If you don't count my college dorm -- I moved into the top two floors of a two-family house in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. Our landlords were AWESOME and kept the rent purposefully low for girls getting their first place ever. We each paid $500 per month, which was amazing for 2006-2008 in Boston.
I have a scar on my knuckle for trying to move my queen-size bed up the spiral staircase.
First place was a friend's couch until we got a 2 bedroom. The most roommates I've ever had at one time (human that is) was two...however that hammered home the point that I much prefer to live alone. And I have since.
Dorm freshman year. One roommate. My 1st apartment was a year later with a roommate. It was the1st floor of an old, very creepy house that had been split into 2 apartments. I'd say the place was haunted but idk if I believe in it, but certainly some creepy vibes/experiences (knocking that seemed to answer a question, feeling like someone was standing behind you when you were alone, feeling like you were being watched). Depending on what you believe, I guess that would be the only time I had more than one roommate at a time!
College dorm in New Orleans. Kind of crazy roomie. After college, 2-bedroom apt with another girl in West Hollywood. First solo place at 26 (1 bedroom apt) in Sherman Oaks, CA when I started by PhD. Still live alone in Sherman Oaks, but a different apt.
Had roommates in college dorms, but always lived alone after that until I got married (both times). @parissucks - there's a LOT to be said for living alone! I love Mr. B but sometimes I wish he traveled for a living. There's nothing like going in the living room in the evening, picking up the remote and watching whatever you want without worrying you're annoying your SO, while eating whatever crap you feel like eating. I miss that.
First apartment at 19, had 2 roommates and then housed our friend who couldn't stand living with her parents any longer. One roommate moved out shortly after, but then we housed another friend who couldn't stand living with his parents either - back to 4 people in one apartment.
One year solo, next year with a roommate and then friend we housed who broke up with her bf. Later moved in with same friend and her new bf and have lived with them since...until my bf moved in and now there's 4 of us in a town home. We all love our living situation currently though, can't beat rent under $400 a person.
@ SusanB, I know what you mean! My husband works nights and I don't think we would have been together as long as we have if he didn't keep those crazy hours:)
I moved in with my first boyfriend, my best female friend and my brother, (thats 3 separate people!löl). until I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me with the downstairs neighbours friend!!löl!
Dorm, 1 roomie. She was a stuck up bitch and hated me, she moved out a month or so later and I had the dorm to myself for the rest of the year.
The next year, I lived in a house with 5 other girls. First apartment I lived in by myself was a dump (roaches, crappy neighbors & it had been transformed from an old bar), it was about 1 1/2 years after I graduated from college. Mega cheap rent though.
Apartment in San Diego. It was so exciting to move to the big city. It was the disco era and I met friends at school who took me to my first gay bar and I had a blast and we went back many, many times.
At first I had a room mate who I didn't know well, but was from my small town so we decided to share costs. Come to find out she was having an affair with a married man (I knew both he and his wife) and I was SHOCKED. I called the Mum who promptly moved me into another unit in the same building.
The worst part of any of my marriages was living every, single, friggin' day with someone. If I ever trip down the aisle again, there's going to have to be some kind of part-time living arrangement or else run the risk of rat poison in the Cheerios.
I am currently living in my first apartment, that I pay for all by myself! I kicked my ex out about 6 months ago. We're still friendly and see eachother, and I let his mom stay with me (she came to stay with us because she had nowhere to go last May, and is still here, even though her son is gone -__-)
Im quite proud of myself. 20 years old, going to school and work full time (I work two jobs). I can pay my rent (usually on time, but never missed a payment) all by myself (ex's mom is very sporadic about giving me money, shes on GR right now -__-)
Had this apartment for almost 2 years, 4 months shy!
I hate it, but I love it haha. Ex's mom says she's leaving in a month but has said that before.
I probably wouldnt choose to have roomies, unless my financial situation was really dire. Im not exactly the most enthusiastic housekeeper. Funny because one of my jobs is actually housekeeping.
I didn't really have what I thought of as a family home. I just lived with my mother. And I didn't move until I got married. How's that for old fashioned and boring?
