In what did you start your married life ?

In Hospital married quarters,one-bedroom, shared kitchens, alternating with a first floor flat we rented over a shop.
Next three years rented hospital flats, moving around the country.

Brand-new council house in a New Town.
2 years later we moved to the countryside and a ramshackle wooden house with no electricity but it did have gas light and an indoor toilet.
Our homes improved gradually from there.

We started married life in the in-law's flat. My FIL had got a job with a flat attached so they said we could use their flat until they needed it. We paid £5 a week in NW London! After a couple of years they suddenly announced they needed the flat back but luckily by then we had a small deposit saved and moved to North Kent, our first living room furniture was 2 deckchairs.

A 2 bedroom bungalow. Lots of great parties. Decorated with lime green walls, orange curtains and fishermens’ nets. Those were the days …No tv

We bought a 3 bed mid terrace house 30 miles outside London as we couldn't afford to buy in London. We had the basics a cooker, a bed, a fridge, a table with 2 chairs, and as we decorated we furnished each room as we went.

We moved straight in with mother in law. I was pregnant so we got married with nowhere to live. We stayed for almost a year and when DS was six months old we bought our first house an end terrace for 16,500. We had mostly donated furniture but it was ours.

A rented new tiny flat in Handsworth Wood in Birmingham. We saved and saved. I wanted to go into the Building Society to ask them to put our £2,000 on the counter so I could see it!
We then realised we couldn’t afford to buy a house there-folk we’re camping out on pavements overnight to secure new homes so we moved further north nearer our families and DH could commute. He then had to do that increasingly awful
commute along the M6 til he retired.

Upstairs furnished flat in outer London area, with the owners living below. They kept a locked room upstairs for their own use, so there was no privacy, no locks on our doors. £5 pw rent. Cash, no rent book.
Huge lounge, over the front room downstairs which they did not use, but they kept reminding us not to make a noise. No heating, electric fire, tiny kitchen, no washing machine or space for one, so it was handwashing or the laundrette. Nice area, but two buses to my work.

I was lucky.. My new DH had his own house prior to our marriage, but in another area, so we moved into Naval Officers quarters, 3 beds large semi, sperate Dunning room, utility room etc.
Beautiful But the down side when we moved to our own house, no where near as big.

A rented furnished flat for a year while our new was being built. It had enormous rooms, one coal fire for which the coal had to be carried up 67 steps, and it was the winter of 1962/3! I celebrated my 21st birthday there.

DH already had a 3 bed semi in Sussex when I moved in, but only for a few months. It had a Baby Burco & a spin drier which I hadn’t a clue how to use! After 4 months, by then in possession of an automatic washing machine (hurrah) we moved into ‘our’ house, a small Georgian doer upper semi on the edge of the Pirbright ranges in Surrey where we had our first baby.

A rented first floor flat. The owner lived on the ground floor and reduced our rent on the understanding I would help her in and out of the bath. I was a nurse and the landlady had suffered a stroke. I was pregnant and had to wear baggy jumpers to disguise the fact as no children allowed. Fortunately we were able to buy a house before the baby was born. Our house cost £1,500 and the mortgage was £14 a month. We were hard pushed to afford that.

Back in 1964 we were able to take advantage of the London County council scheme which gave 100% of a property valuation (carried out by local Estate agent), without any questions on income/salaries.
So, we bought this end of terrace Victorian house in East London. No indoor toilet, no central heating, We had grand ideas as to what we intended to do with it. Cost £3,950.00 (If you wanted to purchase that house now (borough has become fashionable and gentrified ) it would cost close on a million pounds!!! Most have now been divided into two flats, each selling for around £65000

We struggled to pay the very high interest mortgage, even with both of us working full time. Rented out the small garage and took in a lodger. ALL second (or more) furniture. Tiny scullery with very old gas cooker. First day there hubbie's foot went through floor boards in hallway and it was discovered the whole ground floor was rotten with wet rot. Even before that (when our two mums took over some food the day after our wedding), the lights fused and it was discovered that there were actually only TWO points in the house - all the rest were running of the lighting circuit. Most of our wedding present money was spent on re-wiring the house and having new floor !!!!

We were the first two people in both our families to purchase our own property and it was a very steep learning curve for us. House had also been built over a very old stream and no foundations. Large, shiny black water beetles came out every night. I detested it -but it was eight years before we were able to move out.

