Sunday, December 2, 2012

College living, pt V - shared house


After living in the fraternity house for the summer, I moved in with the best roommates ever,  E, J and S, whom I found on Facebook marketplace. They were renting the house with B, who was in the military and heading elsewhere for the year, so I took B's place in the house. E, J and S were all in their early twenties and had met each other through the university rifle club. I had been looking at other places to live as well, but decided to move in with then, since they promised me a bathroom to myself. The three guys said they'd share one of the bathrooms and I could use the other. Sounded good to me! When I called my Mom to tell her I'm moving in with three guys, she was wondering how clean our house would be. I had gone to see other places and theirs was actually the cleanest one! For example, this other place I went to see had two Chinese girls living there and it was a mess. There were bags of garbage everywhere and the stench was horrible. So I moved in with the boys.


Our house, a 4 bedroom 2 bath, a rickety old shack :D

The house itself wasn't really much, but it was within a 20 minute walk from campus which worked out great for me, since I didn't have a car. All of my roommates had cars though, and they gave me rides to the grocery store etc. whenever I needed one. The rent was really cheap as well, I think it was $700 for the whole house, which we split almost evenly. One of the guys had a room half the size of my room, so he paid a little less.

Since the guys had lived there for a year, they had already settled in. B let me use all of his furniture, so I didn't really bring much myself. I think I just added some storage space and a tall mirror. Oh, and I did change the curtains in my room and some of the wall hangings :D They also got cable, just for me!



View to our kitchen. I'm taking no credit for the interior design, the boys did it all by themselves :D

I don't really have anything negative to say about living with the guys, they were that awesome! Right before I moved in with them, I went home to Finland for a visit, and I noticed I was pregnant. I emailed them and asked them if they were still okay living with me, even though I'd have eventually have a baby there as well. They were surprisingly cool with it, even after the baby was born and when my husband (then boyfriend) basically moved in with us, they didn't mind either. They helped me out so much, and one of them even ended up being in the OR with me, when I had the little man! Talk about the best roommate in the whole world!


One of my amazing roommates holding our lil man :)

We were a pretty close-knit team. Before little man was born, we hung out a lot together outside the house as well. We went to bars (I didn't drink duh ;), restaurants, movies and played a ton of Rock Band with friends. We also went to the Rodeo, the State Fair, car shows and I even went home with one of my roommates on several occasions, for example for Thanksgiving. His family was so welcoming to their son's pregnant roommate, I felt really blessed to have met them. I know some parents that would not have been that okay with the situation, especially since I was not married at that time. My other roommate's parents let me borrow some of their baby furniture and after I had the baby all of their parents sent me presents! We've kept in touch afterwards as well, two of my roommates even made it to our wedding. I feel like I didn't only gain three friends, I now I have an extended family in Nebraska and Kansas.

After living with the guys, I went home to Finland for a bit with our lil man and when I came back, husband (then boyfriend) and I moved into an apartment complex elsewhere in the city. The guys still visited me a lot and picked little man and I up, so we could have family dinners at restaurants. I miss those guys so much! I still can't believe how lucky I was to have such amazing, and flexible, roommates.

And that concludes my college living series :) I must say it's been a happening journey and despite some unpleasant experiences I'm real glad I got to experience it all! Thank you to all of my roommates (with the exception of German roommate T, whom I easily could have done without) for giving me such fun memories!  I miss you!

Wishing everyone a wonderful December! 
I'll be doing the photo a day challenge this month so stay tuned for that :)


P.S. Here are parts I, II, III and IV

5 comments:

Eveliina said...

Näitä oli kiva lukea! Aika huisi tämä viimeinen :)

Sofia said...

Jännä, että nuo sakemannit luovat paha ilmapiiriä ympäri maailmaa. Ihanat nuo miehet, ihanan reilu meininki!

Sugar said...

Eveliina ja Sofia, eikos ollut aivan huippuja kamppiksia nuo pojat? Olen kylla niin monesti miettinyt, miten onnekas olin, kun sattumalta heidat loysin. Kamppikset kavivat puolestani kaupassa ja auttoivat joskus jopa vaippojen vaihdossa, kun toivuin sektiosta. Ja siis tosiaan 21-vuotiaita olivat. Heista saavat jotkut onnekkaat tytot joskus kelpo aviomiehet ;)

Jenni said...

Mahtavan kuuloisia tyyppejä! En usko, että näin rento suhtautuminen perheenlisäykseen on kovinkaan yleistä, joten olet ollut todella onnekas heidät löytäessäsi. :)

Sugar said...

Jenni, olet oikeassa ja olen kylla "count my blessings" moneen kertaan! :)