I was 17, employed and still in Hig School. I and an older female coworker got an apartment in Torrance, CA. We lived together as roommates for about 6 months, then I had to go find another roommate...We had a blast, but I can barely remember most of it and I was getting tired of my "friends" and boyfriend at the time only visiting me for her and her dealer boyfriends blow...I needed sleep and a new set of friends so I left....good times... ;)
My first apartment. Found the roomate from the classified ads. Was fine for the first six months till it came time to renew the lease. Then she let her freak flag fly.
Felt like I was living in a brothel. Guys would ring the doorbell, drunk @ 6 a.m. One night she came home with a few guys - one of them burst into my bedroom @ 4 a.m. wanting to know if I wanted to party. A few times I woke up to find strange guys sitting in the kitchen drinking beer at 8 in the morning.
Moved out pretty damn quickly, and never had another roommate again.
@ Roman Holiday - Mr B and I work together in our own business as well as living together. Sometimes I just go in the bathroom and shut the door. And he's the type who wants to be together all the time. Well, no marriage is perfect!
freshman year "approved" non-dorm housing - top floor of old lady's house. bathroom (only one for all) downstairs thru her kitchen and living room. 3 roommates. no kitchen. the old lady didn't speak english very well and did a lot of shrieking. those were the days!!!!
I too was 17 and in high school. An old mansion on gulf coast converted into apts. Super great location, cheap rent and roaches. Moved after a year to go to college and no way was I living in a dorm. I never had roommates and when I moved in with my hubby it was hard because while we stayed at each others places we never lived together full time and I realized how much I liked privacy and space. I got used to him though :)
Apartment-style dorms at college... I shared a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 other girls. One was a stripper, one was a former child actress (no one cool or famous), and the third was a raging bitch. I switched dorms pretty early on and found a better group of friends.
A 6th floor studio without air conditioning in Chicago. The trash room was on our floor, and on a warm humid day the smell was awful. We had a big heat wave that summer, and I spent weeks at a time at my boyfriends place. I got out of there as soon as my lease was up. Ugh.
When my dad died I was told to move out by my grandpa who owned the home. He said it would be to expensive for a single person. He probably was right. So I got an apartment that I still live in almost 8 years later.
I had roomates in college and then moved into my own apt at 24. I LOVE living alone, I can't imagine having roomates. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Whenever I have someone in my bed, in my head I'm like "I can't wait for you to go home so I can have my whole bed back"
After roommates through college and law school, a teensy studio on 36th and Lex in NYC. I loved it even with the gas leak. Then I met my now husband and semi lived together until we moved abroad.
@cinephreak I hear ya on that one, oh boy lol. I had housekeeping jobs through most of my college years and I STILL (and this is like 3 yrs later) hate hate hate cleaning.
Enty, I spent all night on Pinterest yesterday because of your question. The power of suggestion, Jesus, I'm about to drop some crazy money today at hobby lobby. I'm not doing this one, ill spend all night going through photos remembering all the creepy neighbors.
1st time living away from home: college dorm freshman year; my roommate was a major Preppy wannabe (this was when The Preppy Handbook was huge) who had 24 Fair Isle sweaters w/matching oxford cloth shirts, turtlenecks, etc. (She kept the sweaters in milk crates on top of the closet; I got bored one day and counted them.) I was my usual, um, offbeat self, and while we didn't not get along, it just wasn't a good arrangement. Fortunately, one of the few single rooms in the dorm opened up at the end of my first semester, and I moved right into it!
