I totally understand. You may not be able to change H. He may just be disinterested and grumpy. But how can you still get your needs met? I think having the friend over anyhow was brilliant. And heck if you need to be in another part of the house, so be it. Better yet, he needs to have a hole to crawl into so you can have the freedom to socialize!
How about saying something like, "Since you've been gone I've really enjoyed having friends over. I'm going to be doing that more often, and need the main part of the house." and just leave it for him to figure out where he can take his grumpiness rather than you having to "hide." Take over the space - he left it to you, you have owned it, he needs to work with htat now!
