Our first home was a flat in Leicester, the bottom half of an old terraced house opposite the blank brick wall at the rear of a garage business.The small living room had an old unusable kitchen range in it,and there was a tiny scullery with a deep stone sink and not much else.The lavatory was the second door along in the back yard, beyond the coal shed,and was shared with the tenants of the upstairs flats who had either to walk through our flat to get to it or go out of the front door and down a little alleyway between the houses. The only bathroom was in the upstairs flat with a hot water tank that took 24 hours to heat enough water for a bath. We were happy there for two years and thought ourselves lucky to have our own place.After two years we had saved up enough to pay the deposit on a detached house with a big garden which was on the market for £3750.How times have changed.
Bought ( well had a mortgage) on a 3 bed terraced house. After our honeymoon we were left with £5 in the bank. That was in 1970 with first H. With 2nd DH we rented a detached bungalow until our police house was ready to move into. That was 1982.
A rented flat over a hairdressers on the corner of Bramford road in Ipswich.
A horrible grotty rented bedsit with a shared bathroom. But only for about 4 months, thankfully.
In a hotel in Bulawayo Zimbabwe. I was receptionist there so got free board & Lodging for both of us.
A flat in the attic of a private school. I think it had been meant for a caretaker but was not used at that time. We had a huge living room with amazing views for miles. Our bedroom was entered through what looked like a cupboard - we had to bend down to go through the door but once inside could stand up in the centre of the room. The kitchen was so small we could stand in the middle and almost touch all four walls. The fridge and a cupboard for food lived outside on the landing. The bathroom was down a flight of stairs. We never saw any of the boys as we had left for work before they arrived and they had left by the time we got home. DH reduced the rent by doing minor DIY jobs around the school at weekends. We lived there almost rent free for six months by which time we had saved enough for a deposit on a three-bed house.
We rented a flat above a dry cleaners in town. My dad went mad, saying it was a fire risk. He worried so much we only stayed a week. We then got posted to Germany and moved six times in three years. One flat was third floor. The landlords lived below us. They were elderly and walked in and out of our flat at will. We couldn't complain as the lady sometimes left home made potato cakes on our kitchen table. However one evening we came home and switched on the light and a dozen or so mice ran into hiding! I was horrified down we did all we could to get moved. Another quirk of that flat was that the clothes line was on a flat roof. I had to carry my washing up a ladder. The men who worked on the ground floor would wolf whistle as they could probably see up my skirt!
Naval married quarter in Plymouth. Right opposite the dockyard, so close you could hear the ship’s pipes. (Some were quite amusing). £1.01p per day.
We moved into a brand new property with just a bed and table and chairs. Mortgage rates were high so we slowly saved for carpets, sofas etc. I still live here now 50 years later with DH no.2.
In the house I was born in!
My grandparents had bought it from new & when my Dad was getting married to the girl across the road- my Mum so they bought it from them.
My Mum left us when I was 16 b& Dad eventually met someone else so he was moving & sold the house to us as we were about to get married too. My husband & I lived there until our sons were 5 & 2. It was a wrench to move but we needed more space & the area had started to go downhill so we moved out to 'the country'.
If I am ever in the area I have to go & look at it still but the area is very run down now.
Windsor Castle, yes, really.
King George 1V Lodge,
Lancaster Tower
Windsor Castle
Lovely view down the Long Walk from the dining room window. Sentry box (complete with occupant) beneath the sitting room window.
We had to move into police accommodation, there was only a
Flat available which the police rented. It was over a grocery shop with a bakery at the rear. On the Main Street opposite a
news agents and fish mongers, this meant very early morning
deliveries. The building was attached to the town hall, the clock
chimed every 15 minutes. A dance held there every weekend , when the drums were hit the china in our kitchen rattled.
We move to a police house 17 months later. Bliss.
In the same house we live in now, a semi detached victorian cottage on an estate of similar properties in S E London. Bought it in 1972 for £7,750, similar properties being sold on our road for £500.000 now.
We first lived in a small terraced house with a downstairs bathroom. It was in 'Sarf' London and at £26000 in 1981 at the very top of our budget. All our furniture was second hand but we did have a new mattress. I loved it but we only lived there for two years as my DH was offered a new job north of The River.
Lovely upstairs flat of a semi. Shared garden with downstairs couple called McGinty. I always had to suppress the urge to sing Paddy McGinty’s Goat.
The landlord used to wander in and poke around when we weren’t there, so we removed the door handles to prevent access.
We started off in a ground floor flat with an upstairs shared bathroom the guy upstairs always used the hot water which was heated by 1 shilling pieces in the hallway insisting he had put the money in the meter.
We stayed there for 18mths until baby son was born when we started looking for a house and saving for a deposit,my FIL died and left us a large amount of money so we where able to buy our first 3 bed house for £5.250 we thought we had moved into a palace just after we completed the sale my husband was offer a 3 bed house in Port Sunlight it was a beautiful area and still is, I would have loved to had lived there but owning our own home was far more important at the time.
A two bedroom flat with a view of the local cemetery. We had moved on before it became the Kray brothers’ resting place.
grandmajet
Beechnut
In each other’s arms on cloud nine ??
Do you still live there?!?
We did until DH passed away. ?
P.S, In Torquay.
We lived in a bedsit but soon managed to get the deposit for a
rented flat. It then took another 4 years before we could buy our own house.
Beechnut
In each other’s arms on cloud nine ??
Do you still live there?!?
1980 rented house
We had a 2 bedroom teachers flat which was subsidised in Scotland and I could walk to work. It was a shock when we moved to London.
We moved into our 2 up2 down terrace which we bought for £6500 on our wedding night. No honeymoon, all our money had gone into doing up the house prior to the wedding . Hours of scraping layers of old wallpaper ?
We stayed there 10yrs during which time MiL payed for some alterations from late FiL estate.
We sold it within a week of putting it on the market and bought a 3 bed semi whichs where we still live
A two bedroom maisonette which we had to rewire ourselves. It had purple wallpaper in the bedroom, and instead of changing the wallpaper, we bought curtains and a bedspread to match!!!
We bought a Barratt new build 3 bed link detached on a big new estate just outside Durham. It was £5950 in 1972, plus another £500 for the freehold. DH and I both worked 2 jobs and managed to save a 10% deposit towards it.
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