1st apartment was a summer rental between Junior & Senior years; I had my own room (thank God). My roommate was one of the campus folkies, playing guitar, writing songs & singing them; in retrospect I'm 99.9% sure she was a lesbian, but she came from a messed-up Catholic family, so she'd never admit to such a thing, even though she hung out with a whole pack of similarly musical lesbians. (She was also kindasorta in love w/this one guy who, when she wouldn't put out, started banging her roommate, in the bunk bed above her. Ah, college...) Although she wasn't a bad person at all, she had some major mental health issues (she was a cutter long before I'd ever heard the term), and by the time we moved back into the dorm, I was barely willing to be in the same room w/her. The following summer I had my own place, by myself, also a summer rental; skunks would hang around the garbage cans out back until one of the nuts downstairs shot one, and I couldn't open the windows on one side of the building for a week due to the smell. Then there was my first place in the Boston area, in Central Square in Cambridge, upstairs over what I later found out was a massage parlor...and no, I couldn't possibly make that up. It was officially the "Old English Health Club", and I remember wondering how they got the Nautilus machines into the basement, until one of my roommates clued me in. Good times...
I had a little one bedroom apartment when I turned 19, that I lived in for 5 months. Then for the next 6 years I lived in efficiency rooms that my job provided. Now, at 26, I am living with mommy again, living the American dream.
When I first moved out, I moved into a room in a house with a revolving cast of crazy people. The owner lived in the home as well, and was prone to renting out rooms that weren't originally meant to be rented out (such as her office), depending on how many human strays she was taking in. I had a bedroom in the basement. The other basement room was filled by a succession of students. The first one to live down there with me ripped me off for almost $500, and skipped town owing the owner a couple months of back rent.
After a year of that I moved into an apartment with my boyfriend and had a baby. When we split, my infant daughter and I moved in with a friend and her boyfriend. The roomie and the boyfriend split up, and before long she was dating her now-husband, who was a father of three. He moved in, and when he had his kids on the weekend, we had three adults, four kids and two cats in a two bedroom apartment.
Group house in Washington, D.C. full of Queer Nation and Riot Grrrl activists with grafitti painted on the inside walls. I didn't even blink at the conditions at the time.
First was the college dormitory, of course. After that, on my first real job, I started in a training program with 2 guys. I'm an engineer, and at the time, I was the only female working at the whole facility, located in Nowheresville. Being a native NYer, I didn't have a car or a license to drive. Anyway, the 2 guys I started with were incredibly decent. They proposed that we buddy up and share an apartment, and chauffeured me to work every day until I transferred to NY. I couldn't have made it through that period without their help. I will never forget them.
Split an apartment with my 18 year old brother, my dad was mad at us for moving out (we are the oldest) :) Best two years of my life, so much fun! We constantly had friends going in and out, just hanging out, and only fighting over who had to wash the few dishes we had in the sink. Ate pizza most days of the week because we were so broke, back when I was young and my metabolism still worked :D Those where the days.
Dorm. Since I have been in college I have had 12 roommates. I have lived in a three bedroom apt, four bedroom apt, three bedroom house, two bedroom apt, and had a few roommates circulating within that.
And I have experienced every roommate horror story ever. My personal fave was the one who would take a BATH to shave her entire body after a two month noshave stint and when the tub would drain she would leave her pube and leg hair covering the bath tub. That was awkward when the plumber came right after she took a bath....
My other fave was this guy who lived in the corner of our large kitchen in one house. He would bring guys over late at night and have sex all over our kitchen, very loudly, into the wee hours of the morning. I never trusted the gravy in the fridge after that...
Oh and than there was the girl whose boyfriend would routinely break into our house. Lots of furniture got thrown into walls during those fights.
@lostathome don't be too despondent about being back at home. I've been back twice in the six years, once through illness and once through a relationship breaking up. I got out both times in the end
And I still have another year and a half of college to go. I am curious to see where I end up after this semester.
I go to school in Lubbock, TX which is BFE (bum fuck egypt) for those of you who don't know where it is (no one really does). The nice thing about housing here is nice student apts, and fairly large houses that you can rent or buy. Backyard pools and sunrooms included.
College. Moved back home. 1992 recession was why. Moved out when I got married.
(I was just about to put a deposit on a condo and move out when I met Mr. Lioness. I stayed home for another couple of years to save up for a down payment on my now home.)
Roommates through undergrad college in LA. I always had just one roommate. My male roommates were great, but the one girl I lived with was a PIG! She use to leave her hair on the shower wall and clog up the shower. She always had guys coming over trying to get with me too. It was SCARY.
