To want my house to be nice even if we don't own it

[ChristmasYoni]

DP is in a mood with me because I've ordered new flooring for the hallway, I'm paying for it with my own money from a bingo win as it has been bugging me since we moved in.
The house is a housing association house and when we moved in we painted the kitchen, bedrooms and skirting boards etc. I wallpapered the living room and bedrooms myself and gradually made it home. The hall floor desperately needed doing, it was bare tiles and I covered it with a sticky vinyl floor from poundland until we could afford something better and now he is complaining that I am spending too much money to make the house nice when we don't own it.

The way I see it, this is our home and I want to to look and feel like that. I'm not investing a huge amount of money because we simply don't have it but I don't want to leave it looking awful simply because he doesn't feel it's our duty to 'upgrade and invest money' in someone else's property.
We have no plans to move in the near future, I love my house although when I have finished university and secured a job I expect we will be saving a deposit for our own home. Until then, aibu to spend 'my' money making it look presentable because I know trying to discuss it with him to do it from our savings will just give him reason to complain about everything he hates in this house and how I should call the housing association and ask them to do it for us (e.g he wants a new kitchen, there is nothing wrong with the one we have just not to our taste and he thinks they will replace it with a simple
Phonecall!)

Totally different kettle of fish if you are in a secure HA tenancy vs. a private rental. Private rentals you often have terms in your contract that state you can't decorate (at least without landlord's permission) and you could be kicked out at any time.

In contrast HA homes you (generally) have security of tenure and you are expected to maintain and decorate yourself. The state properties are often in when they are let can be terrible. It is nuts that they have to rip up perfectly decent carpet etc but it's a health and safety thing as they can't vouch for anything the previous tenant has put in.

I live in a HA and have redecorated and had new flooring laid through out. Tiled the bathroom from ceiling to the floor, and bought the garden back to life.

We have been here for 5 years and it feels like a home,

Its difficult as I want our house to be a home but as we move a lot (personal reasons) why should I pay for things to go in someone elses pocket? I only get things like curtains etc that we can take with us.

Hate it though as I can never have the colour scheme etc id like.

I think it's fair enough to spend money on a house if it's a long term let and you can't be moved out on the whim of a landlord. And also if you aren't intending to move in the near future.

yanbu as it is a relatively secure home.
if it were a private rental ywbu u less you could haggle with the landlord.

Thanks everyone, good to know I am not BU. My mum has been in a HA for over 20 years and has always spent money making it lovely. My dps parents however own their house and he can't seem to understand why people spend money on something they don't own.
I've had to put up with the moaning all weekend but just had it fitted and I love it! Just want to pull a chair into the hall and sit there for a while looking at it haha pathetic :-)

It's your home you should make it nice :)

My parents live in a HA house and have spend a fortune on it.. New bathroom, new cupboards in the kitchen, new, flooring, woodwork, decorations etc etc... They've got to live it it haven't they? Why wouldn't they want to make it decent.

In Germany, where tenants have much better rights, they even go as far as putting new kitchens in their rented properties.

I'm sure that hallway flooring is nowhere near on the same scale, so if you plan to live there for a while, why not? Glad it makes you happy - that's got to be worth something by itself?

It seems to be totally bonkers that decent flooring etc is ripped out when HA properties change hands. DSis moved into a council/HA property as a newly separated single parent and it was carpeted and decorated to an adequate standard - it was new and clean, but a bit basic. She didn't get a secure tenancy until she had lived there for a year and paid all her rent on time and not wrecked the place.

OTOH, MIL rented two successive HA properties where they were in a completely filthy, totally wrecked state. She almost completely refurbished both of them (cleaned from top to bottom, decorated, new carpets, she even put a conservatory on one of them). I hope they didn't rip out the nice carpets when she left either of those - it would have been a total waste.