1. Finding A Group to Live With
Coming into Queen’s, my biggest fear was that I would not be able to find friends that I would want to live with next year. Since groups start forming as early as November, I was terrified that I would not know by November who the hell I would want to spend the next three years with. Thankfully, I have found a great group of friends that I am so excited to live with next year. However, seeing that my newsfeed is flooded with housemate requests posted in the Queen’s Class of 2020 Facebook group, many others have not been so lucky. I have already heard horror stories of 7 people groups finding a 6-person house and awkwardly kicking out one member of the group in order to get the better house, and I am very thankful that I did not have to go through this traumatic process.
2. Starting the House Search
Once my friends and I settled on the idea of living together, we began looking for houses online. We were all excited to find the perfect student ghetto house with a prime location on a fun street, big open space downstairs, and six equally large bedrooms. Two of my friends and I spent an hour walking around the ghetto one afternoon, taking pictures of all of the houses that we thought were pretty. Pro Tip: not every house in the ghetto is up for rent in May. Pro Tip #2: people do not like it when you take pictures of their houses while they are inside. After about ten minutes of online searching, our expectations were lowered dramatically. It seemed as though we had to either pick quality of location or quality of the house, and this was too much to process for six girls with big dreams. However, we remained optimistic and booked a few viewings.
3. The First Viewing
The day of our first viewing having finally arrived, we all dressed up in some commerce-style business casual (we are in arts, but it is all about keeping up with appearances), practiced our firm handshakes, and wandered to the house. Remember how our expectations were lowered after our online search? Well, they were lowered again. The first floor of the house was stunning, with large open space to entertain and a huge kitchen, and we were ready to sign the lease then and there. As an avid HGTV viewer, I knew how to compliment the open concept and hardwood floors, and I honestly felt like I was on House Hunters and it was a literal dream come true. However, upon arriving upstairs, our jaws dropped, and not in a good way. The bedrooms and bathrooms were in a terrifying state, with moldy carpet and questionable odors. We thanked the landlords and left, deciding that it would probably be best to continue our real estate endeavors elsewhere.
4. Finding THE House
After a few more abysmal viewing experiences, we finally found our dream house. I think that the allure of the house really became obvious when another group of girls cut in front of us to view the house before us, and I almost started a catfight, but unfortunately, my friends thought it would be best to hold me back instead of holding my earrings. However, we remained determined to get the house over this sneaky group were we to decide that we liked it. And precisely so. When we walked into the house, we knew it was perfect for us. It had a great layout and location, and I did not feel like I would be risking my physical health by living there. We left the viewing agreeing that this was the house for us. We were one block away from the house when we emailed the landlord saying that we were interested in signing the lease, and she emailed us 5 minutes later to set up the meeting. I honestly do not know what gave me more satisfaction, finding a great house or beating out those other girls…
5. Cold Feet
After coming to a decision about a house so quickly, my friends and I started to get cold feet. We picked apart everything about the house, from the overall layout to the aesthetic of the washing machine in the basement. We worried that we did not look at enough houses, and that there may be something better out there. We had already agreed to meet the landlord the next day to sign the lease, and we knew that if we asked for more time we would lose the house. Pro tip for getting rid of cold feet: walk to the house at 10pm, knock on the door, and pray that the people currently living there won’t think you are weird randos. Thankfully, the girls currently in the house let us come in and take another look, and that was when we knew for sure that this was the right house for us.
6. Signing the Lease
We met with the landlord at Stauffer Library and went through the lease. As she was explaining the conditions of the lease, I realized that this was the first major adult decision I was making without my mother, and this seemed odd, as I still call her sometimes when I cannot figure out what color to paint my nails. After signing what felt like 100 pages, we finally had our house. I celebrated by singing “My House” by Flo Rida on repeat in the shower, which was not only relevant to signing my lease but is also just a really great song (for real though, if you haven’t heard it, have a listen to it. If you have heard it, listen again).