A tiny rented 1 bedroom flat. The kitchen was just an alcove off the living room, the bathroom had a bath you could only sit in, not stretch out - difficult for my new husband. No heating. We could hear the upstairs tenant's TV through the ceiling.

....but we loved it.

A Police flat in the middle of London, rent free. We were both 21. There was a pub opposite our bedroom window and George Melly and co used to belt out music every weekend while DH was trying to sleep after night duty.

Saved for a year to get a deposit and bought the house we are still in now. Moved in in 1970, after our honeymoon, and have raised 3 children here. Like everyone else we have had good and bad times. I was 21 when we married but looked a lot younger - I still smile when I remember answering the door to someone in the early days who asked "Is your mother in?" I have to say that I definitely look my age now!!
Good thread - Thank you Floradora

We shared a home with my newly widowed mum for 5 years.

Helped both of us with shared expenses, household tasks, cooking.

But after our two children were born, really wanted our own home.

We went our separate ways amicably, and were always close.

My bedroom at home. We lived with my parents until we were eligible for a house of our own. I had applied for one as an incoming worker at the Hillfoots or Menstrie, Alva, Tillicoultry area and we applied for a council house too. The Scottish Special house came first so off to Menstrie we went. It was a two bedroom terraced house with fields at the end of the garden. It was a lovely community and we had three happy years there until we saved enough for a deposit.

A rented flat in an Edwardian terrace on Hayling Island sea front. It was lovely in the summer, apart from travelling to work, cold in the winter, high ceilinged rooms were difficult to heat

1971, aged 23, we had saved and saved and managed a deposit on a brand new 3 bed house, detached and at the end of a cul de sac in wigston magna. Every stick of furniture was second hand and we could not afford a lawn mower or carpets. We knew nothing about living within the financial comfort zone. One salary and new baby

We did not stay long, moved due to work, to Buckley, a neat modern 3 bed semi, much better financially. I have moved nine times, six were due to work and the last three downsizing and practicality to be near shops and buses

We lived together first for a couple of years in Hamburg in a converted outbuilding that had originally been used to keep pigs in. One furnished room with a bed settee, a sink and stove in the corner and a tiny bathroom attached. We’d been there a couple of months when we heard rustling outside in the middle of the night. Pulled back the curtain to find armed police in full gear looking for a previous occupant…

We had to comply with a lot of regulations regarding clearing snow, flushing the toilet, hanging out washing, etc, etc, all of which had strict time restricted rules, some of which we suspected were made up by our elderly neighbours. Happy days!

Teachers flat near Glasgow. We paid £1 a week rent and £1 a week rates. We had second hand furniture and no fridge, washing machine or hoover. I used to have to get the coal in when I got back from work before we had heat or hot water!

We bought a 3 bed semi overlooking fields. It was a doer upper. Loved that little house. Was only part way through the renovations when we moved to another part of the country with DH’s job.

Grandma70s that sounds the same as my MIL when she started married life in Liverpool like you say they were happy times.

Started married life in the bungalow I'm still living in almost 49 years later. My future FIL was a small scale builder and said if we found a plot he would build us a house.
We were his labourers and as our skills improved DH and I did brick laying and roof tiling.
Raised our children here and it's where my DH died back in March.
Currently got my daughter and her baby visiting which is a joy!

Not too sure if I shall stay here. I'm going to give it a year or two and see how I feel.

We were living in a basement flat in Mannheim together so nothing changed when we got married. I lived literally 5 minutes by bike from where I worked. DH was a teacher, a half-hour drive away. One day he came to pick me up from work in the car as we were going on shopping or something. There was a level crossing between my office and my home. It was a fine day. We had to wait quite a long time at the level crossing and there was a very sudden cloudburst. He might have left the flat no more than 20 minutes, but we went straight back to the flat and it was already flooded!

People don't buy houses in Germany, they wait until they are about 40 and then build one to meet their specifications, if at all. We did buy one quite cheaply in 1987 from a couple who were getting divorced. We have been tweaking it ever since.

I am glad we didn't build it ourselves though, because there is not the attachment and if I was ever left a widow, I would move out to somewhere smaller with no regrets. Germany is full of widows rattling around in huge houses - my immediate neighbour and the lady opposite are good examples.