mansion

Not Bad for a College Student

Thou Shalt Not Envy Thy Neighbor

Out of some crazy alignment of planets and stars, my friend Sandi lived in a Grand Street mansion for free for about a year. The twenty-two room house was being sold, and the owners wanted someone to stay in it to look after the house and show it to the occasional interested viewer.

The house started out fully furnished, but the owners gradually emptied the house of all it's furnishings and moved them to their new location. The paradoxical appearance of Sandi's sparse and cheap thrift-store furnishings attempting to fill the mansion had to have been apparent to any potential buyers.

At first I was a little (okay, extremely) jealous of Sandi for getting to live in this beautiful house for free. But she soon got tired of the responsibility and uncertainty that came with the place. At any moment, the house could be sold, and she would have to quickly find other living arrangements. And she described the house as "having an elephant for a pet. It's fun for a while, but then it's just a job."

The house would echo with it's emptiness, and Sandi had to keep her living space--a small bedroom, bathroom, and the kitchen--in pristine condition at all times, so it appeared neat to potential buyers. (This would have been impossible for me to do. I frequently act out passive-aggressively on my living space, feeling like as a student, my apartment is the only thing I'm not getting graded on. Chaos results.)

But Sandi's mansion serves as an extreme example of why I love South Park houses, with their small and architecturally interesting rooms, hardwood floors, and multi-stories. I think about Sandi's karaoke parties in empty rooms and the movies we watched together, sitting on the floor of the mansion, whenever I pass by it.

It was one of those interesting and rare moments when a professional dwelling becomes a student's apartment.

Back to professionals or Space *Keywords: Morgantown cribs, jealousy, housing, renting, student housing, apartment, real estate