Sharing a house

[harbinger]

I had a phone call from DD2 on Sunday wishing me well, the next half hour was taken up with her woes about falling out with house mates the previous evening.

Lo and behold, DD1 rings today having had an argument with house mates.

Now, I think that everybody is tired and ready for a break.

Let things go and come home.

I think this is part and parcel of sharing.

Light hearted/funny anecdotes (they've heard mine too often).

I think everyone is a bit tired at the moment, and many won't have been home in two months. Coursework deadlines are often around now too, so of course people get overtired trying to meet deadlines and are stressed, and so everything gets that bit more fractious.

Still, it's Easter in a couple of weeks! Roll on three weeks of freedom two and a half weeks of freedom and 4 days of frantic essay writing because there's another deadline the first day back!

I get phone calls from DD moaning about the housemate who doesn't do her share of the cleaning rota. I think about how DD doesn't do her share of the cleaning rota when she is back home (there is always some reading or an essay that takes preference) but bite my tongue!

The rows always seem to be about cleaning/washing up to start with and then escalate due to tiredness and stress.

DD2 has a housemate who turns up the heating all the time and then decides he's too hot so opens lots of windows. The others then all start hopping up and down about the cost. He turns the shower to "scald" as well so if you have a shower after him you get a shock.

Apart from that its cleaning rows and stand offs about the pile of washing up in the sink. DD2 was complaining because she had to remop the kitchen floor because her housemate hadn't done it properly, since she doesn't lift a finger at home we thought that was quite entertaining!

DD1 is a 4th year and so are her housemates so they live in a harmonious house I haven't heard of any complaints from her.

Oh and last term there was a spectacular row about an early Christmas dinner in another house that had several members of that house coming to camp out at DD2's house.

Oh,yes,forgot about the heating rows. DDs are used to a cold home (stupid sash windows and stingy parents ). They get mad if those with a light timetable turn it on during the day.

Funny that I'm not the only one to have DDs that don't lift a finger at home. Wonder what comes over them .

Ah the joy of sharing at university. You make friends quickly in your first term, you get a house together for second year and once you've moved out at the end of the year you pretty much never speak to each other ever again!

I have one lovely housemate I am still friends with. The others were all batshit crazy in various ways. Bone idle too and filthy.

One of DS2's housemates posted on their house Facebook account that come January (2013) that if they were not quiet when they came in from a night out, started paying games on the play station after 11 pm and the fact that his exams went on for longer than theirs did then he would expect the noisy perpetrator to swap rooms with him.
He has a downstairs bedroom right next to the kitchen/living room.
I thought it served them all right and hopefully they were considerate of him during the exam period.
They had all posted little comments saying 'OK mate'.
They're all a bit party animal in that house, but sometimes it just needs someone to say something for everyone else to realise how annoying they can sometimes be.

I pointed out a lot of things to my housemates but they never changed. Gosh it all seems like yesterday! Things like if they block the toilet it might be better to deal with it rather than wait for me to come back from a weekend away and expect me to put my hands down into your combined filth. Things like if the oven stops working it might be best to ring the landlord and tell him rather than leave it until a week later for me to put a cake in to cook and then tell me it won't get hot. That's before we start on my having to explain to my housemate that I was cleaning the worktops after being away for a few days because none of them had done it while I was gone and there were now a variety of insects crawling all over it and I rather wished to make my dinner. She didn't think it mattered as "but you chop on a chopping board!". I felt like their mother most of the time and I swear I should have asked for a monthly admin fee as I was the one who had to do all small fixing jobs, landlord calling, utility organising, coordinate with the handyman and so on.

My son thought that the 'currants' around his food in his cupboard in the kitchen in his last years student house were from his Fruit & Fibre cereal.
They were mouse droppings!
They are pretty messy even with a dishwasher, washing machine, two fridge freezers and a tumble dryer.
What a life of luxury (or not) they live compared to my days as a student.

