An Englishman’s home is his castle?

For me, it really is.

A few months after getting the first mortgage I asked my pops how would he manage, when we had two wages coming in every month, but still ended up skint three days after payday?
Keep on keeping on was his advice, “Things will get easier the longer into your mortgage you go!”

A friend around six months later told me, “Your home is THE most important thing you’ll ever have!”
“It came be packed full of things, or a tiny box room, or be completely empty, none of this matters, pay for your home before everything else.”
“You can sleep on the wood floorboards with nothing to sit on, cook with, or eat off, it doesn’t matter, your home is your base for everything else in your world.”

I’ve been thinking about this recently.
Your home really is everything.

It’s the basis of your life, it shelters you from cold, rain and snow, it keeps you cool in summer and warm in the winter, with or without gas/electric.
You can have not two pennies to rub together, but when the door shuts on the world, it’s your space.
Your home protects you from the elements, keeps you safe, gives you a base to be contacted.

Without it, you have nothing.
No need for electricity or gas, no need for water or furniture, no fridge or bed, no washing machines or flat screen TV, none of it matters if you have a home.

Then I thought about how difficult it must be for private renters?
A couple of years here, 12 months there, etc.
How do they plan for the future or rest easy when all the time in the back of their mind must be that a day will come soon where they have to start looking for another place to live all over again?

Then, whenever I hear my better half or sprogs going on about how we have unplastered walls, no ceilings, breeze block walls, no doors, wiring hanging out, I remind them, that despite all these things, when the door closes, it’s our space.

Many people would give their eye-teeth for what we have, we are so lucky.
Most people can’t even get on the housing ladder and have to rent homes that go up in cost all the time then after a year or two, you’re out on your ear and have to start looking all over again, to rent somewhere else.

We have a lot to be thankful for.