2... Lucky me!

I would like to live in Barcelona again but it's impossible!  

Mei


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## Roi Marphille

Well, I do live in a small flat in Barcelona by myself. 
Impossible? nope, it's 40% of my salary to pay the rent. That's the secret. Some people think I'm crazy but it's my choice.


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## jinti

I'm like Geve: I live in a 2-floor apartment.  But luckily mine is about 70 sq. meters (about 750 sq. feet).  It has 3 rooms: kitchen, livingroom and 1 bedroom.  And I have a garden out back, which is a luxury here.  It's about 30 sq. meters.  My friends from the suburbs and the country call it my "yardlet", but I'm very proud of it and I've built all sorts of curved raised beds for my flowers and herbs.  The squirrels graciously allow at least 10% of my plants to survive to maturity.

I rent, like almost everyone else I know around here.  Roi Marphille said he spends 40% of his salary on his rent.  I spend considerably more.   Buying a house in New York City -- well, maybe when I hit the lottery.....  Saving up for a house is not possible for me right now.

My apartment complex was built during the '60s.  It's pretty big -- 3400 apartments over half a square mile.  You can get lost for days in here because everything looks too similar, and whoever designed this place ran out of street names.  (Near my place, we have 3 intersections of the same road with itself.  Figure that out... and then figure out how to give people directions: "_So turn left at the corner of 62nd Road and 62nd Road, and then go until you see 62nd Road, and then make a right onto 62nd Road.  If you pass 62nd Road, you've gone too far_.")  The complex is big enough that we even have our own post office, jejeje.


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## Ilmo

Hakro said:
			
		

> My home is a two-family house but I own it all, I have a lodger in the other apartment. My part is 140 m2, the other part is 100 m2 and under these, half underground, there's 240 m2 for garage, boiler room, sauna etc. The house is 40 years old and built of aerated concrete girders on a block of land of 4300 m2 (a bit over 10 acres).
> 
> 
> I have plenty of room for a single person both indoors and outdoors but I have to pay for it with a lot of work – indoors cleaning, outdoors mowing in summertime, shovelling of snow in wintertime.


 
Hakro, try to learn the area measures anew! An acre is 4046,873 sq.meters. Thus your 4300 sq.meters lot is only 1,063 acres. 
Saludos


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## Zakalwe

I live in an house but only in the second floor because the first floor is occupied by an old woman. The house is from my girlfriend's parents and we are lucky as we do not pay any rent. We have 3 rooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Around 90 m2.

Before we rent in Paris a small flat of 25 m2 (for 600 euros a month). There was only one room that we used as living room, bedroom and kitchen.

Now we are looking for our own flat of more or less 100 m2 with at least 3 rooms, but the price are crasy (they have dupiclated in 3-4 years).


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## cubaMania

geve said:
			
		

> ... Now I'll leave it to you to picture a 26m² duplex apartment...


Ah, yes, but you are in PARIS!  PARIS!!!

I gave up living in San Francisco, CA, USA and moved about 50 miles away in order to be able to live in a detached house instead of a small apartment.  San Francisco housing---sooooooo expensive you just can't imagine.


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## Mei

Roi Marphille said:
			
		

> Well, I do live in a small flat in Barcelona by myself.
> Impossible? nope, it's 40% of my salary to pay the rent. That's the secret. Some people think I'm crazy but it's my choice.


 
Really? I don't think you're crazy... you're my hero!  

Mei


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## Rodolphe

I'm  living in my new house 6 months ago  with my wife and our young son Gabriel (just 1 year old) with around 600 m2 of lands. Its squares about 100 m2
In the suburbs near Angers (west of France). 
It's not our dream of house but it's better to own its house than rent a flat or a house.
there is 1 bahtroom, 2 toilets, big kitchen, 2 bedrooms at the step and 1other bedroom that i will build later (when i will have enough money) at the top of the garage. 

Rodolphe


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## maxiogee

cubaMania said:
			
		

> Ah, yes, but you are in PARIS!  PARIS!!!
> 
> I gave up living in San Francisco, CA, USA and moved about 50 miles away in order to be able to live in a detached house instead of a small apartment.  San Francisco housing---sooooooo expensive you just can't imagine.


