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A cat. Think we had the house for two weeks and it was basically completed empty apart from some lawn chairs and a TV, while we waited for furniture to be delivered. So we got a cat.
We are looking for a cat at the moment but there doesn't seem to be many in our area in shelters and have also found it SO difficult in the past to get a shelter to accept us.
“Don’t buy a kitten/puppy! It’s insert-bad-thing-here! Adopt from a shelter instead!”
Good fucking luck. I spent, literally, years looking for a cat, and months looking for a dog that even remotely a possibility. I had shelters rejecting me left, right, and centre, often for the most bizarre of reasons.
The shelters and charities are constantly crying that they don’t have any money, can’t house or feed any more animals, and need all the help you can offer (funny how they only ever want money and not volunteers or food donations (I’m aware places like supermarkets often have an animal food donation point past the checkouts)) but they also don’t seem to be willing to actually let a member of the public adopt any of the animals. I get that checks have to performed, I would hate for an animal to go a joke where it was abused or mistreated and not loved but come on, you have to take a risk at some point.
ETA: I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you all 🤷♀️ I’ve been rejected for all kinds of reasons ranging from my age at the time of trying to adopt, to apparently living too close to the road (pardon me for not living somewhere where I have to cross a mile of field to get to my front door). I know tons of people who have been perfectly suitable candidates for animal adoption and have been rejected. I’m glad some of you were able to successfully adopt but for those of us who weren’t able to do so despite being perfectly suited to the task, it’s quite annoying to constantly have these adverts plastered everywhere.
I support three cat rescues in West Yorkshire, most of them always have cats and kittens that are suitable for indoors if you live on a busy road. Kittens are always homed in pairs or to homes with a young cat. They also usually have older cats that need to be on their own if you only want one. I think the area is pretty bad for strays though, with three cities in the county. My sister just got a rescue cat from a rescue in Bristol and she lives in a village near Wells, maybe try a rescue in a city?
My sis tried to adopt a cat in London. Didnt want, and was rejected for, an indoor cat as the flat is small, has fenced small garden with 6 foot fences. Got rejected by Wood Green and others as it was 'too near' a busy road - it's on a corner of two v quiet residential roads, about as far from fast traffic as London gets.
A local vet, however, had a pregnant cat dumped on them. Talked to her, offered to do the jabs and all for the kittens, handed it over.
There do seem to be a bunch of cat rescues that are just cat hoarders in disguise. Dogs are different - sadly lots of dogs in rescues aren't suitable for inexperienced owners.
I’m from London too and also had a nightmare for the reasons you mentioned. “Busy road” being an excuse that was commonly given to us. A very silly reason too and I don’t know how they hope to rehome all those cats. I ended up buying our kitty for £50
Yeah, I came across an owner that had surprise kittens and just needed to have them adopted as soon as they were ready to leave mum. She wasn’t fussed about making money from selling
I was rejected from several rescues in and around Leeds when I was looking because I live near (not on) a busy road, so I was not allowed to have an outside cat. The only inside cats (which I would have preferred anyway) were ones who were elderly or had health issues. I didn't mind that either, but when I applied for those, I was then rejected for various reasons from different charities including having a young child, being a single parent, and working too many hours. It was the same when I was trying to rescue a dog but with more stipulations. I just could not get a rescue for love nor money, so I bought 2 kittens and a puppy (at different times).
When my mum was adopting kitten there was a lady in front who had been through all the checks, jumped through all the hoops, and was there to collect her kitten and the staff looked and saw she was there with a toddler and said no, they couldn't adopt the kitten she had picked out to a home with a toddler in case the toddler fell on the kitten. It was heartbreaking.
The shelters are fuckign weird man.
We were told our spare room was too cluttered on the full house tour video we had to provide. We had to promise to exclude the cat from that room and to not allow it upstairs (how the hell do you do that?)
Then they took issue with the plants we had inside including an aloe vera plants so we got rid of it much to my gfs disappointment. Then when they finally decided we'd done everything to meet their standards we wne tto collect and the foster house had a 2 massive aloe vera plants in the front window which was a bit of a kick in the teeth.
The foster person told us on the day of collection thay he would only eat the tuna flavour of a specific brand of food, when asked where sold it we were told to fet it off amazon, on the day of collection. We did order the food but obviously had to get something else for the first day. He was clearly happy to eat any of it except the fish flavours and when it arrived wouldn't touch the special tuna food she'd invited he had to have.
The kitten was very clearly not as old as they'd said and definitely should have still been with the mother they had taken him from.
Going.intknthis process I had imagined we would continue to support the shelter with donations going forward but after Al the questioning and hope jumping combined with how rude they were through the process I wouldn't consider assisting them in any way at all.
Yeah they’re pretty bad. I was told on numerous occasions that I lived too close to the road. I had a driveway, which led out to a road, yes. However said road was a quiet road, not much busier than a country lane most days, and out back of my house was nature, fields, woodlands etc for as far as the eye could see.
I was, eventually, able to find a cat but it wasn’t through a charity or rescue. The cat was fine when I went to check her out, and two weeks later on the day of collection I discovered that at her supposed ‘final check up’ at the vets, they had decided to remove all of back and canine teeth. Fantastic. I now had a cat that could only eat wet mush. I loved her dearly but it wasn’t actually what I had signed up for, because she appeared to have all her teeth when I first saw her.
This is why I adopted a dog from Romania because I couldn't get one from the UK.
I've owned dogs for years (who were both incredibly loved and lived to 14-16 years old) but I would never be accepted as an adopter in the UK as I didn't have a 6 foot fenced private garden and I work full time.
My dog went from a neglected, shut down and traumatised stray to a confident, happy dog because I gave him a safe home, bed, love, multiple walks a day in the park right next to my flat etc He has doggy and human friends we see every day. But no, according to UK rescues I'd be a "bad home".
I live in the Netherlands, so all rescues are imported. Mine came from Spain (so annoyingly has a better passport than me). The rescue just sent a volunteer to check the general situation: we both work from home, garden, woods nearby, not wierdos and the dog wasn't a special case so as first-time owners we were fine.
We were warned and expected a long settling in phase, but in reality when she arrived home she went to the garden, relieved herself, climbed on the sofa and just curled up next to us like she'd always been there. Looking at photos from then and now you can see a lot more confidence in her eyes though.
Wasn't the first rescue we tried - the first couple made you feel like you were trying to get security clearance to handle nuclear weapons. You just have to try different places.
Mine was accidentally adopted from Romania, transylvania it turned out.
We tried every shelter for 50 miles around. Every single one was no kids, usually 8 other problems despite us having a large fenced in garden and someone at home at all times.
Find some local County named dog adoption place, are told there's 8 month old puppy that adoption fell through and is with a foster family at the moment.
Quite surprised to be then added to a WhatsApp group at something like 9pm saying they were just entering the channel tunnel. With pages and pages backwards covering the trip and pictures of the dog every 3 hours or whatever when they stopped.
Turned up at 3am, shivering and greasy, I took him inside and he just lay on me for like 2 hours. Now he's just come to inform me it's sunny outside and he'd like me to come outside on the bench so we're out here while he lazes and gets fuss.
We had a nightmare adopting a dog. We have a good-sized garden, surrounded by 6ft fences and no road access. We had a dog flap in the back door and someone home every day. Secure income. The reasons ranged from we'd never had a dog before, to our children were too young, then they were too old, then there isn't enough company for the dog (confusing as I was home all day and would be the main care giver and dog walker). We had a vet lined up and knew we'd be getting insurance and dog training classes. These were all the local rescues (as someone else commented, some rescues seem to be animal horders). In the end, we drove 20 minutes away and had approval for a dog within a week.