2 bedrm apt with three roommates in college in LA. I did not have a car and it SUCKED. It's true, nobody walks in LA. Only there for a year, filled with many celebrity adventures, and then moved back home to my mom's. Got married a year later, had a baby and then back with my mom after a year of marriage. Wow. I have never lived alone. Now I'm remarried with more kids.
Worked in cape cod during summers (lived at home for college) and lived in a barn on the property of a family friends house. Some friend, it was the worst, no electricity, so you would have to hold a flashlight and sweep all the spiders off the bed before getting in, then keep the flashlight next to you in case they came back. And the bathroom was in the main house across the field with a "guard horse". Moved in with my boyfriend who became my husband and then proved my parents worst fears right by getting knocked up, good thing that shotgun marriage worked out!
I had five roommates when I moved into a far, far, far too overpriced apartment in South Orange County. I will never have five roommates again. I may never even have one roommate again after that. Blah.
Four roommates, in a four bedroom, two bathroom flat in an "up and coming" neighborhood in SF. Two roomies were my best friends from HS, the other two my friends' friend and his girlfriend. Hardwood floors, claw foot bath tubs, and our downstairs neighbors were the band Death Angel. I can remember thinking "How in the hell will I make $350 a month for rent?". Once, Death Angel's roadie Rog (orange Pinto, FTW) foiled a robbery at the local bodega, Hymie's. SFPD showed and cuffed Rog instead of the perp, who bailed. I miss those days!
My roommate in college was a heroin addict and stole most of my stuff one night when I stayed at my boyfriends place. She also tried to commit suicide once because she thought I'd be gone all night. She's alive, I saved her life (even after she stole my stuff!!) I never wanted a roommate again.
I live with my parents now, I help them pay the bills and around the house since they are older and unable to do a lot. If I do move, it'll be into my brothers house. I don't wanna live alone, I'd never feel safe. And I will always have a dog, no matter where I live.
Dorm room designed by I M Pei was the first.... Later the 3rd floor of a Brooklyn mansion with 9 roommates...it ended up in an Architectural Digest spread....the photo showed all our telephone wires hanging out of the top floor windows.....it looked awful haahhahaha
I lived in a dorm 3 of the 4 years of college and then roomed with 4 girls in an off campus apartment after that. I lived at home after graduation but only lasted six months there before having to GTFOOD and moved into the only apartment I could afford, which was very sketchy. That's where I had my landlord stalker. ((shiver))
College dorm room. Three 18 year old girls in one room. The fun, the fights, the silent treatments. Crazy times.
ReplyDeleteI had roommates all through college, and for one year after. I moved in my apt alone when I was 23, and am still here at 41. I LOVE living alone!!!
ReplyDeletecollege dorm... now i'm back at the house. sigh.
ReplyDeleteI moved into a little cabin in the woods. It got old after 2 years, and I moved back to the city. Sure was fun for a while though!
ReplyDeleteIf you don't count my college dorm -- I moved into the top two floors of a two-family house in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. Our landlords were AWESOME and kept the rent purposefully low for girls getting their first place ever. We each paid $500 per month, which was amazing for 2006-2008 in Boston.
ReplyDeleteI have a scar on my knuckle for trying to move my queen-size bed up the spiral staircase.
I had roommates all through college. Never again. I have lived alone since then (6 years).
ReplyDeleteMy first place after college was a sweet loft in the downtown but I moved after a year because rent was outrageous.
One time I had three roommates in an off-campus college apartment, but we all had our own rooms.
ReplyDeleteThe place directly after college was a two bedroom apartment with awesome bathtubs (mine was a soaking tub) that I lived in with my best friend.
Garage apartment.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in a rented house with a variety of other students. Sometimes it was incredibly fun; sometimes super stressful.
ReplyDeleteFirst place was a friend's couch until we got a 2 bedroom.
ReplyDeleteThe most roommates I've ever had at one time (human that is) was two...however that hammered home the point that I much prefer to live alone.
And I have since.
College dorm, then got married and moved to Houston, Texas
ReplyDeleteI moved into a small old house that was divided into 4 student apartments. I had a 1-bedroom for maybe $350 a month.
