We started off married life in a furnished flat in London over 50 years ago . We had not meant to live in the city long so did not want to put down roots . We had the top half of a house with the owner living below us She was totally vulnerable as we used the same front door and went through her kitchen to put the rubbish out . We had a gas fire in the living room and that was all the heating . The bath water came from a gas appliance which was a devil to heat and I managed to set the curtains alight one day in my efforts to light it . The oven was an old gas one difficult to regulate and I cannot remember if we had a fridge or not . I remember one of my frinds who was a bit older than me telling me that they did not even have an inside toilet in their first flat . Our old lady was very sweet and would leave things on the bottom step for us that she had been given and did not want.
It was made very clear to us when interviewed by her family before we were accepted that we had the right colour of skin and were not foreign .
In a 1 bedroom apartment in Denver, C0, age 20. Saved for a townhome by age 22, then a small home by 29, 1 child.Transferred out of state, rented for 5 yrs., child #2. Purchased a home on a lake. Transferred back to Denver, rented for 6 months, bought another home to raise the family in. Downsized at 62, currently in a lovely condo :-)
With my parents for six months then we rented a small two bedroomed house. Loved it there . We were so happy playing house .
In a flat at the top of a three story house on the Lisburn Road in Belfast. It was 1971 and the “ troubles” were in full force.Lying in bed at night in the unheated bedroom listening to gunfire!
I moved into the rented flat DH had been sharing with 2 other men. One moved out but the other stayed so we shared our 2 bed top floor flat in a modern block, with a lift. Our first baby was born there but we moved to our own 3 bed house when baby was a year old. Our lodger came with us!
I can't remember the heating but there must have been some. We papered the walls with psychedelic wallpaper and had parties and then the people below us complained.
This was 1969. I was 20 and he was 23.
My husband was able to cash in a pension as he’d been working less than five years - not sure if it was his NI contributions or a company pension, but it was enough for the deposit on a small three bed semi near Manchester. We had no money for furniture apart from a fridge so slept on a mattress on the floor and has second hand furniture.
We only lived there for three years before moving to a larger semi in a nicer area and starting our family.
Married quarters. It was a fairly modern first floor flat with G-plan furniture covered in psychedelic fabric. Sitting/dining room, two bedrooms, bathroom (no shower), and a decent sized kitchen. Nearly three years later it was no joke humping the baby paraphernalia up those stairs.
A two up two down terrace in East London rented from my fathers employer. Outside toilet, the only heating was an open fire in the sitting room, a (probably dangerous) gas contraption in the kitchen for hot water. We went to my parents for a bath. We loved it there even though I managed to fall top to bottom down the stairs and it took days to get the included cooker almost clean.
Extremely fortunate merlotgran, those were views to die for! I love West Wight.
A 2 bedroom and boxroom semi detached new house with garage .Council house allocated 2 weeks after we got married,central heating was included in the rent .
Our council had built hundreds of new homes for Glasgow overspill ,though we were locals we were very lucky to be given one to begin married life ,
We stayed there for 8 years until our business was established ,hen bought a flat near the school we wanted our 4 year old to attend .
Sadly Thatchers sale of council houses meant many were sold and not replaced and its only now that a lot of new council properies are being built
A rented farm cottage on the Isle of Wight. Fabulous views across Tennyson Down and opposite the field where the 1970 Pop Festival was held.
Our first two children were born there. Happy days.
Two bedroom terrace in an award winning Brutalist development (no, not the Barbican). It wasn’t unusual to open the door for the milk and find a coach load of architecture/town planning students taking photos of me in my ratty dressing gown.
It was - and still is, which pleases me - a council house.
In one room. A bedsit. I had been living there alone anyway as I left home at 19, so my husband simply moved in with me. But we saved and then had a nice garden flat where our first child was born.
We rented this impractical place from people we knew. I have never before or since lived anywhere as big or as cold. We were, of course, very happy.
A mobile home in a tiny village in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert in New Mexico. There was almost no housing and it was the only option. Except it turned out to have a cockroach infestation, so I insisted we find something else. The something else was a huge mobile home with 3 bedrooms and fortunately no insects.
It was a very surreal experience. One that I'd love to repeat, although at the time, I just wanted to come back to the UK.
In 1968, a big flat at the top of a Georgian house in Liverpool.
Third floor, so a lot of stairs, no lift of course. The rooms were huge, except for the kitchen, which was tiny. To get to the loo there was a long sprint to the far end of the enormous freezing bathroom. No heating, though we eventually got two storage heaters for the sitting room, which was at least forty feet long. The only furniture we possessed at first was a bed and a cooker.
A lovely rented flat in Leigh on sea. That was when Leigh on sea was like a friendly village. Unlike now where it’s full of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. That was 1969.
1976 New 3 bedroom new semi detached.
We had saved up a good deposit by doing nothing and going nowhere for a few years.
We had a new bed and I was lucky enough to have won a new cooker. Deckchairs in the lounge and Grandmas old curtains and rugs. Fridge was a wedding present and crockery and cutlery were ‘petrol’ company promotions.’
We saved really hard for the deposit of £500 to buy our first home in 1971 a 1930’s 3 bed. We had no money left for furniture ,so it was all donated by family or bought second hand.
2 up, 2 down terraced cottage that we rented for £12.25 per month. I was the first one in my family to have an inside toilet, bathroom and hot water and so relatives came for a bath whilst we were out at work.
The kitchen was in a glass roofed extension and, during a particularly windy night, next doors chimney pot fell off and crashed through our kitchen roof. That was fun to clean up.
A first floor flat in NW London with the owner living on the ground floor. If I had a day off and went out twice that day. there were sighs, moans and groans. She wanted the rent but nobody else living in the house.
No central heating, no double bed, but two single beds pushed together but they were of different heights. The furniture was ancient and uncomfortable.
I was so glad we were able to buy our own house about a year later.
A two bedroom semi detached bungalow with a drive in 1982. We were looking and everything we liked was just that little bit too expensive and my best friend who lived in the same road told me the owners had lost their buyers so we were given the chance to look at it. It's a standing joke now that I looked on my own and said yes we'd have it, DH who was working at the time was told later that day! It was a bargain, needed a lot of updating but a really good price and was a real step on the property ladder. We lived there for six years and we both loved it, only moved as needed more space for a family.
The Seychelles and narrow boat sound great!
We were lucky enough to be able to get a mortgage in the early 80s when it was difficult to get one. Top up loans, endowments etc etc.
We had a 3 bedroom semi
A 70ft narrowboat. It was home for twenty years. For the first few years, everything ran off 12 volts or gas, so no electrical appliances. I used to wash DS1's nappies in a bucket, in cold water at a canalside tap. Later on we had a large generator, so i was able to have a twin tub washing machine then.
The gas oven never got hot enough to cook things like Yorkshire puddings, and the gas fridge struggled to keep things cold in warm weather.
You know how hot a car gets in hot sunny weather - the boat was the same. The very first summer on the boat, there was a heatwave, and we had to rush out and buy a paddling pool to cool off in!
Those were the days.
We bought a house with my inlaws us up and them down i really don't remember being asked if i minded. My mil was not an easy person to get on with. We lived there for 9yrs with 3 children it wasnt easy.
In a small cottage with no bathroom or toilet - just a bucket in a shed! The kitchen roof leaked, blowing the cooker fuse so we had to set up a temporary kitchen in another room till we could get an extension built.
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »Get our top conversations, latest advice, fantastic competitions, and more, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