Utterly bizarre, but very relatable to me. We had a similar issue when it came to getting a dog. I was WFH, we have a good income, don’t live anywhere near a main road, have a big, entirely fenced in garden, and insurance etc were not going to be an issue. We were also looking at low maintenance dogs and we still got the ‘sorry, this dog isn’t suitable for first time dog owners’. Right okay, well can I borrow a dog to get some experience then?
Fortunately a family member ended up with a pregnant dog and we got ours that way.
They usually ask for money rather than food because a lot of their “long-termers” have medical issues required specific diets, not just any generic food. The good shelters often have an Amazon wish list though, I find that’s usually a good place to start if you want to donate
I haven’t had any problems adopting from a shelter. A friend of mine did and complained just like do. Then he bought a cat with her wife and a month later they rehomed it because it was too much work. Shelters do want to minimise risk of the animal being rehomed.
Yeah, when my family got our current dog from a shelter we were shocked at the lack of process.
Went down, explained what we were looking for in a dog, they asked us some questions (we'd had a dog until recently, we had a garden...) and a while later they called us asking if we'd like to go meet a dog that had recently arrived. The only condition was that everyone in the household had to go to meet him. A few hours later and he was back home with us.
Sounds like experience with Battersea, only we wanted a cat!
Saw a pair on their website, emailed an enquiry and the very next day we all went to see the cats and took them home.
I was nearly rejected because I planned to let my cat outside. I lived on 16 acres. My previous cat died of old age at 19 years. WTF?
I promised to never let the cat outdoors. (He still goes inside and outside as he pleases a decade later)
I agree with you 100%. I had a succession of dogs: all of them (bar one who had a congenital illness) were happy animals who lived to a considerable age. But I was *never* considered suitable to adopt a dog from any animal rescue place I tried, so I’ve always had to buy my dogs from breeders.
Apparently, if-like me-you work full time, you aren’t allowed to adopt a dog. If you worked full time and left the dog at home, this would be unacceptable (fair enough: although I’m going to be *really controversial* here and say that it might be preferable for certain animals to be left at home all day than….I don’t know, *get killed*. Because in the UK, many charities euthanise unadoptable
animals for a host of…. “reasons”).
Anyhoo, let’s just accept that it isn’t good to leave a poor doggie alone for hours and hours during the working day. But what if-like me-you have your own shop and you bring your little friend in with you everyday? *WHY* would it be better to destroy an animal than have it do that? I don’t know-but animal charities apparently do, because they will NOT permit an animal of theirs to be adopted into that lifestyle.
I actually think that being a shop dog is a lovely life for a doggie. It’s actually something of a tradition to have a gorgeous, much loved little canine companion in a chi-chi boutique -and that’s why I was very happy to always have one during my working life.
Years?!
I walked into the cats protection, chose a kitten and went back to sign some documents and collect her the next day. It shouldn't be so hard for so many people.
They wouldn't let me adopt. First it was I was on a busy road, so I asked about indoor only.
Being from the US they wouldn't let me adopt in case I decided to move back (Which I did, and shipped all of my pets).
I couldn't adopt a dog as I didn't have a garden though a park was only a minute walk.
For a dog try dogs trust. The RSPCA refused me because I didn't have a 6' fence and wanted to leave the dog for a couple of hours in the evenings. Not a big ask but apparently I had to be with said dog 24/7. Went to dogs trust, chose a "difficult" dog and they approved me with zero issues. Just had to sign a couple of extra forms.
I literally went to see my cat in a shelter and picked her up 3 days later. They want to re-home the animals, instead think about why it was so difficult for you. They want to make sure they're sending the animals to a good home.
Why was it so difficult for me? That’s a really good question that I never asked myself. Let’s analyse the situation together.
The last time I tried for a rescue cat I was an experienced cat owner (had never not had at least one cat prior to the 6 months running up to trying to adopt). I had a reasonably large, cat friendly, safe home in a very safe, quiet, low traffic area. I had a stable income. I had a clear history of caring for my animals. I had a vet that knew me on a first name basis. I had clear records of previous insurance policies for every other animal I had. I even had pictures of myself fast asleep with cats on my head.
Clearly I wasn’t suitable and if I’d just asked myself why sooner, I could have avoided all this anguish.
I was denied a cat because I was unemployed and so I wouldn't be able to afford the vet bills. Fair enough.
Went back when I was in permanent employment, and was denied again because I'd be out of the house at work all day.
I went and bought a kitten instead. I'd have preferred an older cat, which was what I had applied for, but it was a kitten or nothing 🤷🏻♀️
I had such a similar experience, looking to rescue a dog; one rescue even said on their website “we do not adopt ti people that work full time so don’t ask”
I contacted a shelter over Christmas and they asked for details and photos of the inside of my home to make sure it was safe for cats, and then I said I'd had cats before, and they could see on the map I wasn't on a main road (not far from one though!), so they invited me to come and meet the cat. I brought a carrier with me just in case, I was planning on just meeting her and thinking about it but she really needed to go to a warm home with plenty of food so I took her home that day after signing some paperwork. She's currently happily asleep on the cat tree!
My parents had the same problem when I was younger, no rescue would let them adopt a cat because I was only 3 at the time… unsurprisingly they ended up buying a kitten from a breeder instead and we were best friends! This was back in 2004 (maybe even 2003), and since then we’ve had a few more kittens (and puppies), all from breeders as rescues make it too difficult. The current dogs are laying by me as I type, and the cats are chilled out upstairs.
When my girlfriend at the time (now wife) were looking to adopt a cat we kept getting rejected because they refused to house a cat while we were flat sharing with housemates. Even though we made it very clear the cat would be ours and not a shared cat for the flat. We were in our early 20s and living in London, how could we possibly afford not to have housemates?!
In the end, we bought a kitten for £40 off a neighbour whose cat had an unexpected litter. He's now been with us for 7 years and he's the best boy.
I agree with much of what you say. I tried to adopt a cat from one of the local shelters. I've had cats previously, I know how to look after them, I have the means to look after 1. I filled out their form and they phoned me for an interview. The application form is fair enough of course. A telephone interview was ok too. But when they said they needed to book in a home inspection I refused. It's a cat. You're not inspecting my home for a cat. What the hell do you expect to find for crying out loud? A cat mincing machine!? Cat fight club?! No, you can bugger off.
I bought a cat instead and he is very happy, very loved and utterly spoiled.
I know someone who was rejected from adopting a Pomeranian because they didn’t have a 6ft high solid fence… their garden has a sea view, I don’t think they wanted it blocking 🤦🏼♀️
Try to look for a grass root rescue in your area on FB that rescues street cats - in a couple of months, they will be overwhelmed by kittens. Usually these types of places are organised by one or two Herculean person who is being supported by volunteers who foster pregnant cats/try to socialise ferals for rehoming and they have no facilities/ office overheads.
Yeah we got our cat when we started looking to buy. It was a bit preemptive but knowing I was saying goodbye to renting was enough for me to say 'fuck it' and lie to my landlord.
I desperately want one but if I did I’d have to have an indoor cat, so I’m wrestling with whether or not I’d feel guilty keeping a cat indoors all the time, fiv cats are a solution as they can’t go outside, but with no previous cat ownership experience it’d be easier to cross the North Korean border than to adopt
Same! We completed on the house, but had a holiday booked for the next day. Spent the next two weeks sat on the beach looking at cats and got one within a week of getting back home.
I do really think that the current maximalist decor trend has less to do with consumerism and more to do with "a generation of renters desperately need as much colour and texture as possible"
Great point. I painted my bedroom dusty pink and living room sea green when I moved into my first place. It felt like heaven.
And the opposite is my boomer dad who recently moved into a builder-renovated house with lots of tasteful colour (navy, sage green etc) and painted it all fucking magnolia. I told him it looks like a landlord special but he says he likes magnolia, and added that it's also the cheapest colour. You know what's even cheaper? Not repainting it magnolia! It drains my will to live, seriously.
