POLL: What is your current living arrangement?

For the last couple of years, I've rented the top floor of a back-to-back house, shared with my landlady.

Cons:

• I find sharing difficult, especially as my body clock is at odds with my landlady's.
• I had to move away from a part of town where the majority of my friends live, so I'm more isolated than I used to be.
• Had to ditch a lot of possessions in the move from a larger house.
• Two party walls now have an infant's nursery on the other side.
• Every other house on the street has a trigger-happy yappy dog in the yard.
• Social services seem to think that it's OK to expect my landlady to be an informal support worker.

Pros

• On the edge of the city, so I have countryside on my doorstep, and a decent choice of local shops.
• Utilities are all included in the rent, so my terrible money management skills aren't a problem.
• Nice big room with a pretty view, and my bathroom/toilet is en-suite.
• Landlady is very "autism friendly" - discussed before moving in, and this was the deciding factor among the places available.
• Room is always nice and warm, and very dark at night.
• Landlady has a very fluffy, affectionate cat.
• Excellent local curry house!

Ideally, I'd prefer to be back in a place to myself, and back in the village where I lived before, closer to my friends. However, given my low income since losing my last job, I could have done a lot worse - the only other option was the inner city (to be fair there were only two riots during the time I lived there years ago!)

For the last couple of years, I've rented the top floor of a back-to-back house, shared with my landlady.

Cons:

• I find sharing difficult, especially as my body clock is at odds with my landlady's.
• I had to move away from a part of town where the majority of my friends live, so I'm more isolated than I used to be.
• Had to ditch a lot of possessions in the move from a larger house.
• Two party walls now have an infant's nursery on the other side.
• Every other house on the street has a trigger-happy yappy dog in the yard.
• Social services seem to think that it's OK to expect my landlady to be an informal support worker.

Pros

• On the edge of the city, so I have countryside on my doorstep, and a decent choice of local shops.
• Utilities are all included in the rent, so my terrible money management skills aren't a problem.
• Nice big room with a pretty view, and my bathroom/toilet is en-suite.
• Landlady is very "autism friendly" - discussed before moving in, and this was the deciding factor among the places available.
• Room is always nice and warm, and very dark at night.
• Landlady has a very fluffy, affectionate cat.
• Excellent local curry house!

Ideally, I'd prefer to be back in a place to myself, and back in the village where I lived before, closer to my friends. However, given my low income since losing my last job, I could have done a lot worse - the only other option was the inner city (to be fair there were only two riots during the time I lived there years ago!)

Hi Trogluddite, good to see you on here again and thanks for weighing in.

Cat + Curry = the secret to a happy life 

I'm sorry to hear that you had to move away from your friends since losing your job. I imagine that must be really tough. I think I would struggle to live in a street surrounded by dogs as the noise would really get to me, especially with young children next door too. It certainly doesn't seem right that Social Services place unreasonable expectations on your landlady but it's great to hear that she's so autism-friendly, that is rare. Having a lovely view in the day and complete darkness at night must be very calming. Do you find you sleep better for it?