ReplyDeleteNo roommates, but all the tenants were good friends.
I shared one apt with a roommate in grad school and I hated sharing, lol--since then I've always had my own place. I'm kind of a hermit by nature.
It was a town house with 4 other people and each person's pet. A pug and a bunch of cats.
ReplyDeleteMy first place was an apartment in Reno with my then boyfriend.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I am not the unabomber.
ReplyDeleteDorm freshman year. One roommate. My 1st apartment was a year later with a roommate. It was the1st floor of an old, very creepy house that had been split into 2 apartments. I'd say the place was haunted but idk if I believe in it, but certainly some creepy vibes/experiences (knocking that seemed to answer a question, feeling like someone was standing behind you when you were alone, feeling like you were being watched). Depending on what you believe, I guess that would be the only time I had more than one roommate at a time!
ReplyDeleteCollege dorm in New Orleans. Kind of crazy roomie. After college, 2-bedroom apt with another girl in West Hollywood. First solo place at 26 (1 bedroom apt) in Sherman Oaks, CA when I started by PhD. Still live alone in Sherman Oaks, but a different apt.
ReplyDeleteNever lived alone. Went from dorm to being married. I am SO boring!
ReplyDeleteHad roommates in college dorms, but always lived alone after that until I got married (both times). @parissucks - there's a LOT to be said for living alone! I love Mr. B but sometimes I wish he traveled for a living. There's nothing like going in the living room in the evening, picking up the remote and watching whatever you want without worrying you're annoying your SO, while eating whatever crap you feel like eating. I miss that.
ReplyDeleteFirst apartment at 19, had 2 roommates and then housed our friend who couldn't stand living with her parents any longer. One roommate moved out shortly after, but then we housed another friend who couldn't stand living with his parents either - back to 4 people in one apartment.
ReplyDeleteOne year solo, next year with a roommate and then friend we housed who broke up with her bf. Later moved in with same friend and her new bf and have lived with them since...until my bf moved in and now there's 4 of us in a town home. We all love our living situation currently though, can't beat rent under $400 a person.
@ SusanB, I know what you mean! My husband works nights and I don't think we would have been together as long as we have if he didn't keep those crazy hours:)
ReplyDeleteI moved in with my first boyfriend, my best female friend and my brother, (thats 3 separate people!löl). until I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me with the downstairs neighbours friend!!löl!
ReplyDeleteFrom home to marriage.
ReplyDeleteDorm, 1 roomie. She was a stuck up bitch and hated me, she moved out a month or so later and I had the dorm to myself for the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteThe next year, I lived in a house with 5 other girls. First apartment I lived in by myself was a dump (roaches, crappy neighbors & it had been transformed from an old bar), it was about 1 1/2 years after I graduated from college. Mega cheap rent though.
Apartment in San Diego. It was so exciting to move to the big city. It was the disco era and I met friends at school who took me to my first gay bar and I had a blast and we went back many, many times.
ReplyDeleteAt first I had a room mate who I didn't know well, but was from my small town so we decided to share costs. Come to find out she was having an affair with a married man (I knew both he and his wife) and I was SHOCKED. I called the Mum who promptly moved me into another unit in the same building.
The worst part of any of my marriages was living every, single, friggin' day with someone. If I ever trip down the aisle again, there's going to have to be some kind of part-time living arrangement or else run the risk of rat poison in the Cheerios.
Moved from the hick town I grew up in straight to the city! Homeless people sleeping in the doorways freaked me out for months.
ReplyDeleteI am currently living in my first apartment, that I pay for all by myself! I kicked my ex out about 6 months ago. We're still friendly and see eachother, and I let his mom stay with me (she came to stay with us because she had nowhere to go last May, and is still here, even though her son is gone -__-)
ReplyDeleteIm quite proud of myself. 20 years old, going to school and work full time (I work two jobs). I can pay my rent (usually on time, but never missed a payment) all by myself (ex's mom is very sporadic about giving me money, shes on GR right now -__-)
Had this apartment for almost 2 years, 4 months shy!