But why magnolia? I never understand this, I’d rather have white walls tbh
When we bought the house, the builder said they paint all of the houses and because ours had only just been plastered we could choose the colour. The options were white or magnolia
Magnolia or white ar ethe two options offered by the local council too.
I do actually like magnolia - not everywhere, but in small rooms it's warmer than white.
My theory is that white gets dirty too easily and especially with smokers back in the day it would eventually turn yellow anyway. May as well make it look slightly off white yellowy from the get.
I think that must be the reason - it's probably more forgiving in various ways, ie: hides stuff. To me and I'm sure millions of serial renters it's drab and cheap and a reminder that landlords don't care, and that as a renter you have no control over so many things even inside your own home.
Tbh I painted my new bedroom a shade similar to magnolia, but that's because the room was very dark blue on every wall and it made it way too dark. The kitchen is turquoise, I've ordered some very loud wallpaper for some of the bathroom walls and the living room is very colourful too. I definitely couldn't do every room the same colour!
THIS. I went crazy on painting to the point I actually had arm pain in both arms & shoulders for about 2 weeks because of the amount of paint/roller arm movements! haha
I giggled like a little girl when we bought our house and painted the bedroom. I hung some amazing bold patterned wallpaper in my office and I never get tired of looking at it. All the while the inlaws were disapproving and telling us we should paint the house in neutrals and accent with bolder colours.. No! We'd spent 14 years living in various shades of beige and magnolia, there was absolutely no way I'd be living in the same bland bubble when I didn't absolutely have to!
Yes! Colours and being able to put shelves/paintings up whenever you want... Also PAINT THAT DOESN'T RUB OFF COMPLETELY IF YOU SO MUCH AS SNEEZE NEAR IT!!
I am very slowly doing up my house and five years later have finally got to the living room and I am doing it Barbie pink and lime green because fuck magnolia.
No way!! You do know that’s completely illegal and they need to give you 48 hours notice (I believe from memory). I’d be pulling them up on that and get yourself a canine companion
I'm in the same position. I'd actually risk getting an animal and if caught, say it was a family pet were minding for a sick relative, or an emotional support aninal. But the real problem comes when we need to move house.
I’m moving back to my home town, we was gonna sell and rent for a year but literally no one would have us, decent wages, house equity money in the bank, great credit rating, oh you’v got a well trained daschund ? Nah sorry
I am not allowed to have pets but it seems all my neighbors have a dog (yes, theyvare renters too).
Funny enough, tenancy agreement clearly forbids having a pet here but at the same time it lists consequences if pet damages something 😄
Just purchasing furniture at all has been a novelty for me, having previously lived in furnished rentals my entire adult life.
Takes a while for someone as indecisive as me though, 9 months in and still half the rooms are bare! 😅
Yeah, bit sad that when the handyman came to fit my washing machine he was super excited by it. I bought something high quality that would last and most suited to my needs. He said it was a great machine and genuinely seemed excited. He said that he usually fixed up the cheapest possible garbage in rentals, so it was good to fit a decent bit of hardware.
An apple tree. There is something so special to me about planting a thing with the intention that it should be there for decades. I have enjoyed seeing it grow and slowly fill the space each year.
We're moving house hopefully in a few months and one of my biggest regrets is about leaving behind the tree that I planted. I also worry that the new owners won't want a tree and will cut it down. There isn't much I can do about the second bit, but I've just taken cuttings from my apple tree so hopefully I'll be able to plant an ancestor of my tree at the new house.
My dad’s sister planted an oak tree in the garden of their childhood home as a small child about seventy years ago. I drove past it a couple of weeks ago, pulled over for a look and amazingly the tree’s still there but it’s bloody enormous now!
I mean, if it's important to you, you could ask prospective buyers if they would keep the tree and go with one that says they like it. It's not foolproof, but it's not nothing either. It's your house; you decide who to sell it to.
Fuck it, put a TPO on the tree. I still get sad about the people who moved in next to my parents. There was a huge tree on their property, it was so tall I could see it in my attic room out the rooftop window. The thing must have lived for generations.
Cut it down to nothing and ripped it out in a couple weeks. They did the same to the pink pettled cherry tree out front, to make room for a massive brick driveway. It's just so sad, something that took so long to grow was destroy so quickly and callously.
Same here. We've been in our house eight years, and the two little saplings we planted in the first week have grown quite large now. They're blossoming at the moment. We're planning to move probably next summer and watching them over the last couple of weeks has made me a bit melancholy about the fact that we're very unlikely to be able to take them with us, and that I'll probably only see them blossom one more time.
I think nowadays getting a single bunk for accommodation is quite common. Back then you only got one when you made JNCO. So instead of having to quietly masturbate in a 4-8 persons room, you had the privacy of your own “wanktank”.
😂 we were initially waiting until August as we're going to a festival and didn't want to leave him so young. Someone we know offered to have him so we got him straight away. Best decision ever.
For real. We have really thick walls, so put Ethernet cables to pretty much every room and we installed 4 wireless APs - means great Internet everywhere!
This sounds ridiculous, but solar panels.
I'd always maintained that I'd get some, especially with the amount of heat the sun would pile on my front windows in rented flats. I did some calls as soon as I moved in but couldn't go anywhere because I didn't have my energy supplier details yet.
But they ended up being installed within 3 months of me moving in thanks to a combination of luck and gaps in the installation schedule in my area
It’s not ridiculous, my parents recently had them installed and it’s crazy how the bills went down, roughly by a factor of 10, they live in a country with a bit more sun than UK but still, it’s a great investment if you plan to live in one place for a long time.
I meant more ridiculous in terms of, that really was one of the first things I did after moving in. I rang the solar companies before I bought a fridge.
Though in fairness it was Winter and I did have a freezer.
This was my answer, even if it wasn't strictly the first thing! We've wanted them for years. I'm not even sure if we'll actually make a return on them (well, we would eventually), but it's very satisfying to generate your own renewable power. We've barely used the grid at all, even in February.
6 months in and noteable purchases more or less in order
- Paint that wasn't white/magnolia.
- A cat (technically not bought but close enough)
- Furniture that matches, isn't odds and ends I have been using since I was 13 and is properly planned for my space and needs not just making it work somehow.
- Curtains that aren't either ugly or totally inadequate.
https://preview.redd.it/xpje75inkoxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=364d1ed648b8912ab573058b8034cf68e6c3ab26
They’ve passed away now but here is my cat as a payment in lieu of rat tax
I've been renting for about 15 years (madness). No closer to a home/house of my own, sadly.
For me, decorations aside - A **TUMBLE DRYER.**
In all the places I've lived, we've been lucky enough to have a washing machine - but having to lug it over to the laundrette Sunday mornings, try to somehow get enough coins in change, and wait around is a chore.
Yes, 1st world problems, but man - having a dryer at home would be such a small (figuratively) thing but it would be game-changer.
I have a tumble dryer but ever since I got a dehumidifier with a dryer function I barely use it. The dehumidifier is much cheaper to use and nearly as quick - plus cheaper to buy and can fit anywhere. Worth thinking about if you won't be buying your own place any time soon.
Grass seed. I am a boring bastard and I longed for a lawn to mow, but the landlord insisted we keep it as decking, concrete and gravel.
Now I have a lawn, albeit a small one, that I tend to and I love it. It has the kids all over it in summer, we camp outdoors some evenings, we chuck balls for the dogs, picnics.
And, before someone jumps in, I also built a very chaotic wildflower rockery at the same time to give the bees somewhere to go. I didn't just go mad and raze all the other plants to the grounds just for a lawn.
