Alums - what did you like most and least about living in your chapter house?
 

If your chapter was fortunate enough to have a house, what was great about living in house? What drove you crazy?

Great:
1. Always someone around (85 girls lived in house)
2. Great food
3. The intercom system (great for pranks)
4. Close to classes
5. No men allowed upstairs (much more privacy than living in the dorms)

Drove me crazy:
1. No air conditioning (installed the semester after I graduated - go figure!)
2. Parking - limited to mostly seniors and some juniors
3. Noise from the fraternities across the street
4. People who got "late plates" from the kitchen, and then left their dirty dishes in the bathroom - gross!
5. Everyone trying to use the bathrooms at the same time

I lived in the house for 3 years and loved it. Parking was a bugaboo, but I think that was pretty much everywhere.

Things I loved:
- there was always someone around to watch tv or a movie, go get coffee/DQ, make a Target run or just chat with
- 64 other closets for date/going out/formal clothes
- someone always willing to help you get ready for date/going out/formal
- great cook (until my senior year)
- closest house to campus AND closest house to Campustown
- very home-like (as opposed to the dorms)
- inside jokes/traditions (fern room/house ghost, etc...)

Didn't like:
- Still having to live with people you didn't get along with/cattiness in general
- Parking was limited and somewhat confusing
- Respect for privacy and/or others belongings was sometimes lacking (but usually corrected after an announcement during meeting)

Just thinking about this topic has put a smile on my face!

Negatives -
We seemed to run out of food on formal dinner nights.
No air conditioning (added later!)
Room phones were a problem (solved now by removing them since everyone has a cellphone)
Kleptomaniacs

Positives -
Getting ready for big days ( football games, rush, etc ) and all of the excitement up and down the halls, sharing clothes, etc.
The funny incidents and pranks that took place and are now the hilarious stories we tell at our reunions!
Watching tv together in the den (one standout was the famous makeout scene between Luke and Laura from General Hospital circa 1982)

I loved getting to know people well that I might not have chosen as friends had we met in some other way. This was especially true of the girls who were several years older or younger than me.
I also loved living in a beautiful, old, classic home and especially living in the front rooms that over looked the main street.

Oh, what great memories! There were so many positives, and I think most of you have mentioned them. I especially liked that we had limited --but liberal--visiting hours for men, since my roommate one semester had her boyfriend over all the time. At night she went to his fraternity house, so I had a single! I still can't believe I lived in a house with so many of my close friends and had a cook and a cleaning lady. The only negative was the semester I lived in a room with 11 other girls. We had a room of dormers and a room with our desks and everything. Worse, though, was 2 showers and 2 toilets for 12 girls! Nightmare! :eek:

Getting ready for a night out is one of my fondest memories. Every door would be open and music would be blasting down the hallways. We had big full-length mirrors at the end of the hallways, so someone would usually be parked, cross-legged in front of the mirror doing their make-up and/or hair. Girls would be going in and out of rooms, asking for opinions on outfits, talking about where they were going... Those were some fun times!

I also have to add one more positive -

Sittiing around in the kitchen/dining room on Sat morning swapping Fri night stories!