In what did you start your married life ?

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

We started ours in a small 2 bed terraced house in Singapore our neighbours were all different nationalities, Chinese, Indians, Malays and a few British, we got a fantastic welcome.
The house had no bathroom just an electric hot water heater in a very dark cupboard sized room.
It was an enjoyable start to married life 52 years ago.

We started married life 64 years ago sharing my widowed mother’s house , it was quite common in those far off days.
We could have rented a small flat over a friend’s shop but the moral blackmail and the tears put paid to that.
However in 3 years we had saved enough to put down a deposit on a new 3 bed semi and almost totally furnish it, even to a spare bedroom.
It was soon made clear that my mother thought she would be moving with us.
That was when the foot came firmly down.
When she realised this was reality she reconnected with an old family friend, also widowed and they married 3 weeks after we moved out.
We had five very happy years in that house until we moved for my husband’s job, with our 18 month old daughter.

A one bed flat in a Vicarage. We had our own front door, the bathroom and separate toilet were on the first floor and the living room, bedroom and small kitchen was on the top floor. We enjoyed living there and the rent was reasonable. We were both working and were eventually able to move to our first little house after saving up and enjoyed it there too

I was 19 and DH 23 when we married. We lived with DH's parents for 6 weeks until our bungalow was ready to move into. Brother and sister in law sold it to us, and they moved into a new build house. We had a new bed as a wedding present, and we had bought a new dining room suite and wardrobe from The Ideal Home Exhibition. I took my old bed, and a chest of drawers for the spare room and my parents donated a couple of arm chairs. We had forgotten all about a gas cooker, so had to rush into town and order one. Loved it there, but it was miles away from my parents and I got home sick at first. We stayed there for seven years, and had two children until we moved to this house, where we added one more child, and lots of happy years. Can't see us moving now.

Llamedos13

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 have similar memories but unlike you I didn't leave the country. I wish I had.

DH and I both worked 2 jobs before (and after) we were married in 1972, so w’d saved enough for the deposit and to buy the freehold of a new build Barrett 3 bed link detached. at the time, on the (supposedly) biggest private development in the UK. Fitted carpets throughout came at a discounted price from DH’s employer, my parents bought us a Belling double oven cooker and my GM bought a fridge. DH’s parents bought us a GPlan dining room suite and we bought a three piece suite on HP from the Co-op and rented a tv from Granada. We only furnished one bedroom and I did the laundry at my Mum’s until we could afford a washing machine - thank goodness she worked for the electricity board!

We started off in a two bedroom maisonette, bought in 1974 in SW London.
We had a bed, a fridge and a cooker. The washing machine arrived after daughter no. 1 was born in 1976.
Most of our friends started married life in pretty much the same way.
Four years later we sold it with a small profit and moved out to Kent and bought our first house.
It all seems such a long time ago now.

We were very lucky to be helped by an uncle.All the houses we liked were out of our price range. My husband had helped this uncle with a tricky business problem and he said if we really liked the house he could lend us the extra thousand. In the end he refused to accept the money when we tried to repay him.
A good deed often leads to luck I have found. My daughter was very kind to an elderly relative who once stayed with me. When she died she left her flat to her .

Floradora
Our first home was similar to yours, a furnished upstairs flat in a large old terraced house with the owner, an old lady (she seemed old) living downstairs.
When I got in from work she would be waiting in the hall to have a little chat.
There was a large bedroom, very large sitting room and kitchen/breakfast room, plus our own bathroom.
We had to put money in the meters in the understairs cupboard for gas and electricity.
We were there for a few months before we got a married quarter with our own front door ?

A Coronation Street type two up-two down - a great 'starter home' for young marrieds.

It didn't have central heating or a phone, both of which are considered essential these days. We created a small cottage style garden. When it was time to move on DH planted his favourite plants in a large tub and gave it a good watering. Sadly it was then too heavy to lift so we had to leave it behind.

2 bedroom raf married quarters that still had the door in second bedroom through to next-door albeit locked with handles removed.

A three bed 70s semi in a village in Nottinghamshire equidistant between our workplaces, which my new husband insisted on calling Bottie when people asked us where we lived, it was very embarrassing. The previous owners had been keen gardeners, and left us a list of what was in the garden, which set me off on a lifelong gardening passion. Happy days.

We married in 1963. After much searching, the only place we found that we could afford was an old stone cottage, about 200 years old, and falling to bits, it had been condemned for several years, cost us £1 a week rent. The only form of heating was from a fireplace in the front room, the toilet was shared with a neighbour and was across the yard, accessed by going down steps to the cellar then out through the back door. There were 2 bedrooms, but one was unusable, the floor was riddled with silverfish. The living room and kitchen floors were stone flags, and the kitchen floor wobbled when you walked across it, so my FIL put a strong wooden prop underneath in the cellar. We lived there for 17 months and had 2 children by the time we moved into our new house, my inheritance at age 21 paid the deposit.
Forgot to mention, it used to be a blacksmiths, so there were hooks of all sizes sticking out of every ceiling.

I have just spent a pleasurable half hour reading all your posts. Thank you Floradora for thinking of such an interesting thread!

We went after a 3 bed terraced house in 1972 when engaged and were gazumped (rife at the time). I cried (ha! 19y old and all emotions are high) and my lovely mother-in-law to be said ‘one door closes yet another opens’. Himself decided to work nights as it paid about a third more. A few months later we put the deposit down on a lovely 3 bed semi. We married a week after my 20th birthday. Aw, such babies looking back. Everything in that house was second hand and we were very grateful. We used to collect petrol coupons and every so often cashed them in to exchange them for a glass tumbler until we we had collected six. (The shape of which are very popular in bars nowadays to be honest. Makes me smile.)

In 1976 we bought our first ‘chosen’ furniture - a G-plan teak table and chairs from ‘Times Furnishing’ on Market Street in Manchester. It was on H.P. Delivery of which was a really big moment.

And 48 years later, can you believe it’s still with us! How cool is that, when you think about it? In regular daily use too. All those years ... (Our carbon footprint gets an uptick eh?). I do look at it sometimes and recall all the people, many now passed, who have sat around it, the ‘butterfly’ extension opened out, for special family dinners, christening buffets and
various celebrations.

I can’t believe just how quickly these years have passed. It was a different time wasn’t it? In so many ways. We rented a colour television from Rediffusion. Can’t imagine couples doing that these days! Push button, so modern we thought. And our landline was a Trimphone in avocado. ?. We were very happy and still are. Maybe our expectations were less and more easily fulfilled?

The G-plan - now in our downsized apartment.
“It will see us out”. ..

Hehe!

Gardenersdelight our forces property had a door in the second bedroom to next door too, 1974, RAF Topcliffe. At the time we didn't think much of it.

After we married in 1970 we bought G-plan wall units and they are still going strong!
Sadly I am unable to put a photo of them on here.

joannapiano

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.

That brought back memories we had a friend who was in a police flat in London and we used to visit him there. He used to take us to a police club somewhere and he would drive is home after a night of drinking.
Our London flat was near a pub and every night without fail we would hear Jimmy Young singing " Unchained Melody " .

After we purchased our first house we bought Tapley SL furniture for the dining room, which hangs on the wall.
We've still got it but it's been relegated to another room.