My Life in Houses

[DebbieTheCat]

Inspired by the book I'm currently reading of the same title (by Margaret Forster).

From childhood I've lived in

• Detached 4 bed
• Uni halls of residence (student)
• Mid terrace off a dual carriageway (student)
• Maisonette (student)
• Flat above a shop (student)
• 1 bed Ground floor flat (first rung on property ladder!)
• 2 bed top floor flat
• 3 bed Link terrace (only the upstairs was attached the flat next door)
• 3 bed detached
• 5 bed detached

I'm amazed there's such a variety, never really thought about it before.
My favourite (obviously apart from current home) was the one bed flat, because it was the first time I had somewhere that was properly "mine" and I felt like an official grown up 😂

What's your life in houses?

No idea until I was 7 (moved around a lot!)
4 bed family home
Student halls
Student house x5 rooms
Student house x3 rooms
4 bed terraced house (moved back with parent after uni)
2 bed flat (renting)
2 bed flat (renting)
2 bed maisonette (renting)
2 bed flat (renting)
3 bed terraced house (bought)

Rented room
2 bed end of terrace
4 bed detached x 2
Rental 4 bed semi D x3
Student Halls/rooms
Rented 1 bed flats x 4
Rented 3 bed house x3
5 bed detached

We moved a lot as kids and I carried it though to adulthood. Im not planning to move out of here for at least 20 years though!

2 bed childhood home (very overcrowded)
4 bedroom house (family forever home, moved when I was 12)
1 bed top floor flat (top floor of a converted house)
2 bedroom ground floor apartment with our own pool in Greece (sadly only lived there for 6 months)
Studio flat albeit with separate kitchen and bathroom (first home for DP and I, God I must have really liked him back then as we had such little space!!!)
1 bed flat (second home with DP and we lived here for 2 years with DC1)
3 bed top floor maisonette (family home with x3 DC)

All in Central London, barring the Greek apartment.

Waiting to win the lottery to move again.

3 bedroom bungalow - birth to teenage years

5 bedroom detached - family home that we moved into when I turned 16

University halls of residence

Room in a semi detached off a ring road - university house share

Room in a semi detached on an estate - university house share

Room in a three story Victorian terrace - house share during my postgrad.

Room in a semi detached 4 bedroom house - house share for my first graduate job.

Room in a teo bedroom Victorian terrace - house share with a friend

2 bedroom second floor flat - first rental with DH

3 bedroom end of terrace - first step onto the property ladder with DH

4 bedroom detached - current family home

My favourite is our house now but I have a real soft spot for the 2 bedroom flat DH and I rented. It was right in the city centre next to the river and we lived the life of Riley!

Birth to about 8 months - 30s semi in Brighton. Rented for my parents for a year because mother married in an empire line frock and it diluted my gandparents' shame.

8 months to 7: terraced Georgian house in Islington.

7-13: Large period seafront home

13-15: smaller detached and modern, 1970s seaside house (step1)

15-16: period 30s seaside residence - quaint and cottagey (step 2) (mother still there)

16-18: lived with my grandparents at their farm.

18: about 5 months in halls, dropped out.

18.5-19: grandparents London flat SW1

19: A year in Europe

20: muck in house in Fulham

21-26: my first flat in London, zone 2. 2 beds: father helped.

26-34: 3 bed terrace in zone 2.

34-54: substantial 5 bed semi, zone 2

54-55: modern terrace townhouse, gated, zone 3 whilst previous house was renovated for sale.

55-now: substantial arts and crafts detached house in Surrey with half an acre. (six months in a 3 bed short term rental whilst house was renovated)

That tells a story of a funked up childhood. Far more stable from the age of 21.

1 bedroom flat
2 bedroom flat
4 bedroom detached house
Halls of residence
Room in terraced house
Flat above a shop
Room in terraced house
Bedsit
2 bedroom flat
2 bedroom flat
3 bedroom end of terrace

Child : 3 bed semil council /bought
Child 3 bed detached bought
Teen 2 bed flat private rented
Adult 2 bed flat council
2 bed flat council
3 bed council
2 bed terrace private rent
3 bed end terraced private rent
3 bed mid terrace private rent
3 bed terraced temporary accommodation
4 bed terraced private rent
3 bed flat temporary accommodation
4 bed flat temporary accommodation
3 bed mid terrace temporary accommodation
5 bed council house

A house with outside toilet ( was a baby)
Brand new 2 bed council house ( was a dream for my parents )
Second hand older 3 bed council house
Uni halls
Uni flats
4 bed shared city tenement
2 bed lodge house of an estate ( disaster!)
2 bed brand new refurb of city flat
1 bed shared kitchen accommodation
I bed contained apartment
2 bed shared apartment
Better 2 bed shared apartment
1 bed flat ( first one owned)
3 bed semi
4 bed detached
3 bed detached
5 bed detached
4 bed detached
3 bed detached
2 bed flat
3 bed detached

This is more interesting for us to do than for others to read I suspect.

4 bed 60s semi-detached (baby)
3 bed 60s semi-detached (child)
5 bed Edwardian semi-detached (child)

Single room - uni residence (student) - small city
Single room with en-suite - uni residence (student)
3-bed flat, new build block - uni residence (student)
3 bed flat, converted detached house (student)
2-bed flat, new build block (student, working OS)
4 bed Edwardian terraced house (student).
3 bed Edwardian terraced house (student).
4 bed 60s terraced house (student).

Studio flat (adult).
2-bed flat (adult)
2 bed Edwardian terraced house (adult) - owned
1 bed flat, new build block (adult, working OS)
2-bed flat, new build block (adult)
2-bed flat (adult)
1-bed flat, house conversion (adult, working OS)
2-bed flat, 1990s new build block (adult)
1-bed flat, 1920s block (adult, working OS)
3-bed flat, Edwardian purpose build (adult) - owned

Christ, that's the payoff for doing loads of post-graduate study and a job which ships you round the world constantly.

