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!)

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?

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?

I'm glad to hear you're okay and completely understand about spoon conservation. I hope your family developments all go well.

It sounds like you were part of a nice community where you used to live. I think I would miss that too if I'd had it. The lack of public transport must be frustrating at times, although, like you, I prefer to walk everywhere as well. I avoid hairdressers for the same reason that you avoid taxis. :-)

I love the idea of imaging the dog conversations. Maybe they're just singing, 'Who Let the Dogs Out?'.

I wish I'd included the "nerds in Mum's basement" option now you've said it! Maybe that explains the difference between the number of views and the number of votes on this thread... Thank you for your good wishes. My fiancé is quite trainable and eager to please, which bodes well; but, whilst he is quite tidy, I do still find it really annoying having his stuff in my home. I'm conflicted because I love him and want him to live here and to feel wanted here, but it would help if we could afford some proper integrated storage so at least I wouldn't have to look at his stuff! 

Thanks Nessie - hopefully I'll be back to joining you all a bit more regularly in the near future; I've just been conserving my "spoons" for some rather interesting family developments (reunions and, it seems, maybe more auties amongst us).

Having friends on my doorstep was certainly a big boon where I used to live. I'm hopeless at making arrangements, and I can't drive, so it was great to be able to regularly bump into people as I passed their allotments or did my shopping. When the weather's OK it's not so bad here, as it's only about an hour's walk away along country lanes, but the public transport here is hopeless. It takes longer to get there by bus than to walk it, and the last bus I can catch to get home is about eight o'clock nowadays - not much use for an evening visit, as I'm rather taxi-phobic (a special "cautious driver who doesn't want to talk b****cks for the entire journey" service might help a little bit there!)

Much as their noise makes me cringe, I really feel sorry for the dogs; it's not their fault that they get left out in the yards all day with nothing to do. I think they get boisterous just out of sheer boredom a lot of the time, and I sometimes wonder what they must be yapping about to each other; "Hey Fido, aren't your humans back home yet either?"

The survey results so far are interesting - a pretty even split between the loners and the sharers, not at all the "nerds in Mum's basement" image that many people seem to stereotype us with. I must admit, my fear of co-habiting has often greatly concerned me when there has been potential for romance in my life - I hope that your situation eases with a bit of time to settle into sharing your living space.