Sharing home makes family happy

Martha Buckley
BBC News Online

As housing costs rise, one building society has predicted more and more of us will start sharing houses with members of our extended families. BBC News Online finds out from one family what it is like when three generations share the same house.

Thea Constantinides shares a four-bedroom house in north London with her partner, her four-year-old son Tommy and her 79-year-old mother Olive.

Like EastEnders' Slater family, many may have to share homes with relatives in the future

She told BBC News Online the arrangement has been good news for her family: "It all came about because my mother was really ill last year.

"I just thought it would be better if we all lived together. It makes it easier for me to keep an eye on her and she is not on her own.

"It is much easier for me because before when she was ill I was trying to look after her house for her and my house as well as working and looking after Tommy."

It was easier for me because I was living with my own mother Thea Constantinides

University administrator Thea says it took a little persuading to get her partner, Andy Heintz, a union manager, to agree to living with his mother-in-law but once the decision was made, things went smoothly.

She said: "It was easier for me because I am living with my own mother - It must have been harder for Andy.

"But we all get on well and sometimes it is easier for my mother and him to agree on things we have to do.

"Because they don't know each other so well, they are polite to each other and less likely to argue over decisions than perhaps my mother and I might, as families tend to do."

The first step was to sell their respective homes and find somewhere big enough for the whole family to live in comfort.

Four bedrooms

Thea, 34, and Andy, 42, sold their three-bedroom house in Turnpike Lane and moved in with her mother, Olive Constantinides, in nearby Tottenham, while she too waited to find a buyer.

With both residences sold, they were free to move into their new home in the Finsbury Park area of London on 16 April.

Thea said: "We have got a big house now which we wanted so that my mother could still have as much independence as possible.

"She can have her own area, with her a microwave and her own TV and cable.

"And we are doing up the main bedroom so that she can have a separate lounge.

"And we eat family meals all together at weekends."

We eat family meals all together at the weekends Thea Constantinides

Sharing with Olive has enabled Thea and her family to move into a larger and more comfortable house than they could have afforded on their own.

She said: "We had a three-bedroom house before but one of the bedrooms was pretty small.

"And we could not afford to buy it on our own so we were in a part-ownership scheme with a housing association."

The new arrangement has proved an added bonus for Thea and Andy's son Tommy.

She said: "He loves it. My mother is really good with him and it is nice for him to have more than just two people around.

Watching videos

"They are always playing and doing things together and watching videos and she can keep an eye on him for us sometimes as well."

Though the prospect of living with parents or in-laws might not be to everybody's taste, Thea has no regrets.

She said: "It certainly works for us in our situation and I would really recommend it."