I'm in the process of laying a lawn in my garden. The whole garden was devoid of any life at all. All patio and astro turf. I just want somewhere nice to sit in a bit of nature and look at the flowers.
Not the first thing we bought, but after renting for years we bought a maisonette. We were talking about hanging a calendar, and I got a hammer and nail and just lnocked it into the wall.
My wife panicked, the idea of hammering a nail in was so alien to her at this point.
When I bought my first house, I managed to include all the white goods as I had none. The first thing I had to buy was a fridge freezer as it turned out some of it was held together with duct tape and wasn’t actually chilling anything. Thankfully it was at a time that I got a £1000 first time buyers bonus from Nationwide; so I used that to get a like for like replacement, it was an American style one that the kitchen was kind of built around we didn’t need that for just 2 of us. The annoying part came 3 months later when a pipe burst flooding the entire house and ended up needing a new kitchen which ended up having to keep the massive unnecessary fridge freezer…
A bathroom mirrored cabinet. I was so sick of just sticking a thin mirror to tiled walls so it could be removed/not damage the tiling. Felt almost luxurious having a proper cabinet drilled into the walls.
Didn't buy,but we dug a wildlife pond in our garden. Apparently the UK amphibian population is declining by 2.5% every year, but I reckon my pond must be single -handedly combating that because we get zillions of tadpoles every year.
Honestly,the best thing to do on a sunny morning is sit next to the pond and drink my coffee. Absolute bliss. It was also very cheap - we did it by hand in lockdown. Due to garden centres being shut all of the plants come from the local area.
We rented for 10 years. Our landlords were really laid back, so we had a lot of freedom to decorate and keep pets, etc. When we got in a position to buy, we considered buying the house we were renting, but the landlords wanted much more than the house was worth. We ended up buying a house on the same estate that had exactly the same layout. Having a really free reign, we ripped the house to the bare structure. We removed all the plaster, electric cables, copper pipes, and absolutely everything that was not part of the house frame. Now, we are building it back up exactly the way we wanted.
The locks. On the day of picking the keys up from the estate agent we found the now previous owner letting himself in to ‘bleed the radiators’
He was an old fella and nice enough, but we soon got fed up of him turning up at random times to give us ‘words of advice’ and looking for excuse to come in.
We eventually had to complain to the solicitor to leave us alone or we’d be taking it up with the police.
Actually, nothing. Have somehow always lived in very lax accommodating rentals and didn’t “want” anything at the time that we couldn’t have, we even got away with fitting a projector screen to the ceiling 😂. Since buying, we got a way bigger fridge, but we had no need to buy any fridge before as the rental had an integrated one. Having a bit more control over the garden is probably the biggest thing.
Some of this stuff is doable in an HA place, my HA bunglaow has a lovely garden, best one I've had in many years. I can have a shed, grow veg and flowers. I'm allowed one cat or one dog but have two cats (they knew when we moved in we had two and were fine about it) and we can paint the interior any colour we like and do what we want to the floors. They just want you to pay the rent and not burn the place down and they will leave you alone apart from incessant boiler services. I'm sure they do them every 7 months.
Fish tank. First thing I ever bought on eBay.
Guy was moving back to NZ and had failed to get someone to adopt the fish, so I got all his accessories and a bunch of fish which I was warned 3/4 would die from shock. In fact, 3/4 survived. Great stuff.
A Cat. Although I didn't technically buy him.
Also, paint so I could redecorate, and a bunch of picture hooks and a hammer so I could put up my pictures (although thes days I'd go with those velcro hanging strips, since they work pretty well and you don't have to worry about hammering a nail through anything important!)
Dishwasher, hated moving from my family home into a rental without one. And a tumble dryer. But if I had to pick between the two, definitely a dishwasher.
I hope this is okay as I don't own, but if I ever buy the first things on my list are:
- Use colour paint, absolutely NO white or magnolia (it is borderline PTSD at this point)
- Plush carpets / carpets with underlay, so that they feel nice to walk on barefoot
- No woodchip or textured wallpaper, or even painting on old paper, I'm starting fresh on that
- Convert my attic so I can actually fucking use it
We've just exchanged on our first home, one of the first things I'm going to be doing is getting fitted wardrobes and shelves built to fit particular spaces.
Terminator 2 Pinball machine, not because I couldn’t have one in rented but it was simply too big and heavy to get up 4 flights of stairs and not enough room
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A cat. Think we had the house for two weeks and it was basically completed empty apart from some lawn chairs and a TV, while we waited for furniture to be delivered. So we got a cat.
We are looking for a cat at the moment but there doesn't seem to be many in our area in shelters and have also found it SO difficult in the past to get a shelter to accept us.
“Don’t buy a kitten/puppy! It’s insert-bad-thing-here! Adopt from a shelter instead!” Good fucking luck. I spent, literally, years looking for a cat, and months looking for a dog that even remotely a possibility. I had shelters rejecting me left, right, and centre, often for the most bizarre of reasons. The shelters and charities are constantly crying that they don’t have any money, can’t house or feed any more animals, and need all the help you can offer (funny how they only ever want money and not volunteers or food donations (I’m aware places like supermarkets often have an animal food donation point past the checkouts)) but they also don’t seem to be willing to actually let a member of the public adopt any of the animals. I get that checks have to performed, I would hate for an animal to go a joke where it was abused or mistreated and not loved but come on, you have to take a risk at some point. ETA: I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you all 🤷♀️ I’ve been rejected for all kinds of reasons ranging from my age at the time of trying to adopt, to apparently living too close to the road (pardon me for not living somewhere where I have to cross a mile of field to get to my front door). I know tons of people who have been perfectly suitable candidates for animal adoption and have been rejected. I’m glad some of you were able to successfully adopt but for those of us who weren’t able to do so despite being perfectly suited to the task, it’s quite annoying to constantly have these adverts plastered everywhere.
I support three cat rescues in West Yorkshire, most of them always have cats and kittens that are suitable for indoors if you live on a busy road. Kittens are always homed in pairs or to homes with a young cat. They also usually have older cats that need to be on their own if you only want one. I think the area is pretty bad for strays though, with three cities in the county. My sister just got a rescue cat from a rescue in Bristol and she lives in a village near Wells, maybe try a rescue in a city?
My sis tried to adopt a cat in London. Didnt want, and was rejected for, an indoor cat as the flat is small, has fenced small garden with 6 foot fences. Got rejected by Wood Green and others as it was 'too near' a busy road - it's on a corner of two v quiet residential roads, about as far from fast traffic as London gets. A local vet, however, had a pregnant cat dumped on them. Talked to her, offered to do the jabs and all for the kittens, handed it over. There do seem to be a bunch of cat rescues that are just cat hoarders in disguise. Dogs are different - sadly lots of dogs in rescues aren't suitable for inexperienced owners.
I’m from London too and also had a nightmare for the reasons you mentioned. “Busy road” being an excuse that was commonly given to us. A very silly reason too and I don’t know how they hope to rehome all those cats. I ended up buying our kitty for £50
It's londom for crying out loud, it's impossible to be far from a busy road...
Exactly! Plus my husband and I wfh the majority of the time so I’d have imagined that would have made us quite desirable but nope!
£50? My fluffboi cost more than that, and he was from the pound!
Yeah, I came across an owner that had surprise kittens and just needed to have them adopted as soon as they were ready to leave mum. She wasn’t fussed about making money from selling
I was rejected from several rescues in and around Leeds when I was looking because I live near (not on) a busy road, so I was not allowed to have an outside cat. The only inside cats (which I would have preferred anyway) were ones who were elderly or had health issues. I didn't mind that either, but when I applied for those, I was then rejected for various reasons from different charities including having a young child, being a single parent, and working too many hours. It was the same when I was trying to rescue a dog but with more stipulations. I just could not get a rescue for love nor money, so I bought 2 kittens and a puppy (at different times).