You think you've got problems. This is a two bedroomed house. 

http://www3.myhome.ie/pictures/properties/5/6/8/260865/373kildareroad.jpg

There is probably a kitchen, small dining room and a tiny "parlour" downstairs. There would be a bathroom upstairs along with the two bedrooms. We sold ours last year for almost €310,000 - that's close on 370,000 US$ or £212,000.


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## Vanda

I live in a quite big apartment with three large bedrooms, one big living room, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a laundry area and a small bedroom that till very recently was known as the maid´s bedroom (well, in big cities few of us CAN have a maid . I share the apartment with a friend´s daughter  who lives close to my parents´ town.


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## cirrus

I live in an L shaped Victorian terraced house with three decent sized bedrooms, a bijou bathroom, a kitchen big enough for eight to sit down and eat in and a garden about 30 metres long.  This means we have the luxury of a spare room and enough space to think - huge luxuries in London


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## cubaMania

maxiogee said:
			
		

> You think you've got problems. This is a two bedroomed house.
> http://www3.myhome.ie/pictures/properties/5/6/8/260865/373kildareroad.jpg
> 
> There is probably a kitchen, small dining room and a tiny "parlour" downstairs. There would be a bathroom upstairs along with the two bedrooms. We sold ours last year for almost €310,000 - that's close on 370,000 US$ or £212,000.


 
Oh, hahahahaha, maxiogee, if this is a contest I'm definitely going to win. (Just kidding, of course, this is not a contest anyone would want to enter let alone win.) For $370,000 you might get a studio apartment (i.e. no bedrooms) in San Francisco, but not in one of the better neighborhoods. For a house, $750,000 easily and many are over $1,000,000, and that's not big fancy ones nor ones in posh neighborhoods. Here's a 2 bedroom house in a marginal neighborhood currently listed. And bear in mind that in the last few years competition among buyers has been such that almost all residential sales are made above the listed price, often by tens of thousands.
http://photos.gmacreco.com/MLSListings/140/Full/296680.1.jpg

Address 676 16th 
San Francisco, CA 94118 
Price $862,000
Bedrooms 2
Full Baths 1
Type Single Family
Style Contemporary
Status UNDER CONTRACT
MLS#296680


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## jereb

hola a todos los foreros

i live in an apartment with my parents, i like to live there because, i grew up with my family, i like more the apartments than the houses because the apartaments have more security.


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## KateNicole

In Wisconsin, where I live, it seemed that condos used to be only for retired people over sixty that winter in Florida, play lots of golf, and have no young children.

Now condos are all the rage, regardless of age or whether you have young children or pets. They are popping up _everywhere_ here, and the most popular ones have spacious yards and are built side-by-side and are connected by the garage, to increase privacy/reduce neighbor-to-neighbor noise. They also come with attractive clubhouses, pools and tennis courts. In the 80s this was rather unheard of in my neck of the woods and condos were almost looked down upon, even though they are usually "owner properties" as opposed to rental properties. Now, however, they are becoming associated with the lifestyle of a carefree, fun-loving, high-earning business man whose too busy to do his own lawn! How the times have changed.

Also, in Wisconsin, the run-down, tacky apartments FAR outnumber the trendy or esthetically pleasing ones.


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## mangohomme

I'm gringo but live in Baja, Mx. I've traveled throughout Mx and Central America and lived in Nica and Costa Rica. Houses are much more common everywhere I've been. They're generally smaller with smaller yards, smaller streets and smaller dogs...


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## Lombard Beige

tvdxer said:


> What's the most popular form of housing in your country and why?



As the situation is almost the direct opposite, I take the liberty to use your words as far as possible:

Here in Italy, most of us live in apartments, which are the rule in large urban areas and with younger people and students, though freestanding single-family homes on a yard are common in suburbs. Even the poor often have their own home. Mobile homes are uncommon as actual homes. The reason why the Italian housing market is this way is the limited amount of land here: open spaces are limited. The high price of gas here also is a big part of determining the housing situation. Italians generally like the idea of owning their own home, and value privacy (at least they do in the North, where I live), and many, if not most, find the idea of renting an apartment past 30 or so undesirable (condominium apartments are popular, and are usually owned by those living in them). 80% of Italians own their own homes.

