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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think there is probably no recovering from this?

104 replies

HeyNannyNanny · 28/08/2016 12:26

Just moved into a new flat share, a week ago.
I work FT and am typically reasonably shy so haven't met any of the new flat mates yet.
DP is not working at the moment so has spent almost all of his time in the new flat, so subsequently has spent a lot of time here.

Late this morning we were having a play fight* in our bedroom which was basically me stealing all of his underwear so he couldn't have a shower. This culminated in me wearing 15 pairs of boxer shorts over the top of my PJs and about three pairs on my head, so that he couldn't grab them out of my hands. We were both in stitches because we're both secretly children (both actually in our late 20s) and found this very very funny.

DP opens our bedroom door into the corridor to escape to the bathroom, gleefully holding a pair of rescued boxers out of my grasp. Both of us are giggling like mad.

This, of course, is the perfect moment for two of our flatmates to be in the adjoining kitchen, enjoying a leisurely cup of tea.

I met my flatmates for the first time adorned with 18 pairs of men's boxers, some of which on my head.

AIBU to think that I'll probably never live that down in this house? And that perhaps emigrating should be in my near future? Blush Blush

*its important to note that this was very very quiet and we also live next to a helipad and next door are having some kind of party so we weren't disturbing anyone with the giggling.

OP posts:
Original poster
HeyNannyNanny · 29/08/2016 19:20

DP is doing all of the cooking at the moment as I work 50+ hours a week and he's unemployed. No awkwardness for me! (Well, except when I run around adorned in other peoples underwear)

And yeah, we live opposite a helipad. Its not ideal as you can imagine. Its a private company that fly rich people about.
Lot of people working against it at the moment as when it got its planning permission this whole area was industrial estates. Its now ALL developed - so thousands and thousands of people are suffering for it.

OP posts:
SlowJinn · 29/08/2016 20:02

I also have the Catherine Tate hilariously funny couple in my head now.

Sounds like a nice place to live though.

Dozer · 29/08/2016 20:05

Are you both tenants then?

CurlyhairedAssassin · 29/08/2016 20:20

What's a HMO?

People aren't picking holes in OP's account, it's just that to a lot of people who have shared a flat, myself included, it seems strange to not know who you're sharing with. The kind of set up that OP describes would be a student flat up here in Liverpool, not a working couple's. Obviously different in London, then, but housing has always been a totally different nuts kettle of fish there. I have lived there for 4 years but was before housing became unaffordable so I'm obviously a bit behind the times.

How sad, though, OP, that itMa the exact same rich bastards that the helipad caters for who are probably driving up the cost of your housing.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 29/08/2016 20:22

One thing though, the helipad was there first and it worked well with it being industrial estates. The housing should never have been built. Just shows the shocking housing situation down there. Developers are building in unsuitable places.

LeaveMyWingsBehindMe · 29/08/2016 20:24

A House Of Multiple Occupancy Curly in other words, a house share rather than one occupied by a family.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 29/08/2016 20:24

And I realise that that's not what you are posting about but I'm interested in housing in London and it seems others are too. As far as what you posted about, I wouldn't worry! Seems normal behaviour to me! You would irritate me more if you were po-faced and upright!

CurlyhairedAssassin · 29/08/2016 20:24

Uptight!

Lules · 29/08/2016 20:31

This kind of set up isn't particulaly new or unusual. I had an ex who lived in one. They were all professional people and it worked well. Often people used it for short ish term lets (3-6 months).

Tiredtomybones · 29/08/2016 20:35

That's frigging hilarious OP. It reminds me of me about 25 years ago and I feel all nostalgic. Enjoy your new home and keep having fun.

GoLightlyHollie · 29/08/2016 20:54

Sounds more like an HMO than a flat share..
Don't see why you won't get over it, even if they think you're a bit weird. And who cares what other people think anyway!

PurplePenguins · 29/08/2016 21:14

This is hysterical. I am never going to recover from the mental picture I now have of you with 18 pairs of boxers on your head.
Grin Grin Grin

Original poster
HeyNannyNanny · 29/08/2016 21:30

Developers are building in unsuitable places.

I wouldn't say this is an unsuitable place at all. It used to be a wharf which is redundant now as time has gone on.
It was reveloped a while ago to provide more housing, it is now apartment blocks each side of the river as far as the eye can see.
And a helipad.
Which is a private one rather than air ambulance (which I wouldn't mind so much) but that's a whole other thread!

OP posts:
Original poster
HeyNannyNanny · 29/08/2016 21:31

I'm glad everyone thinks it'll be okay.
I can see the funny side now but still not my choice of ice breaker.

OP posts:
SnortGruntFart · 29/08/2016 21:45

OK then. That's one way to break the ice Grin I'm imagining you dressed in all those boxers, running around Benny Hill style (music and all), with your DP chasing you and you waving at your flatmates as you run past them.

Oh Boy........what a picture Grin

BlackeyedSusan · 29/08/2016 21:47

lots of people know housing is expensive in london, and that people live in tiny spaces compared to elsewhere, just not the details of the different set ups that occur.

not only have you met your flatmates with boxers on your head, you have just told the whole world too via the internet. no point emmigrating now. they all know anyway.

Beeziekn33ze · 29/08/2016 21:57

Where was DP going if all bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms ?!

Trills · 29/08/2016 22:29

She's explained that it's not really ensuite.

All the bedrooms have their own bathrooms, but in this case it's across the hall, not attached.

StrangeLookingParasite · 29/08/2016 22:50

Lol at reactions of all the privileged mumsnetters who have never had to live in a HMO/flat share

Or come from/live in other places where this absolutely isn't the usual thing. I've lived in (many) share houses, but you always know the people you're sharing with; it's unavoidable. I've never heard of a situation where you can not know the other people.

Lj8893 · 29/08/2016 23:18

I lived in a flatshare and whilst I knew most of my flat mates, there was one guy who I only met once properly and never saw him after that. Would hear him occasionally pottering in the kitchen and hear him come and go from the flat but other than that he was always in his room. When he moved out none of us noticed for weeks Blush

Lj8893 · 29/08/2016 23:19

And that wasent in London either, just little old bournemouth!

MiscellaneousAssortment · 29/08/2016 23:35

The OP has already said the contract is in both of their names.

Which means they are both tenants.

Why so important Dozer?

crazywriter · 29/08/2016 23:43

I can see how you wouldn't have met the other residents. I used to have a house share where I didn't meet any of the others living there until I moved in. Others who joined later didn't meet me until they were moving in. Luckily, the second year I was there, the others moved out and I managed to convince some friends to apply and they moved in.

But that's off track...

As for the meeting. If I'd met you like that I'd have laughed and thought that you were someone I'd get on with. DH and I are both children in our mid-late 20s too. Nothing to be ashamed off. At least you've broken the ice Wink

nowahousewife · 29/08/2016 23:46

curly, you say that the housing OP lives in should never have been built. There are lots of places on the river in London that used to be industrial due to river transportation but that doesn't exist anymore so loads of prime real estate there now. I know exactly where OP lives and it's a bloody lovely area - housing is a much better use of prime river frontage in our post Industrial Age.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 30/08/2016 08:42

No, sorry, I meant it shouldn't have been built by the helipad. I understand about the use of brownfield sites.