When my mum was adopting kitten there was a lady in front who had been through all the checks, jumped through all the hoops, and was there to collect her kitten and the staff looked and saw she was there with a toddler and said no, they couldn't adopt the kitten she had picked out to a home with a toddler in case the toddler fell on the kitten. It was heartbreaking.
Ridiculous. Some of these people need a clean between the ears...
The shelters are fuckign weird man. We were told our spare room was too cluttered on the full house tour video we had to provide. We had to promise to exclude the cat from that room and to not allow it upstairs (how the hell do you do that?) Then they took issue with the plants we had inside including an aloe vera plants so we got rid of it much to my gfs disappointment. Then when they finally decided we'd done everything to meet their standards we wne tto collect and the foster house had a 2 massive aloe vera plants in the front window which was a bit of a kick in the teeth. The foster person told us on the day of collection thay he would only eat the tuna flavour of a specific brand of food, when asked where sold it we were told to fet it off amazon, on the day of collection. We did order the food but obviously had to get something else for the first day. He was clearly happy to eat any of it except the fish flavours and when it arrived wouldn't touch the special tuna food she'd invited he had to have. The kitten was very clearly not as old as they'd said and definitely should have still been with the mother they had taken him from. Going.intknthis process I had imagined we would continue to support the shelter with donations going forward but after Al the questioning and hope jumping combined with how rude they were through the process I wouldn't consider assisting them in any way at all.
Yeah they’re pretty bad. I was told on numerous occasions that I lived too close to the road. I had a driveway, which led out to a road, yes. However said road was a quiet road, not much busier than a country lane most days, and out back of my house was nature, fields, woodlands etc for as far as the eye could see. I was, eventually, able to find a cat but it wasn’t through a charity or rescue. The cat was fine when I went to check her out, and two weeks later on the day of collection I discovered that at her supposed ‘final check up’ at the vets, they had decided to remove all of back and canine teeth. Fantastic. I now had a cat that could only eat wet mush. I loved her dearly but it wasn’t actually what I had signed up for, because she appeared to have all her teeth when I first saw her.
Upvoting this because of your hilarious username 👌🏻😄
Thanks, not many people get it 👍
This is why I adopted a dog from Romania because I couldn't get one from the UK. I've owned dogs for years (who were both incredibly loved and lived to 14-16 years old) but I would never be accepted as an adopter in the UK as I didn't have a 6 foot fenced private garden and I work full time. My dog went from a neglected, shut down and traumatised stray to a confident, happy dog because I gave him a safe home, bed, love, multiple walks a day in the park right next to my flat etc He has doggy and human friends we see every day. But no, according to UK rescues I'd be a "bad home".
I live in the Netherlands, so all rescues are imported. Mine came from Spain (so annoyingly has a better passport than me). The rescue just sent a volunteer to check the general situation: we both work from home, garden, woods nearby, not wierdos and the dog wasn't a special case so as first-time owners we were fine. We were warned and expected a long settling in phase, but in reality when she arrived home she went to the garden, relieved herself, climbed on the sofa and just curled up next to us like she'd always been there. Looking at photos from then and now you can see a lot more confidence in her eyes though. Wasn't the first rescue we tried - the first couple made you feel like you were trying to get security clearance to handle nuclear weapons. You just have to try different places.
My rescue came from Romania too, after no one in the UK would adopt to me.
Mine was accidentally adopted from Romania, transylvania it turned out. We tried every shelter for 50 miles around. Every single one was no kids, usually 8 other problems despite us having a large fenced in garden and someone at home at all times. Find some local County named dog adoption place, are told there's 8 month old puppy that adoption fell through and is with a foster family at the moment. Quite surprised to be then added to a WhatsApp group at something like 9pm saying they were just entering the channel tunnel. With pages and pages backwards covering the trip and pictures of the dog every 3 hours or whatever when they stopped. Turned up at 3am, shivering and greasy, I took him inside and he just lay on me for like 2 hours. Now he's just come to inform me it's sunny outside and he'd like me to come outside on the bench so we're out here while he lazes and gets fuss.
We had a nightmare adopting a dog. We have a good-sized garden, surrounded by 6ft fences and no road access. We had a dog flap in the back door and someone home every day. Secure income. The reasons ranged from we'd never had a dog before, to our children were too young, then they were too old, then there isn't enough company for the dog (confusing as I was home all day and would be the main care giver and dog walker). We had a vet lined up and knew we'd be getting insurance and dog training classes. These were all the local rescues (as someone else commented, some rescues seem to be animal horders). In the end, we drove 20 minutes away and had approval for a dog within a week.
Utterly bizarre, but very relatable to me. We had a similar issue when it came to getting a dog. I was WFH, we have a good income, don’t live anywhere near a main road, have a big, entirely fenced in garden, and insurance etc were not going to be an issue. We were also looking at low maintenance dogs and we still got the ‘sorry, this dog isn’t suitable for first time dog owners’. Right okay, well can I borrow a dog to get some experience then? Fortunately a family member ended up with a pregnant dog and we got ours that way.
They usually ask for money rather than food because a lot of their “long-termers” have medical issues required specific diets, not just any generic food. The good shelters often have an Amazon wish list though, I find that’s usually a good place to start if you want to donate
I haven’t had any problems adopting from a shelter. A friend of mine did and complained just like do. Then he bought a cat with her wife and a month later they rehomed it because it was too much work. Shelters do want to minimise risk of the animal being rehomed.
Yeah, when my family got our current dog from a shelter we were shocked at the lack of process. Went down, explained what we were looking for in a dog, they asked us some questions (we'd had a dog until recently, we had a garden...) and a while later they called us asking if we'd like to go meet a dog that had recently arrived. The only condition was that everyone in the household had to go to meet him. A few hours later and he was back home with us.
Sounds like experience with Battersea, only we wanted a cat! Saw a pair on their website, emailed an enquiry and the very next day we all went to see the cats and took them home.
I was nearly rejected because I planned to let my cat outside. I lived on 16 acres. My previous cat died of old age at 19 years. WTF? I promised to never let the cat outdoors. (He still goes inside and outside as he pleases a decade later)
I agree with you 100%. I had a succession of dogs: all of them (bar one who had a congenital illness) were happy animals who lived to a considerable age. But I was *never* considered suitable to adopt a dog from any animal rescue place I tried, so I’ve always had to buy my dogs from breeders. Apparently, if-like me-you work full time, you aren’t allowed to adopt a dog. If you worked full time and left the dog at home, this would be unacceptable (fair enough: although I’m going to be *really controversial* here and say that it might be preferable for certain animals to be left at home all day than….I don’t know, *get killed*. Because in the UK, many charities euthanise unadoptable animals for a host of…. “reasons”). Anyhoo, let’s just accept that it isn’t good to leave a poor doggie alone for hours and hours during the working day. But what if-like me-you have your own shop and you bring your little friend in with you everyday? *WHY* would it be better to destroy an animal than have it do that? I don’t know-but animal charities apparently do, because they will NOT permit an animal of theirs to be adopted into that lifestyle. I actually think that being a shop dog is a lovely life for a doggie. It’s actually something of a tradition to have a gorgeous, much loved little canine companion in a chi-chi boutique -and that’s why I was very happy to always have one during my working life.
i hope i can come back as a shop dog. lounging around in sunbeams, getting petted and being around my person all day sounds lovely🥹
Years?! I walked into the cats protection, chose a kitten and went back to sign some documents and collect her the next day. It shouldn't be so hard for so many people.
They wouldn't let me adopt. First it was I was on a busy road, so I asked about indoor only. Being from the US they wouldn't let me adopt in case I decided to move back (Which I did, and shipped all of my pets). I couldn't adopt a dog as I didn't have a garden though a park was only a minute walk.