I apologize again for using your words, but as you can see, they provided me with a very useful framework.

regards


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## tvdxer

Lombard Beige said:


> As the situation is almost the direct opposite, I take the liberty to use your words as far as possible:
> 
> Here in Italy, most of us live in apartments, which are the rule in large urban areas and with younger people and students, though freestanding single-family homes on a yard are common in suburbs. Even the poor often have their own home. Mobile homes are uncommon as actual homes. The reason why the Italian housing market is this way is the limited amount of land here: open spaces are limited. The high price of gas here also is a big part of determining the housing situation. Italians generally like the idea of owning their own home, and value privacy (at least they do in the North, where I live), and many, if not most, find the idea of renting an apartment past 30 or so undesirable (condominium apartments are popular, and are usually owned by those living in them). 80% of Italians own their own homes.
> 
> I apologize again for using your words, but as you can see, they provided me with a very useful framework.
> 
> regards



That's OK 

When I was in Costa Rica, I noticed the same thing as BajaMx.  Houses are far more common.  You see few apartment buildings there.  I heard part of the reason (at least why large apartment buildings aren't built) is earthquakes.


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## Sallyb36

in a rented 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 dining room, 1 living room centrally heated, double glazed mid-terraced house.  i've been in the same house for 20 years, am beginning the buying process now.


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## nanel

I live in an apartment, like most people in Madrid: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and around 101m2. My bank owns it. Oops, I mean, I own it and have a mortgage to pay, which is basically the same.


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## alacant

I live in a one bedroom apartment by the coast in Alicante, Spain. I have a great view over the bay of Alicante. The apt. is approx. 50 m2, the living room is quite large, because the owners have converted the balcony to enlarge it. It faces south, which means that get sun all day. I consider myself privileged to live where I live, would like to buy somewhere, but unless I win the lottery that's not possible! Unfortunately I have to move soon as the owner is selling it. I think it will be very difficult to find somewhere else that I like as much.


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## Etcetera

In Russia, people in cities live mostly in flats. So do I. 
Most people's flats are owned by the state, but my flat, of two rooms, is owned by my mother and me.


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## JamesM

We live in a 3-bedroom house in a suburb of Los Angeles. It's a 1,500 sq. ft. house (140 m2?) built in the early 1980s. 

Until recently, California housing prices were escalating dramatically. Our house has doubled in value since we bought it six years ago for around $300,000 (€230,000). We probably could not afford to buy it today. The house looks similar to this.


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## la reine victoria

I live in a stone-built, detached cottage which was built in 1856. I own it outright - no mortgage.

It was originally built as one of four bakeries which my village boasted. Now there are none. An archway shows where the baker's oven was situated.

My cottage has one sitting room, a large kitchen/dining room and average size bathroom (added in 1972) on the ground floor. 

Upstairs there are two double bedrooms.

From the kitchen there are stairs leading down to two basement rooms. The first is called "the hobby room" and used to be my office before I bought a lap-top. My computer peripherals are still there - when I need to use them I simply take my lap-top downstairs and plug them in.

Beyond the hobby room is an all purpose storage room. This is where tins of paint, garden tools, standard household tools, etc. are stored (along with a load of my old collectables, which I am currently endeavouring to sell).

I have a river running beside my home, and I am surrounded by trees and green fields where sheep, cattle and horses graze.

I can't imagine any other place where I could be happier.

PS: The property was used as commercial premises up until 1972. It is most famously remembered by the older generation as the village fish and chip shop.  

The High Street, where I live, photograped in 1922. Still very recognizable.

http://img356.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wroxall1922oc0.jpg

LRV


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## Maroseika

Etcetera said:


> In Russia, people in cities live mostly in flats. So do I.
> Most people's flats are owned by the state, but my flat, of two rooms, is owned by my mother and me.


Most flats are owned by the state? 
Sorry, but what do you mean? Free privatization has started almost 15 years ago and by today about 70% are already privatized (not to mention the flats which have been private even before that).


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## Macunaíma

Since I moved out of Diamantina and my grandparents' house ( I was brought up by my grandparents ) I have been living in a one-bedroom flat and having enormous difficulty adapting to it_ it's been two years and I can't get used. I was born ia a _sobrado _( I don't know the word in English, but it's a kind of two-storey house, only the upper storey of which is used ) built in 1789. Only two block down the road is the building of the old "Intendência" ( the city's town hall and jail in colonial times ) and the houses where Richard Burton and Auguste de Saint-Hilaire lived during the time they spent in Diamantina. 