I hate it, but I love it haha. Ex's mom says she's leaving in a month but has said that before.
I probably wouldnt choose to have roomies, unless my financial situation was really dire. Im not exactly the most enthusiastic housekeeper. Funny because one of my jobs is actually housekeeping.
I didn't really have what I thought of as a family home. I just lived with my mother. And I didn't move until I got married. How's that for old fashioned and boring?
ReplyDeleteI was 17, employed and still in Hig School. I and an older female coworker got an apartment in Torrance, CA. We lived together as roommates for about 6 months, then I had to go find another roommate...We had a blast, but I can barely remember most of it and I was getting tired of my "friends" and boyfriend at the time only visiting me for her and her dealer boyfriends blow...I needed sleep and a new set of friends so I left....good times... ;)
ReplyDeleteHouse share in London with four guys. I am female - men are not fun to live with en masse.
ReplyDeleteMy first apartment. Found the roomate from the classified ads. Was fine for the first six months till it came time to renew the lease. Then she let her freak flag fly.
ReplyDeleteFelt like I was living in a brothel. Guys would ring the doorbell, drunk @ 6 a.m. One night she came home with a few guys - one of them burst into my bedroom @ 4 a.m. wanting to know if I wanted to party. A few times I woke up to find strange guys sitting in the kitchen drinking beer at 8 in the morning.
Moved out pretty damn quickly, and never had another roommate again.
@ Roman Holiday - Mr B and I work together in our own business as well as living together. Sometimes I just go in the bathroom and shut the door. And he's the type who wants to be together all the time. Well, no marriage is perfect!
ReplyDeletefreshman year "approved" non-dorm housing - top floor of old lady's house. bathroom (only one for all) downstairs thru her kitchen and living room. 3 roommates. no kitchen. the old lady didn't speak english very well and did a lot of shrieking. those were the days!!!!
ReplyDeleteA bungalow, with my husband, that we bought before we got married. Lived there for almost 19 years.
ReplyDeleteI too was 17 and in high school. An old mansion on gulf coast converted into apts. Super great location, cheap rent and roaches. Moved after a year to go to college and no way was I living in a dorm. I never had roommates and when I moved in with my hubby it was hard because while we stayed at each others places we never lived together full time and I realized how much I liked privacy and space. I got used to him though :)
ReplyDeleteApartment-style dorms at college... I shared a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 other girls. One was a stripper, one was a former child actress (no one cool or famous), and the third was a raging bitch. I switched dorms pretty early on and found a better group of friends.
ReplyDeleteA 6th floor studio without air conditioning in Chicago. The trash room was on our floor, and on a warm humid day the smell was awful. We had a big heat wave that summer, and I spent weeks at a time at my boyfriends place. I got out of there as soon as my lease was up. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI had three female flat mates when I was 30 and went back to school. They are still very dear to me. I got lucky; had a roommate a few years later who was short-lived. Now I live with the greatest fiancé ever :-)
When my dad died I was told to move out by my grandpa who owned the home. He said it would be to expensive for a single person. He probably was right. So I got an apartment that I still live in almost 8 years later.
ReplyDelete18, own apartment in the not-so-nice part of San Rafael.
ReplyDeleteLived there for two years while going to college. Great experience!
I had roomates in college and then moved into my own apt at 24. I LOVE living alone, I can't imagine having roomates. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Whenever I have someone in my bed, in my head I'm like "I can't wait for you to go home so I can have my whole bed back"
ReplyDeleteAfter roommates through college and law school, a teensy studio on 36th and Lex in NYC. I loved it even with the gas leak. Then I met my now husband and semi lived together until we moved abroad.
ReplyDelete@cinephreak I hear ya on that one, oh boy lol. I had housekeeping jobs through most of my college years and I STILL (and this is like 3 yrs later) hate hate hate cleaning.
ReplyDelete2 roommates and a dog. Total of 4 of us.
ReplyDeleteEnty, I spent all night on Pinterest yesterday because of your question. The power of suggestion, Jesus, I'm about to drop some crazy money today at hobby lobby. I'm not doing this one, ill spend all night going through photos remembering all the creepy neighbors.
