How do you make your place feel like home? Renter says it can never feel like home

breadlinebetty

In today's Daily Mail this writer is whining about losing her house, yet remortgaged £500k from it back in 2007!:(


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2105011/Stuck-rent-trap-How-middle-class-family-kept-remortgaging-home-pay-bills-longer-afford-repayments.html


She hates having to rent now, and says how horrible it feels to know the house belongs to somebody else, and that she and her family have got no assets.

She says it just doesn't feel like 'home'. So besides her foolishness at remortgaging in the first place, and now paying MORE in rent than she would do for a mortgage (aaaaaaaaaaargh!!:eek:) my question is: what makes a home?

How do you make your place feel like home?

blossomhill_2

Cats!

or more cats!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

What a stupid woman.
If she had'nt been so greedy and had the need to pretend she could afford what she could'nt,she could still of had her family home.
Her greed caused her present problem nothing else.
No one forces you to borrow money except yourself.

breadlinebetty

blossomhill wrote: »

Cats!

or more cats!

Cats do make a place feel homely but some landlords forbid tenants having pets.:(

VfM4meplse

breadlinebetty wrote: »

How do you make your place feel like home?

Knowing that it is my own 4 walls that no one can take from me helps enormously! The familiarity of having it decorated to my own taste, and I can lay my hands on even the most obscure item in a hurry is also comforting.

nearlyrich

I was brought up in a rented house it always felt like home to me it's really not about who owns it. The article made me shake my head, they have 4 children but they "need" 5 bedrooms LOL we had 8 people in 3 bedrooms. The daft thing is they had paid off their mortgage instead of adding to it they would have an asset worth probably 4 or 5 times what they paid for it 10 years earlier. Two decades of living beyond their means interest only mortgage aka renting from the bank in effect to pay the school fees and a snobbery about shopping in Aldi, I don't feel sorry for her I think she got what she deserved.

jamie11

The stupid woman is complaining about paying £2000pcm rent, WTH? Even with 4 kids there has to be a more economic rental available at half the price. Then she could rebuild her finances. I've no sympathy for her.

As to cats, burger 'em, they cost money to keep, and that goes for beloved Labradors as well. When times are tough then get your nose down and work your way out of it.

Eliza_2

I've lived in this rented house for 11 years and it's definitely my home. Surely any house is only ours temporarily anyway, and most belong to the banks too or are in negative equity. Hardly an asset!

I've decorated, put my own furniture and carpets in, done the kitchen, made the garden my own, the same as if it was my own. The only difference is if the roof caves in, or new windows are needed, then someone else pays for those.

I suppose if you're talking about a London flat, where the landlord doesn't allow you to put your own pictures up and insists it remains looking like a hotel room, then it's difficult to make it feel like anything else. Having my own dirt and scruffiness around makes it feel like home! Pristine wouldn't. But I'm sure most landlords will negotiate if they feel you're a good tenant and let you do most things to make it feel like your home - even if you do have to return it covered in magnolia at the end of the tenancy.

I've never had a problem with animals either, I have a dog, cat and 2 chickens.

I have no sympathy with the woman, she's obviously lived in an ivory tower for too long.

breadlinebetty

Eliza wrote: »

I've lived in this rented house for 11 years and it's definitely my home. Surely any house is only ours temporarily anyway, and most belong to the banks too or are in negative equity. Hardly an asset!

.

You can say that about every single solitary item we own - from a slice of bread to a Branson island in the Caribbean - we only own it until we're dead, and then it passes onto to our children, and that's how family wealth is created....

It's not true to say MOST houses beling to the banks or are in negative equity! Some do, but the MAJORITY do not! MOST houses are owned outright or have VERY little left owing on them. If you check the national figures you'll find this to be true.

breadlinebetty

jamie11 wrote: »

The stupid woman is complaining about paying £2000pcm rent, WTH? Even with 4 kids there has to be a more economic rental available at half the price.

It depends which area she lives in. It may not be viable her moving - both she and her husband have jobs, so may need to stay i that area for that alone.

Sadly, many areas DO cost a lot to live in, and rents are sky high in some places. Where I am £2,000 a month for a 4 bed house is not out of the ordinary. I'm sure up north you'd find cheaper rents, in fact I know you would do, but their work is not up there.

Eliza_2

breadlinebetty wrote: »

You can say that about every single solitary item we own - from a slice of bread to a Branson island in the Caribbean - we only own it until we're dead, and then it passes onto to our children, and that's how family wealth is created....

Maybe but I'm sure an awful lot of people only keep any one individual house for a few years - and it's one individual house she's talking about here. We then buy, or rent another, move on and the original one is in the past being lived in by someone else. I don't know any family who has lived in the same house for always.

I do feel sorry for her though, as she is obviously less resilient and less well equipped than many other people to cope with this change. She has also been poorly advised or maybe just not researched all her options thoroughly enough.

However this is a newspaper article and published to deliberately wind people up so we should take it with a pinch of salt really.