Here's a picture of the street where I spent my childhood ( and where I now spend my holidays ): 

http://www.ufmg.br/online/arquivos/diamantina_Eber_Faioli.jpg

Cheers, and you're welcome for a visit!


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## invictaspirit

I spent very many years finding my house, but now that I have done so, I am extremely happy.

We live at the edge of a village which is set in a steep valley. The centre of the village is at the bottom and we live near the top. Unusually for England, we live on a private road (the local council does not maintain the street outside) where there are just 8 houses. We are surrounded on three sides by a very large fruit farm and out of most of our windows you can see apple, pear and cherry orchards.

The house itself is about 150 m2 with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, a kitchen and an office. In the summer, the patio becomes a sort of third living area. The house was built in 1910 and we have spent a lot of time modernising it. We have just finished refitting the bathrooms but will have to wait another year before we can afford a new kitchen.

It's an unusual house and situation...very far removed from the regular suburban sort of home we lived in before. It's very, very quiet here (which is what we wanted). When you stand outside at night there is almost perfect silence. You can sometimes hear foxes, owls and a very vague roar from the nearest highway, which is about 1 km away.

The best thing about it is the neighbours. They are all really great people. In the summer we share food, barbeques etc and at Christmas always visit each other's homes. This is good news...8 households living in the middle of nowhere need to get on well. 

The downside is the ruinous price. The above home is 60 km/less than an hour from central London and three hours by EuroStar from central Paris and less than 2 from Brussels. It is 40, 60 and 70 minutes' drive from three major international airports. That costs.


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## lablady

JamesM said:


> We live in a 3-bedroom house in a suburb of Los Angeles. It's a 1,500 sq. ft. house (140 m2?) built in the early 1980s.
> 
> Until recently, California housing prices were escalating dramatically. Our house has doubled in value since we bought it six years ago for around $300,000 (€230,000). We probably could not afford to buy it today. The house looks similar to this.


We live in a 3-bedroom, 2 bathroom house in the central valley of California. Like JamesM's home, mine is also 1,500 square feet and looks similar to the attached picture. Mine was built in 1960. I bought it 16 years ago, and due to careful budgeting the last mortgage payment will be made within this year. One reason I like this home is its convenience to shopping and work. I am able to walk to both.

That same rapid escalation in housing prices that JamesM mentioned means our home is now worth 4 times what I paid for it, and I too could not comfortably buy it today.

We also own 3 acres of forest-land with a 2-bedroom (1440 sq ft) mobile home close to Yosemite National Park. We now split our time between the mountain home and the city home. When we retire, we'll probably move to the forest home (or sell both and move to a tiny shack at the beach  )


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## Mike P.

10' by 50' feet trailer house, a 1966 model (they were actually built better back then).  I own it outright along with the lot that it sits own.  It's a good sized lot, not like the little ones that you find in trailer parks.


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## tvdxer

Northern Europeans: Just curious, how common are houses like this?


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## Shanan

I live in a 2 bedroom and 2 1/2 bath duplex with my boyfriend and his little sister.  I have a little dog, so we have a small backyard.  We have a nice front porch too, that I love!  We pay $740.00 per month.  I am walking distance to the bus, and the library.  Our home isn't huge, the kitchen and laundry room is extremly small, but the rest of the home is cozy.


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## GEmatt

An apartment, but that sounds like a multi-room affair.  Mine is a studio, currently, around 12 square meters.  I hope to quadruple that this summer!


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## djchak

Typical 3 bedroom Ranch house, with a basment. 2000 sq ft. Pay a mortgage on it and live there alone.


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## badgrammar

Well...  We live in an apartment in a renovated factory, I guess it fits the description of a "loft".  It's about 91m2, and has three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bath.  It opens on to a really big garden, which belongs to all of the people living here, but I'm the only one who gardens, so I pretty much think of it as "mine".  We bought the place for a song about 8 years ago, and since it has quadrupled in price, and so...