ReplyDelete1st time living away from home: college dorm freshman year; my roommate was a major Preppy wannabe (this was when The Preppy Handbook was huge) who had 24 Fair Isle sweaters w/matching oxford cloth shirts, turtlenecks, etc. (She kept the sweaters in milk crates on top of the closet; I got bored one day and counted them.) I was my usual, um, offbeat self, and while we didn't not get along, it just wasn't a good arrangement. Fortunately, one of the few single rooms in the dorm opened up at the end of my first semester, and I moved right into it!
ReplyDelete1st apartment was a summer rental between Junior & Senior years; I had my own room (thank God). My roommate was one of the campus folkies, playing guitar, writing songs & singing them; in retrospect I'm 99.9% sure she was a lesbian, but she came from a messed-up Catholic family, so she'd never admit to such a thing, even though she hung out with a whole pack of similarly musical lesbians. (She was also kindasorta in love w/this one guy who, when she wouldn't put out, started banging her roommate, in the bunk bed above her. Ah, college...) Although she wasn't a bad person at all, she had some major mental health issues (she was a cutter long before I'd ever heard the term), and by the time we moved back into the dorm, I was barely willing to be in the same room w/her. The following summer I had my own place, by myself, also a summer rental; skunks would hang around the garbage cans out back until one of the nuts downstairs shot one, and I couldn't open the windows on one side of the building for a week due to the smell. Then there was my first place in the Boston area, in Central Square in Cambridge, upstairs over what I later found out was a massage parlor...and no, I couldn't possibly make that up. It was officially the "Old English Health Club", and I remember wondering how they got the Nautilus machines into the basement, until one of my roommates clued me in. Good times...
I had a little one bedroom apartment when I turned 19, that I lived in for 5 months. Then for the next 6 years I lived in efficiency rooms that my job provided. Now, at 26, I am living with mommy again, living the American dream.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first moved out, I moved into a room in a house with a revolving cast of crazy people. The owner lived in the home as well, and was prone to renting out rooms that weren't originally meant to be rented out (such as her office), depending on how many human strays she was taking in. I had a bedroom in the basement. The other basement room was filled by a succession of students. The first one to live down there with me ripped me off for almost $500, and skipped town owing the owner a couple months of back rent.
ReplyDeleteAfter a year of that I moved into an apartment with my boyfriend and had a baby. When we split, my infant daughter and I moved in with a friend and her boyfriend. The roomie and the boyfriend split up, and before long she was dating her now-husband, who was a father of three. He moved in, and when he had his kids on the weekend, we had three adults, four kids and two cats in a two bedroom apartment.
Group house in Washington, D.C. full of Queer Nation and Riot Grrrl activists with grafitti painted on the inside walls. I didn't even blink at the conditions at the time.
ReplyDeleteFirst was the college dormitory, of course. After that, on my first real job, I started in a training program with 2 guys. I'm an engineer, and at the time, I was the only female working at the whole facility, located in Nowheresville. Being a native NYer, I didn't have a car or a license to drive.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the 2 guys I started with were incredibly decent. They proposed that we buddy up and share an apartment, and chauffeured me to work every day until I transferred to NY.
I couldn't have made it through that period without their help. I will never forget them.
Split an apartment with my 18 year old brother, my dad was mad at us for moving out (we are the oldest) :) Best two years of my life, so much fun! We constantly had friends going in and out, just hanging out, and only fighting over who had to wash the few dishes we had in the sink. Ate pizza most days of the week because we were so broke, back when I was young and my metabolism still worked :D Those where the days.
ReplyDeleteMoved out of my parents' house and in with my older brother. I was 17; they were worried about me living alone.
ReplyDeleteBiggest household: nine people, one baby, three dogs. OH DEAR LORD.
Dorm. Since I have been in college I have had 12 roommates. I have lived in a three bedroom apt, four bedroom apt, three bedroom house, two bedroom apt, and had a few roommates circulating within that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have experienced every roommate horror story ever.