Indith, they sound gross. Ugh.

When DD1 was in her second year two of the boys who she shared a house with decided they hated each other after two weeks and so carried out a year long battle through passive aggressive notes on the fridge. I was spared this joy as I lived in college for three years.

I shared a flat with 3 girls in my 2nd year. One was a grubby bitch who never cleaned and when one of the others went on a term abroad she moved he boyfriend in - he was even worse and bloody noisy to boot. Boy was I glad when that term was over.

The only issue DS had in his house was over heating - a couple of them thought it wouldn't be necessary to put it on AT ALL. Obviously they changed their tune as soon as it got cold. As they live on the coast, in a 3 storey Edwardian house with some windows with single glazing, as you can imagine, this was by the end of the 3rd week of the first term

at "currants" - lived in a rented cottage once - took some bread out to make a sandwich and thought "blimey this breads has lots of holes in it" only after I'd eaten it did I see the bag had been chewed through and mice had nibbled the bread [boak]

I lived with 8 others above a butchers in a weird flat/block of apartments - it used to be a vets and there was a lot of old looking stuff in the loft where we used to smoke weed and we eventually decided that it was haunted by the people the vet/butcher killed/sold and made up ridiculous stories whilst off our faces which one day lead to the youngest girl having a panic attack and ending up spending a weekend in hospital, the landlord came round for a check up after getting wind of the incident and told us that actually the vet DID supply the butcher AND they were both arrested for selling/supplying "suspicious non animal meat products"

Needless to say we shat ourselves

Though, we did live with a couple who actually enjoyed cleaning - like, weirdly enjoyed it (if you follow) - we started off paying them something like £5 each per month as we felt bad, but one afternoon 3 of us walked in to them stark naked bar the rubber gloves shagging on the kitchen counter!

Funnily enough, nobody ever felt disgusted enough to take over the cleaning - we just had a rota and made sure our "lectures over ran" we went for a pint or 5 on the days they were due to clean!

Apologies to whoever rents DD's house next year!
When you came for a look-round did you realise that the extra bookcase and the rug were DD's, not the landlord's. The LL's manky dishrag curtains are in the loft; those beautiful cream curtains with extra-thick lining are ours and are coming home at the end of the year. And so are the dropleaf dining table and folding chairs. And the TV.

Yes Senua we were surprised to find only a wardrobe, a bed and a desk in DS2's room both this year and last year.
Where the hell was he meant to keep clothes that didn't hang up in the wardrobe?
We ended up buying some sort of material thing with pockets that hung over a frame and we will leave that behind or the next person as DS2 leaves university this summer.
I have to say though that DS2 had the best house of 5 years house renting for 2 DS's as the house had just been renovated with a loft conversion, 2 new bath/shower rooms and a lovely new kitchen (not that you would realise that now - the dirty beggars, as Kim would say)

Another DD here who turns into a domestic facist when she moves to her student flat, though she has been known to reorganise my kitchen cupboards but only when there is serious exam revision to be embarked on

I don't tell her about my flatmates and I, lest she feel the need to emulate the huge damage bill, not just the usual mouldy fridge and dirt, slugs and mice; the sink that cracked in two when we poured boiling water into it to wash because it was frozen (the stalagmites and stalactites on the inside of the bathroom window should have been the clue), the interesting swirly soot paint effect in the kitchen after we tried to clear up after a grill pan fire when we were trying to dry out stale biscuits, the fire extinguisher that got thrown out of our window by a drunken rugby player and our blocks' interesting waterfeature after a water fight got a little out of hand and the electronic Scientists opened all the lift doors so you could see the water flowing down the shaft..... WE never fell out though, lifelong friends, I think it was bonding..........

DD has already had the bright idea of flooding their brick balcony during the last cold snap so they could have an ice rink, it didn't freeze, it didn't drain....

I suddenly enjoy ironing when a deadline looms.