Definitely adding to my reading list, and I agree it's an interesting list to make.

4 bed riverside detached with a wood
3 bed semi
4 bed semi
Uni halls
Shared uni house
Uni halls
Staff bedsit
Staff flat
Rented flat in a glorious Georgian house
Staff flat
2 bed terrace
8 bed semi (with one year house-sitting elsewhere for my boss while he worked abroad)

Think I've lost the will to move again until I absolutely must. This is only DH's third home, so I am guessing there must be other people who have barely moved house?

3 bed semi
3 bed semi
3 bed semi
Uni halls
2 bed flat
Studio flat
2 bed flat
1 bed flat
2 bed house

Phew, didn't realised I had moved so much!!

Suspect @veraswaistcoat is right about this being more interesting to write than read (especially without context) but anyway:
3 bed terrace (with parents)
2 bed flat (with parents)
Huge country pub (6 beds, with parents)
Someone's spare room (renting)
1 bed flat (renting)
University halls
2 bed cottage (renting)
2 bed flat (after marriage, rented)
2 bed terrace (first mortgage)
2 bed flat (second mortgage - that might look like a backward step but isn't, as we wanted central ish London).

It's interesting for me to see that I'm not the only one whose parents moved house more than once before I left school.

3 bed bungalow
6 bed terrace
4 bed end terrace
1 bed flat - mine
Married
4 bed semi
5 bed end terrace
Divorced
2 up 2 down terrace
3.5 bed terrace
3 bed terrace (downsize)

Probably got one more move in me but not sure if it’s a downsize or move in!

3 bed semi
4 bed detached
4 bed detached
4 bed semi
2 bed Maisonette
2 bed flat
2 bed flat
2 bed semi
3 bed terrace
3 bed semi
4 bed detached
5 bed detached
3 bed detached bungalow

2 bed flat as baby/toddler ( forces 'married quarters')
3 bed house - still married quarters but in different city
3 bed house owned by parents back in first city 3 years
4 bed house owned by parents in different city 10 years then off to uni
Uni Halls of Residence 1 year
Shared 4 bed rented terrace 1 year
2 bed rented terrace with boyfriend 7 years still in uni city
2 bed terrace (owned) with same boyfriend in different town 9 years
4 bed terrace in same lovely town with same chap for 20 years (now DH!)
Next move will be to a cottage by the sea!

One bed cottage
Three bed terrace
Three bed flat
Three bed flat in Germany
Four bed flat in Germany
Huge Mansion. (Boarding school)
Three bed semi
Three bed semi
Three bed semi moved countries
Three bed semi
Three bed semi
3 bed penthouse overlooking sea
3 bed flat overlooking sea
3 bed flat overlooking sea
3 bed terrace

Cottage
3 bed flat with room for a maid.
Detached 4 bed x 2
Dormer bungalow
Student hall flats x 3
Ex council 2 bed semi

Born: Flat above kosher butcher
Toddler: Rented new build, shared with another single mum
Pre-school: rented flat within big suburban house
School years: emergency council flat, outside loo only, no heating, no hot water for early years
Late teenage years: hooray my mum bought a little terraced house under Council scheme for people who'd been stuck in emergency housing for way too long
18-24: rented flats, ending up in one with only an outside toilet, mouse infestation, landlords collection of drinks cabinets kept in the shower room. Here we go again.
Mid-20s: hooray for the 80s! First time home owner with flat over shop in buzzing south London (£53k!)
30: fuck the 80s. Relationship breakup, forced to sell flat in negative equity (£38k)
30s: new relationship, benefit indirectly from intergenerational wealth by paying half the mortgage on a flat that is not mine (downside) in a very glamorous part of town (upside)
40s: young children need schools and a community, so move to semi in leafy suburb. Home ownership again. Ugliest house in nice area.
50s: relationship breakup, have to sell house. Determined to stay in area we can barely afford. Find unmodernised 2 bed conversion within old pub. Front door leads straight into room that is sitting room, home office and my bedroom combined, there is damp bubbling through the walls, little light, no right angles and stairs so steep you need mountaineering ropes. But it is all mine and I am mortgage free. I love it!

2 bed cottage flat
3 bed semi detached
4 bed detached
3 bed bungalow
1 bed flat
1 bed flat
1 bed flat
1 bed house

A slum in south London.
a new council house on a Key worker scheme
a 2 bed flat purchased just after getting married.
3 bed semi.
tudor cottage and shop
three bed detached
6 bed detached
4 bed town house.

• 4 bed semi in a rural village
• 4 bed detached with an acreage
• Student halls
• Back home to 4 bed detached
• First home with DH - 3 bed semi
• Current home with DH - 4 bed detached in a village development of 10 houses. No plans to move and I certainly couldn't afford to buy the house I live in now!

2 bed terrace
3 bed end of terrace
Lodger
Bedsit
Lodger
1 bed flat 3rd floor
Car, b&b friends or parents for 6 months
Temporary 1 bed ground floor (for 5 years)
1 bed flat ground floor
2 bed terrace
2 bed cottage
2 bed terrace

Mine is short story

3 bed semi with drive way and garden. Then 2 extra bedrooms added over garage
2 bed end terrace with small back and front garden

That's it. Aged 40. 1 dh and 1 ds

3 bed semi
3 bed semi then extended to 4 bed
Student halls
Student 4 bed terrace
student 2 bed terrace
student halls
2 bed terrace
2 bed terrace
3 bed end of terrace
3 bed semi
5 bed detached
4 bed semi