My personal fave was the one who would take a BATH to shave her entire body after a two month noshave stint and when the tub would drain she would leave her pube and leg hair covering the bath tub. That was awkward when the plumber came right after she took a bath....
My other fave was this guy who lived in the corner of our large kitchen in one house. He would bring guys over late at night and have sex all over our kitchen, very loudly, into the wee hours of the morning. I never trusted the gravy in the fridge after that...
Oh and than there was the girl whose boyfriend would routinely break into our house. Lots of furniture got thrown into walls during those fights.
@lostathome don't be too despondent about being back at home. I've been back twice in the six years, once through illness and once through a relationship breaking up. I got out both times in the end
ReplyDeleteAnd I still have another year and a half of college to go. I am curious to see where I end up after this semester.
ReplyDeleteI go to school in Lubbock, TX which is BFE (bum fuck egypt) for those of you who don't know where it is (no one really does).
The nice thing about housing here is nice student apts, and fairly large houses that you can rent or buy. Backyard pools and sunrooms included.
College. Moved back home. 1992 recession was why. Moved out when I got married.
ReplyDelete(I was just about to put a deposit on a condo and move out when I met Mr. Lioness. I stayed home for another couple of years to save up for a down payment on my now home.)
Roommates through undergrad college in LA. I always had just one roommate. My male roommates were great, but the one girl I lived with was a PIG! She use to leave her hair on the shower wall and clog up the shower. She always had guys coming over trying to get with me too. It was SCARY.
ReplyDelete2 bedrm apt with three roommates in college in LA. I did not have a car and it SUCKED. It's true, nobody walks in LA. Only there for a year, filled with many celebrity adventures, and then moved back home to my mom's. Got married a year later, had a baby and then back with my mom after a year of marriage. Wow. I have never lived alone. Now I'm remarried with more kids.
ReplyDeleteWorked in cape cod during summers (lived at home for college) and lived in a barn on the property of a family friends house. Some friend, it was the worst, no electricity, so you would have to hold a flashlight and sweep all the spiders off the bed before getting in, then keep the flashlight next to you in case they came back. And the bathroom was in the main house across the field with a "guard horse".
ReplyDeleteMoved in with my boyfriend who became my husband and then proved my parents worst fears right by getting knocked up, good thing that shotgun marriage worked out!
I had five roommates when I moved into a far, far, far too overpriced apartment in South Orange County. I will never have five roommates again. I may never even have one roommate again after that. Blah.
ReplyDeleteFour roommates, in a four bedroom, two bathroom flat in an "up and coming" neighborhood in SF. Two roomies were my best friends from HS, the other two my friends' friend and his girlfriend. Hardwood floors, claw foot bath tubs, and our downstairs neighbors were the band Death Angel. I can remember thinking "How in the hell will I make $350 a month for rent?".
ReplyDeleteOnce, Death Angel's roadie Rog (orange Pinto, FTW) foiled a robbery at the local bodega, Hymie's. SFPD showed and cuffed Rog instead of the perp, who bailed. I miss those days!
My roommate in college was a heroin addict and stole most of my stuff one night when I stayed at my boyfriends place. She also tried to commit suicide once because she thought I'd be gone all night. She's alive, I saved her life (even after she stole my stuff!!) I never wanted a roommate again.
ReplyDeleteI live with my parents now, I help them pay the bills and around the house since they are older and unable to do a lot. If I do move, it'll be into my brothers house. I don't wanna live alone, I'd never feel safe. And I will always have a dog, no matter where I live.
Dorm room designed by I M Pei was the first....
ReplyDeleteLater the 3rd floor of a Brooklyn mansion with 9 roommates...it ended up in an Architectural Digest spread....the photo showed all our telephone wires hanging out of the top floor windows.....it looked awful haahhahaha
I lived in a dorm 3 of the 4 years of college and then roomed with 4 girls in an off campus apartment after that. I lived at home after graduation but only lasted six months there before having to GTFOOD and moved into the only apartment I could afford, which was very sketchy. That's where I had my landlord stalker. ((shiver))
ReplyDelete