We just bought a piece of land up the hill, about 600m2, and we are currently waiting for a building permit to begin construction of our new house, which will be about 250m2.  We are trying to "go green" with the new house as much as possible, and we will have a "green roof" (example: http://www.naturallifenetwork.com/home/greenroof.asp), a "puits canadien" (a sort of buried air-intake system that brings in warmer air in the winter, cooler air in the summer), possibly geothermic heating (if we can afford it) and eventually we will install solar panels...

I feel incredibly lucky and really count my blessings, not only for the house we will be building, but also for the apartment where we are now, which is amazingly pleasant to live in.


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

_What kind of house do you live in?_
At the moment, I'm living in a semi-detached house in the middle of the city (which in this town is a luxury)

_How much living space is contained inside?_
No idea. I've never measured it before. It's not like billionaire big -faaaaaar from it-, but it's big enough for me and my child.

_When was it built?_
It was built by my grandfather, back in the 1950's. Now that my fiancé and I are building a house with our own bare hands, so to speak, it feels a bit nostalgic, you know...

_Do you own or rent?_ 
Own. It's part of my mother's family heritage.

_How many bathrooms and bedrooms does it have?_ 
Well, it's a whole housing complex (three semi-detached, yet independent houses, only inhabited by family). 
The one I live in is a bit small, but very practical and cozy. It has three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen/loundry room, and a living/dining room which also works as a studio. 

The adjoining house has only one bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room and a little backyard.

And the third house has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen/dining room, and a somewhat bigger living room.

It's really hard to just sweep a generalization about the most common types of houses in my city. You find all kind of buildings, all over the city. I think that what most of us want is either a really big department (which are increasingly expensive, nowadays), or a detached house in a posh neighborhood (absolutelly impossible, unless you're a corrupted politician or a Backstreet Boy  )


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## DearPrudence

Well my family have moved a couple of times and as I'm not really settled I'll describe more than briefly my parents' house.
It's a detached house in a very small town and the bricks have the weirdest colours ever (see attachment below. Not to watch just after having eaten, danger of being sick  ). Yeah, so quite old but I couldn't date it.
On the second floor (or third in American English I think) the office is just next to the bathroom. I mean ... You have to go through the bathroom to go to the computer  But don't worry because we, as good French people, don't wash often  No, just kidding. There's another bathroom, don't worry.
Well, I don't know how it is elsewhere but for the moment, there has always been a good cellar in the houses I've lived in: I suppose I'm lucky.
No space outside almost, my father was sick of mowing the lawn.
After the neighbours' cockerel and other animals we used to hear, now there is a concert of various dogs across the whole town barking most of the day (and night)


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## badgrammar

DearPrudence said:


> On the second floor (or third in American English I think) the office is just next to the bathroom. I mean ... You have to go through the bathroom to go to the computer  But don't worry because we, as good French people, don't wash often  No, just kidding. There's another bathroom, don't worry.



Hehe...  In my house (apartment) it's the same...  We were able to add a new room to the apartment a couple of years ago, by taking over a space that was a "light shaft" (puits de lumière) of about 10m2.  This space was only accessible from a window in the bathroom.  So we busted through that window to make a door to the new room which we use as an office.  It is covered by a ceiling in glass bricks, which makes it very pleasant.  

It is kind of akward to go through the bathroom to get to the office (the toilet room is closed, by the way), it kind of makes folks giggle.  But you get used to it.  Unlike Prudence, we don't have a second bathroom, and the office doesn't have a door, so the two spaces are connected and open.  But the kids are little and there's just the four of us, so it works.  

When you live around here, you're just glad to have an extra room, even if it's not the ideal set-up.


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## mytwolangs

We rent an apartment, I think it is 950 Sq Ft.
Two bedroom, one bath. This neighborhood was built about the mid 1940's from what I understand. It is a decent neighborhood. Not perfect, but it is safe enough to not have to worry and not a bad place for $550 a month. It is close to a busy street, that makes it difficult to get out of this neighborhood.


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## francophone

_What kind of house do you live in?_
Appartment.

_How much living space is contained inside?_
Let's say it's spacious for 2 persons.

_When was it built?_
The building was built 40 years ago in what was meant to be the new classy quartier of the city.

_Do you own or rent?_ 
Rent, but wat we pay is fractions really according to the old law, and I've inherited this appartment after my father died. Also ownership will cost more money. The new rent law is like anywhere else.

