My house is making me seriously fed up

[Houseagh]

We live in a two bedroom recently built house. It’s a lovely area with a big garden. Just for an idea we aren’t huge earners but earn a good bit more than minimum wage. We moved into this house before I got my job, so we were (and still are, just) eligible to rent cheaply through our housing association so we actually only pay 80% of the market value rent, which is currently a little more than six hundred pounds a month. I can’t imagine we’d find housing cheaper anywhere else.

Two years ago with the salaries me and DH have now, we’d have been able to easily afford a nice 2-3 bed house in our area. With interest rates as they are we either take a doer-upper house in need of massive renovation or a studio flat and they are in short supply thanks to landlords snapping them up. We don’t have the funds for renovation and anyway it would be expensive to pay rent whilst we pay mortgage for the renovation project, and moving in with family isn’t possible.

I feel rather stuck. Buying is a huge challenge right now thanks to interest rates. Even on a smaller flat or house than the one we have now, we’d be paying at least £500 a month more than we do in rent. We would have very little disposable income. We also want a family and I don’t imagine increasing essential outgoings and debt is particularly smart before being on reduced income through maternity & childcare costs.

I’ve run a few calculations and we are a matter of pounds over the threshold of being entitled to any UC help, even when we have a child and I’m on maternity leave.

We don’t have much space at all in our current house. It would be okay for us and one DC but the house is really wearing me down. The carpets have no underlay so it’s concrete underneath. We could replace them but what is the point in shelling out for carpets in a home you don’t earn? I am doing an extra qualification and finding it hard to have anywhere to study comfortably, sitting on the sofa has my back in tatters.

Not sure what the point to this post is, I’m well aware that some folk have it way worse. Our bills and cost of living just seem very high atm and it seems pretty rubbish. Has anyone any ideas as to home improvements we can make for relatively cheap?

Seeing as you've go so much on with work, kids and study, is there any way your employer would let you or DP drop an hour or so to enable you to claim UC if you're really only just over the limit?

Otherwise what about a decent study chair, lamp and desk? Second hand would be fine.

Nowhere to really put a desk. We haven’t got kids yet but hoping to have one soon.

I think it would be an idea to put underlay down. It would be warmer and more comfortable.

You could ask on Freecycle for underlay, even 2nd hand laid under your current carpets would help. Or maybe some big rugs.
You need a desk if WFH. You say you have 2 bedrooms and want a child. For now, that 2nd bedroom is your office, until it needs to become a nursery bedroom

You say you've got a big garden - you can put a very nice garden office in for under ten grand. In some cases way under (size of room).
Could be an interim solution until you can think about moving again?

Tbh we would be putting that down on a house if we had it spare, or at least towards it anyway.

Rugs over the carpets to help with warmth and comfort. You can get cheap ones in places like B & M Bargains, then you can take them with you when you eventually move. I'd also set the 2nd bedroom up as your office. Get a fold up desk and chair for in there. When you do have a baby can it's cot not go in with you for a bit and then surely it won't have that much stuff in the bedroom for the first year or so? I suppose it all depends how big the bedrooms are. Can you not fit a fold up desk and chair in a corner of your lounge? I feel so sorry for you as I can imagine how difficult it is to get on the property ladder these days.

If you are studying for a further qualification, presumably that will increase your earnings in the foreseeable future?

Why can’t you put a desk in the second bedroom and study there?

I get that you resent spending money on a HA property, but personally I think anyone with a secure social housing tenancy would be utterly mad to give it up. Owner-occupied houses cost a lot of money to maintain, and at the moment your HA is responsible for all the most expensive repairs, aren't they? That would all fall on you if you bought somewhere, and what if interest rates start to climb again (as has been mooted today)?

If you can’t afford new furniture, a desk & chair, have a look at auction house catalogues online, there’s almost bound to be one somewhere near you. Brown ( ie wooden) furniture is SO unfashionable at auction these days that you can pick up a nice bureau & chair for next to nothing to put in a corner of your spare bedroom. Would save your back compared with sitting on the sofa & you could store things in it.

Facebook marketplace has loads of desks and chairs usually as people get rid of their wfh set ups

Get the second bedroom set up as an office. Even if you do have a dc they’ll be in your room a while anyway. We have a tiny house. Dh has his desk set up in lounge to wfh and I work full time and study and my study area is my bed unfortunately.

People used to put newspaper or cardboard under the carpet for extra insulation. You can get cheap or free wooden desks and upcycle or just give them a good clean and polish.
You really need to prioritise somewhere to work that doesn't cause you long term back problems, if you are too ill to work your plans will be pushed even further back.
You sound really down, but in fact things really aren't as bad as you think. You have somewhere to live and you should be able to be happy there for a few years. Worth investing a little into making it more comfortable to live in.

I feel the same. I'm in my early 40's and still renting. We get damp and slugs have been seen and carpets are cheap crap. House itself is lovely but needs some loving care and I don't feel like we should waste money. No chance of buying in the near future and it's really getting me down

And we privately rent for 1k a month

I agree with @Crikeyisthatthetime you seem so down and defeated, it's easy to feel overwhelmed (I rented for 15 years and then renovated the last 3 houses we've lived in and at times I thought it would break me!) On the positive side (if you can describe it as such) it's a difficult market at the moment anyway so not a good time to buy and prices are definitely levelling out or even falling so with your increased earning power in the future your situation won't always be the same as it is now.

Practically if you have a spare bedroom you shouldn't in theory have to work on the sofa? What's in the second bedroom at the moment? Even if you want to keep it eventually as a nursery my dd has this folding desk as an example which you can just use with a normal dining chair and still fold away when you need the space.

More broadly, painting is the cheapest and quickest way to make a big and immediate difference to how your house feels. My process (if this helps) is to start with one room, go to pinterest and save images that I love. You quickly start to see a pattern , I combine that with how I want the room to feel, the direction it's facing and how I want to use it and then able to create a mood board in PowerPoint. You don't need to buy everything straight away as the best rooms are built up over time but having a vision of what you're aiming at and a plan for the colour and style will help keep me on the right track and always feels like a positive step. Also on the property board there's lots of posters who spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff so will be able to help if you get stuck or need some advice.