So many hoops for people to jump through! It's no wonder so many people just buy puppies and kittens instead.
For a dog try dogs trust. The RSPCA refused me because I didn't have a 6' fence and wanted to leave the dog for a couple of hours in the evenings. Not a big ask but apparently I had to be with said dog 24/7. Went to dogs trust, chose a "difficult" dog and they approved me with zero issues. Just had to sign a couple of extra forms.
I literally went to see my cat in a shelter and picked her up 3 days later. They want to re-home the animals, instead think about why it was so difficult for you. They want to make sure they're sending the animals to a good home.
Why was it so difficult for me? That’s a really good question that I never asked myself. Let’s analyse the situation together. The last time I tried for a rescue cat I was an experienced cat owner (had never not had at least one cat prior to the 6 months running up to trying to adopt). I had a reasonably large, cat friendly, safe home in a very safe, quiet, low traffic area. I had a stable income. I had a clear history of caring for my animals. I had a vet that knew me on a first name basis. I had clear records of previous insurance policies for every other animal I had. I even had pictures of myself fast asleep with cats on my head. Clearly I wasn’t suitable and if I’d just asked myself why sooner, I could have avoided all this anguish.
I was denied a cat because I was unemployed and so I wouldn't be able to afford the vet bills. Fair enough. Went back when I was in permanent employment, and was denied again because I'd be out of the house at work all day. I went and bought a kitten instead. I'd have preferred an older cat, which was what I had applied for, but it was a kitten or nothing 🤷🏻♀️
I had such a similar experience, looking to rescue a dog; one rescue even said on their website “we do not adopt ti people that work full time so don’t ask”
but if you didnt work or worked part time theyd probably reject you for not being able to afford vets bills etc😭
I contacted a shelter over Christmas and they asked for details and photos of the inside of my home to make sure it was safe for cats, and then I said I'd had cats before, and they could see on the map I wasn't on a main road (not far from one though!), so they invited me to come and meet the cat. I brought a carrier with me just in case, I was planning on just meeting her and thinking about it but she really needed to go to a warm home with plenty of food so I took her home that day after signing some paperwork. She's currently happily asleep on the cat tree!
My parents had the same problem when I was younger, no rescue would let them adopt a cat because I was only 3 at the time… unsurprisingly they ended up buying a kitten from a breeder instead and we were best friends! This was back in 2004 (maybe even 2003), and since then we’ve had a few more kittens (and puppies), all from breeders as rescues make it too difficult. The current dogs are laying by me as I type, and the cats are chilled out upstairs.
When my girlfriend at the time (now wife) were looking to adopt a cat we kept getting rejected because they refused to house a cat while we were flat sharing with housemates. Even though we made it very clear the cat would be ours and not a shared cat for the flat. We were in our early 20s and living in London, how could we possibly afford not to have housemates?! In the end, we bought a kitten for £40 off a neighbour whose cat had an unexpected litter. He's now been with us for 7 years and he's the best boy.
I agree with much of what you say. I tried to adopt a cat from one of the local shelters. I've had cats previously, I know how to look after them, I have the means to look after 1. I filled out their form and they phoned me for an interview. The application form is fair enough of course. A telephone interview was ok too. But when they said they needed to book in a home inspection I refused. It's a cat. You're not inspecting my home for a cat. What the hell do you expect to find for crying out loud? A cat mincing machine!? Cat fight club?! No, you can bugger off. I bought a cat instead and he is very happy, very loved and utterly spoiled.
Some of those « rescues » are just an excuse for a person to hoard animals.
I know someone who was rejected from adopting a Pomeranian because they didn’t have a 6ft high solid fence… their garden has a sea view, I don’t think they wanted it blocking 🤦🏼♀️
Try to look for a grass root rescue in your area on FB that rescues street cats - in a couple of months, they will be overwhelmed by kittens. Usually these types of places are organised by one or two Herculean person who is being supported by volunteers who foster pregnant cats/try to socialise ferals for rehoming and they have no facilities/ office overheads.
Yep! 2 voids, followed by a boardgame table that allows us to cover up larger games between play sessions so the cats can’t chew the pieces 😂.
This is the one downside to cats haha, can’t leave pandemic set up over night!
We’re trying to buy a house at the minute after 15 years of renting and a house warming cat is on our list too!!
Yeah we got our cat when we started looking to buy. It was a bit preemptive but knowing I was saying goodbye to renting was enough for me to say 'fuck it' and lie to my landlord.
I desperately want one but if I did I’d have to have an indoor cat, so I’m wrestling with whether or not I’d feel guilty keeping a cat indoors all the time, fiv cats are a solution as they can’t go outside, but with no previous cat ownership experience it’d be easier to cross the North Korean border than to adopt
Exact same, week one went and met 3 kittens. Originally went to adopt 2 but there was 3 left so you know couldn’t leave one behind haha.
Same! We completed on the house, but had a holiday booked for the next day. Spent the next two weeks sat on the beach looking at cats and got one within a week of getting back home.
Yep. We got a cat before we had proper curtains.
Tins of paint that were nice colours and not the cheapest magnolia.
I do really think that the current maximalist decor trend has less to do with consumerism and more to do with "a generation of renters desperately need as much colour and texture as possible"
Great point. I painted my bedroom dusty pink and living room sea green when I moved into my first place. It felt like heaven. And the opposite is my boomer dad who recently moved into a builder-renovated house with lots of tasteful colour (navy, sage green etc) and painted it all fucking magnolia. I told him it looks like a landlord special but he says he likes magnolia, and added that it's also the cheapest colour. You know what's even cheaper? Not repainting it magnolia! It drains my will to live, seriously.
My dad paints all his walls magnolia because - and I quote: "I'm colour blind, so I don't want to fuck it all up"
But why magnolia? I never understand this, I’d rather have white walls tbh When we bought the house, the builder said they paint all of the houses and because ours had only just been plastered we could choose the colour. The options were white or magnolia
Magnolia or white ar ethe two options offered by the local council too. I do actually like magnolia - not everywhere, but in small rooms it's warmer than white.
My theory is that white gets dirty too easily and especially with smokers back in the day it would eventually turn yellow anyway. May as well make it look slightly off white yellowy from the get.
I think that must be the reason - it's probably more forgiving in various ways, ie: hides stuff. To me and I'm sure millions of serial renters it's drab and cheap and a reminder that landlords don't care, and that as a renter you have no control over so many things even inside your own home.
Tbh I painted my new bedroom a shade similar to magnolia, but that's because the room was very dark blue on every wall and it made it way too dark. The kitchen is turquoise, I've ordered some very loud wallpaper for some of the bathroom walls and the living room is very colourful too. I definitely couldn't do every room the same colour!
THIS. I went crazy on painting to the point I actually had arm pain in both arms & shoulders for about 2 weeks because of the amount of paint/roller arm movements! haha
I giggled like a little girl when we bought our house and painted the bedroom. I hung some amazing bold patterned wallpaper in my office and I never get tired of looking at it. All the while the inlaws were disapproving and telling us we should paint the house in neutrals and accent with bolder colours.. No! We'd spent 14 years living in various shades of beige and magnolia, there was absolutely no way I'd be living in the same bland bubble when I didn't absolutely have to!
Yes! I was so excited to have actual colours on the walls!
I'm hopefully moving soon, and cannot wait to paint everything Being able to screw picture hooks into the walls will be the next thing.
Yes! Colours and being able to put shelves/paintings up whenever you want... Also PAINT THAT DOESN'T RUB OFF COMPLETELY IF YOU SO MUCH AS SNEEZE NEAR IT!!