_How many bathrooms and bedrooms does it have?_ 

2 Bedrooms, 1 bathroom, of course there are 3 other rooms for the living room and the dinning room and also the reception. When i was a kid, i used to run in the space between the furniture, we've the moto of keeping rooms as empty as possible. (note that empty is a very very relative term here )


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## jess oh seven

I live in a privately-rented flat with three other girls. It's a very old, typically Glaswegian tenement flat. Can't afford much else as a student!


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## Cereth

Hahaha...Welcome to Nakano:
Mine is nor a house or flat...mine is just a tiny room!!
you can´t imagine...I don´t give you the exact meters because i´ll get depressed, In Mexico houses are bigger ...My room is so narrow, kicthen,TV,PC,bed,fridge, gohan machine,everything is in the same place!!!!
Bathroom and ofuro (bathtub) are in another small room, I have a balcony where is the washing machine and a wire where I hang up my sentakumono (washed clothes)....but hey! I am not complaining! 
Expensive? Hell yeah! about 1000 bucks per month...fortunately I share my expenses with another guy.


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## Cecilio

I live in a small top-floor flat (we call it "ático" in Spanish) with a beautiful terrace from which I can nearly see the Mediterranean seaside, or at least the high apartment blocks built along the coast. The flat is not mine, I rented it.

Housing prices are simply terrible here in Spain, but the weather is glorious!


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## Angel.Aura

I live in a semi-detached duplex house built in the 70’s with my husband and my son. 

There’s a kitchen, a tiny bathroom (with the shower), a small room I use as a studio, a dining room and a living room, downstairs. 

On the upper floor there are two small bedrooms and a bathroom (with the bathtub). The surface is about 110 m2. 

We have a patio and a small garden, on three sides of the house, with an olive tree, a magnolia tree and a huge perfect flower tree. 

I moved here 7 years ago, when I bought it. I pay monthly for a mortagage that will expire in 2011.
The house is located a few minutes walk from the main square of the small town where I live, 30 km north of Rome. 

There’s a *beautiful* oak wood forest that is a protected natural area. 

It’s walking distance from my house as well.


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## irene.acler

I live in a detached single-family house with my family. 

It has three floors: on the first one there is the kitchen, the living room, a bathroom and a "studying room". On the second floor there are another bathroom, three bedrooms and another room I use as my studio. The third floor is devoted to the attic.

The house is sourrounded by a vegetable garden, and it has a beautiful view on the mountains which sourround my small town.


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## Seana

I live in detached ground-floor house of briks, situated in the countrysite surrounded by huge old trees about 15 km from the city. There are 3 bedrooms and living room with a fireplace. 
We have also shed for wood and a small stable with 3 horses (including 1 pony - very nice 'she' pony ). We moved here 8 years ago (earlier we lived in 80 m2 flat in the city). 
Now we lead double life in the morning we work in the city but in the afternoon we live like the peasants since we have hens, geese, goats, cats and the dog.​


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## maxiogee

We live in a semi-detached house on a short cul-de-sac in a small development on the southern suburbs of Dublin. The house is about eight years old and we are the second owners. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, one en-suite with shower, a large living room and a smaller dining room downstairs. The kitchen is large, having been enlarged to incorporate what had been a small breakfast nook. Just off the kitchen is a utility room and a small w/c with handbasin. We built on a concervatory at the back of the dining room. This has given us three rooms which run into one another - living room, dining room and conservatory which is ideal for entertaining as it lets the guests settle into various groups.
There is a semi-converted attic with a large room in it, but for fire-regulation compliance it cannot be called a bedroom. We tend to use it as an office/guest-bedroom/den.
We have a small garden front and back. The back is fenced, the front is open.

We are about five crow-flying miles from the centre of Dublin city and are at an elevation of about 100m above sea-level.


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## Bonjules

We live in a very nice wood house. Most houses here are concrete now because of the storms. There are three bedrooms, but we are using only two. In the third I put some baby chicks until I can make them a proper cage
outside. Also, the faucet in the bathroom has stopped working, but I have been too lazy to fix it.
The house is set back from the street quite a bit, like 300 feet, but in the morning when all the trucks go by you can smell the Diesel. I hate that. The neighbors are very important, because they might steal from you while you're gone or poison your dogs. So I try to be nice and give them eggs.


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