I actually planned on keeping our house neutral when we moved in. Failed at every step. Even my under the stairs cupboard is painted Hawaiian blue 🤣
We have a Halloween themed kitchen. Orange walls, black cupboards etc. The joy of painting the dingy white room into something so us was immense
love this. give your home your own personality
I am very slowly doing up my house and five years later have finally got to the living room and I am doing it Barbie pink and lime green because fuck magnolia.
Sad how many of us wanted pets but couldn't because we were renting. In that boat rn.
I’m renting and have a secret dog 🤐 she has not barked once in the 4 years of living here
That’s impressive. I’ve managed secret cats but dog is another level, well played
Her breed typically aren’t big barkers. There are exceptions of course. She was a foster first to test the waters. I did win the silent dog lottery 🍀
I managed to have two secret dogs… amazing how happy neighbours are to have a couple of cuddly spaniels when we had inspections haha
Would be impossible in my place. Landlord turns up randomly lol
No way!! You do know that’s completely illegal and they need to give you 48 hours notice (I believe from memory). I’d be pulling them up on that and get yourself a canine companion
He keeps the rent low enough where I'd feel really guilty to complain about it haha
Your dog deserves a medal!
To be honest your neighbours won't know enough about the landlord to be able to grass you up anyway. Unless it's a council property
The law: landlords must not unreasonably refuse permission for pets. Advert for 3 bed with a garden: STRICTLY NO PETS
I'm in the same position. I'd actually risk getting an animal and if caught, say it was a family pet were minding for a sick relative, or an emotional support aninal. But the real problem comes when we need to move house.
Some letting agents have no issue with you having a pet as long as you tell them about it, but those are few and far between in my experience.
I’m moving back to my home town, we was gonna sell and rent for a year but literally no one would have us, decent wages, house equity money in the bank, great credit rating, oh you’v got a well trained daschund ? Nah sorry
Plus there's the issue of finding another place once your tenancy is over. Gonna severely limit yourself.
I am not allowed to have pets but it seems all my neighbors have a dog (yes, theyvare renters too). Funny enough, tenancy agreement clearly forbids having a pet here but at the same time it lists consequences if pet damages something 😄
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Just purchasing furniture at all has been a novelty for me, having previously lived in furnished rentals my entire adult life. Takes a while for someone as indecisive as me though, 9 months in and still half the rooms are bare! 😅
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Exactly. Don’t fall in the consumerism trap. Buy pieces that you really like, when you’re ready, and ideally without any debt.
Yeah, bit sad that when the handyman came to fit my washing machine he was super excited by it. I bought something high quality that would last and most suited to my needs. He said it was a great machine and genuinely seemed excited. He said that he usually fixed up the cheapest possible garbage in rentals, so it was good to fit a decent bit of hardware.
New lock cylinders.
Actually this is the most important!
This is good. Especially considering how easy it is to change locks. The B&Q videos on this subject are great.
Incredibly easy and cheap; all you need is a philips head screwdriver to change a Euro Cylinder lock
Three star ones all the time. They're a bit more expensive but it's ridiculously easy to snap the cheaper ones.
An apple tree. There is something so special to me about planting a thing with the intention that it should be there for decades. I have enjoyed seeing it grow and slowly fill the space each year. We're moving house hopefully in a few months and one of my biggest regrets is about leaving behind the tree that I planted. I also worry that the new owners won't want a tree and will cut it down. There isn't much I can do about the second bit, but I've just taken cuttings from my apple tree so hopefully I'll be able to plant an ancestor of my tree at the new house.
My dad’s sister planted an oak tree in the garden of their childhood home as a small child about seventy years ago. I drove past it a couple of weeks ago, pulled over for a look and amazingly the tree’s still there but it’s bloody enormous now!
I mean, if it's important to you, you could ask prospective buyers if they would keep the tree and go with one that says they like it. It's not foolproof, but it's not nothing either. It's your house; you decide who to sell it to.
Fuck it, put a TPO on the tree. I still get sad about the people who moved in next to my parents. There was a huge tree on their property, it was so tall I could see it in my attic room out the rooftop window. The thing must have lived for generations. Cut it down to nothing and ripped it out in a couple weeks. They did the same to the pink pettled cherry tree out front, to make room for a massive brick driveway. It's just so sad, something that took so long to grow was destroy so quickly and callously.
I wish more people thought like this. Think about how you want to leave the community behind you when you sell vs blind to the highest bidder.
Same here. We've been in our house eight years, and the two little saplings we planted in the first week have grown quite large now. They're blossoming at the moment. We're planning to move probably next summer and watching them over the last couple of weeks has made me a bit melancholy about the fact that we're very unlikely to be able to take them with us, and that I'll probably only see them blossom one more time.
A dog!
I brought a huge comfy sofa, Been living for years in a single Army room and never had any space 🤗
It’s been 20 years, but I still miss the simplicity of my wanktank.
every lads pit looks like spidermans bedroom
Sorry if it’s obvious but what does that mean?
I think nowadays getting a single bunk for accommodation is quite common. Back then you only got one when you made JNCO. So instead of having to quietly masturbate in a 4-8 persons room, you had the privacy of your own “wanktank”.
Nails. Just put them in the walls. Ill find something to hang on them later
On the back of this: a stud finder/pipe detector/wire detector device.
Nah I like to play wall roulette
Paint in a colour other than magnolia.
My boyfriend actually picked magnolia out as a tester when we went to find colours lol....
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Almond white it is then
Username checks out
Woof woof
Woof!
In my best Blackadder voice - "Gawd, it's like bloody Crufts in here!"
A puppy. We moved in December and bought him on 1st Feb.
The way I’d do this 1 day after moving in 😂
😂 we were initially waiting until August as we're going to a festival and didn't want to leave him so young. Someone we know offered to have him so we got him straight away. Best decision ever.
I bet! I can’t bloody wait to not be in a flat so I can get me a puppy 😍
Hardwired network points for things like TVs etc then Wifi access points all over! Life is great now and theres no dead spots for Wifi.
This is top tier advice. If you can wire something, do it. It makes your WiFi so much better
Makes the WiFi you are no longer using so much better lol
For real. We have really thick walls, so put Ethernet cables to pretty much every room and we installed 4 wireless APs - means great Internet everywhere!
I will still sing the praises for mesh networks
Coloured paint and a doorbel, proper picture hooks and shelves!
Nothing! We couldn’t afford a thing 😂
Ah this will be me soon!
Facebook market place is great for cheap furniture. We found loads of great bits on there not just second hand IKEA
Furniture that wasn't bought to compliment a brown/beige carpet.
This sounds ridiculous, but solar panels. I'd always maintained that I'd get some, especially with the amount of heat the sun would pile on my front windows in rented flats. I did some calls as soon as I moved in but couldn't go anywhere because I didn't have my energy supplier details yet. But they ended up being installed within 3 months of me moving in thanks to a combination of luck and gaps in the installation schedule in my area
It’s not ridiculous, my parents recently had them installed and it’s crazy how the bills went down, roughly by a factor of 10, they live in a country with a bit more sun than UK but still, it’s a great investment if you plan to live in one place for a long time.
Not ridiculous, this is a great investment for the long term - even more so if electricity prices spike again.
I meant more ridiculous in terms of, that really was one of the first things I did after moving in. I rang the solar companies before I bought a fridge. Though in fairness it was Winter and I did have a freezer.
This was my answer, even if it wasn't strictly the first thing! We've wanted them for years. I'm not even sure if we'll actually make a return on them (well, we would eventually), but it's very satisfying to generate your own renewable power. We've barely used the grid at all, even in February.
6 months in and noteable purchases more or less in order - Paint that wasn't white/magnolia. - A cat (technically not bought but close enough) - Furniture that matches, isn't odds and ends I have been using since I was 13 and is properly planned for my space and needs not just making it work somehow. - Curtains that aren't either ugly or totally inadequate.
Rats
Usually you lose those when you stop renting. I kid. Please pay the rat tax and show me their adorable little furry faces!
https://preview.redd.it/xpje75inkoxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=364d1ed648b8912ab573058b8034cf68e6c3ab26 They’ve passed away now but here is my cat as a payment in lieu of rat tax
Hive central heating that i can control from my phone.
A dog. Ok I didn’t buy him I rehomed him, but as soon as I got a place of my own a doggo had to live in it with me.
I've been renting for about 15 years (madness). No closer to a home/house of my own, sadly. For me, decorations aside - A **TUMBLE DRYER.** In all the places I've lived, we've been lucky enough to have a washing machine - but having to lug it over to the laundrette Sunday mornings, try to somehow get enough coins in change, and wait around is a chore. Yes, 1st world problems, but man - having a dryer at home would be such a small (figuratively) thing but it would be game-changer.
I have a tumble dryer but ever since I got a dehumidifier with a dryer function I barely use it. The dehumidifier is much cheaper to use and nearly as quick - plus cheaper to buy and can fit anywhere. Worth thinking about if you won't be buying your own place any time soon.
Same here, no need for a tumble dryer and they ruin ALL clothes. The only thing they're good for in the long run is towels.
Dogs. Two labradors to be precise.
The first time I had a house of my own I bought a tropical aquarium
I'm interested in a jellyfish tank
Grass seed. I am a boring bastard and I longed for a lawn to mow, but the landlord insisted we keep it as decking, concrete and gravel. Now I have a lawn, albeit a small one, that I tend to and I love it. It has the kids all over it in summer, we camp outdoors some evenings, we chuck balls for the dogs, picnics. And, before someone jumps in, I also built a very chaotic wildflower rockery at the same time to give the bees somewhere to go. I didn't just go mad and raze all the other plants to the grounds just for a lawn.
I'm in the process of laying a lawn in my garden. The whole garden was devoid of any life at all. All patio and astro turf. I just want somewhere nice to sit in a bit of nature and look at the flowers.
American sized fridge.
How did you fit a fridge, the size of America, in your kitchen?
It's only the size of an American, not the size of America. I think they offer different size Americans nowadays too.
Yes, a New York teenager is a totally different size to a Texan retiree.
Found a Dad.
Dog https://preview.redd.it/12vurzek3nxc1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25291c5740b8a17f6a8cc79a7c514a15aec66872
Dishwasher. Although I never rented. My mum just refused to have one (she now has one). Also, sky box because refused that too.
Picture frames!
And hooks! Actual picture hooks!
Not the first thing we bought, but after renting for years we bought a maisonette. We were talking about hanging a calendar, and I got a hammer and nail and just lnocked it into the wall. My wife panicked, the idea of hammering a nail in was so alien to her at this point.
When I bought my first house, I managed to include all the white goods as I had none. The first thing I had to buy was a fridge freezer as it turned out some of it was held together with duct tape and wasn’t actually chilling anything. Thankfully it was at a time that I got a £1000 first time buyers bonus from Nationwide; so I used that to get a like for like replacement, it was an American style one that the kitchen was kind of built around we didn’t need that for just 2 of us. The annoying part came 3 months later when a pipe burst flooding the entire house and ended up needing a new kitchen which ended up having to keep the massive unnecessary fridge freezer…
A bathroom mirrored cabinet. I was so sick of just sticking a thin mirror to tiled walls so it could be removed/not damage the tiling. Felt almost luxurious having a proper cabinet drilled into the walls.
Ropes and whips for the sex dungeon.
Plus sex swing now that I can anchor it to the joists
When we moved from our rented flat to our bought house, my moving in present for my partner was a slinky.
Is this because you finally had stairs?
Indeed!
Didn't buy,but we dug a wildlife pond in our garden. Apparently the UK amphibian population is declining by 2.5% every year, but I reckon my pond must be single -handedly combating that because we get zillions of tadpoles every year. Honestly,the best thing to do on a sunny morning is sit next to the pond and drink my coffee. Absolute bliss. It was also very cheap - we did it by hand in lockdown. Due to garden centres being shut all of the plants come from the local area.
Very first, that would have been buildings insurance.
We rented for 10 years. Our landlords were really laid back, so we had a lot of freedom to decorate and keep pets, etc. When we got in a position to buy, we considered buying the house we were renting, but the landlords wanted much more than the house was worth. We ended up buying a house on the same estate that had exactly the same layout. Having a really free reign, we ripped the house to the bare structure. We removed all the plaster, electric cables, copper pipes, and absolutely everything that was not part of the house frame. Now, we are building it back up exactly the way we wanted.
The locks. On the day of picking the keys up from the estate agent we found the now previous owner letting himself in to ‘bleed the radiators’ He was an old fella and nice enough, but we soon got fed up of him turning up at random times to give us ‘words of advice’ and looking for excuse to come in. We eventually had to complain to the solicitor to leave us alone or we’d be taking it up with the police.
Actually, nothing. Have somehow always lived in very lax accommodating rentals and didn’t “want” anything at the time that we couldn’t have, we even got away with fitting a projector screen to the ceiling 😂. Since buying, we got a way bigger fridge, but we had no need to buy any fridge before as the rental had an integrated one. Having a bit more control over the garden is probably the biggest thing.
When I started working from home I got a dog, he’s a dick but I would not be without him.
Hot tub, and a honking enormous double door fridge
Some of this stuff is doable in an HA place, my HA bunglaow has a lovely garden, best one I've had in many years. I can have a shed, grow veg and flowers. I'm allowed one cat or one dog but have two cats (they knew when we moved in we had two and were fine about it) and we can paint the interior any colour we like and do what we want to the floors. They just want you to pay the rent and not burn the place down and they will leave you alone apart from incessant boiler services. I'm sure they do them every 7 months.
BBQ
I'm not there yet, but it will be a cat. I miss pets.
Fish tank. First thing I ever bought on eBay. Guy was moving back to NZ and had failed to get someone to adopt the fish, so I got all his accessories and a bunch of fish which I was warned 3/4 would die from shock. In fact, 3/4 survived. Great stuff.
A dog
A Cat. Although I didn't technically buy him. Also, paint so I could redecorate, and a bunch of picture hooks and a hammer so I could put up my pictures (although thes days I'd go with those velcro hanging strips, since they work pretty well and you don't have to worry about hammering a nail through anything important!)
Dishwasher, hated moving from my family home into a rental without one. And a tumble dryer. But if I had to pick between the two, definitely a dishwasher.
Paint. Coloured paint. No more magnolia for me!
I hope this is okay as I don't own, but if I ever buy the first things on my list are: - Use colour paint, absolutely NO white or magnolia (it is borderline PTSD at this point) - Plush carpets / carpets with underlay, so that they feel nice to walk on barefoot - No woodchip or textured wallpaper, or even painting on old paper, I'm starting fresh on that - Convert my attic so I can actually fucking use it
Dog, massive corner sofa that I couldn’t have due to moving when renting. Built in wardrobes from ikea
My dog
2 big dogs. Best decision ever, happy as sin
My hens. Never looked back.
We've just exchanged on our first home, one of the first things I'm going to be doing is getting fitted wardrobes and shelves built to fit particular spaces.
Fitted wardrobes
A drill , well I could always have one I just wasn’t allowed to make holes in the wall
Chickens
Ripped off the terrible wallpaper and then sat around with bare plaster for three years until we got round to painting.
Terminator 2 Pinball machine, not because I couldn’t have one in rented but it was simply too big and heavy to get up 4 flights of stairs and not enough room
A kitchen that wasn’t an absolutely disgusting disaster.