OMG!!! The building I live in is massive! We moved in the first week of August… They would be placing eight of us in the Darlington Art Center… The rules are that we are to keep curtains and things moving about so that should someone look in it looks lived in… Easy enough, take the shades up during the day, down at night… Use the main areas…
Three of us moved in the first day, Jesse, Simon and I…
Jesse got the dance studio, his ceilings are about 25 feet up into the rafters, his room is mostly square and all wooden floors… He also has a whole wall of mirrors (I remember cringing when seeing this room over all the mirrors)… Jesse is from Brisbane, Australia… He is really funny, poor guy has my sense of humor so we end up laughing at everything…
Simon got the Garden Bar, his room has a kitchen, that was the room I had wanted… It is dark blue and has a stage… It was once a pub, which is why there is an area to set up a kitchen… (you should know that when I say kitchen what I mean is there are outlets for plugging in appliances, and there is running water, there are no appliances provided, we all had to be very creative)… Simon is nice, though he keeps to himself, he is from this area…
I got the Club Room, this is where they had meetings and such, I have had many people tell me of classes they took in my room, as well as what it looked like before it was the Club Room… It was many years ago a pub; though since then they have enclosed a portion of it, and plastered over several windows… My room is approximately 1000 square feet, with dark blue carpet, 16 foot ceiling, 5 sets of doors (2 lead outside), 13 windows (each 3′ x 7′ )… I have set up a bedroom, living room, crafting area, and office area…
Jesse and I agreed that we would like to share a kitchen and began creating it right away, it seemed we each had what the other didn’t, and if neither of us had it someone would show up with it… I realize that sounds like I am being funny, I am not, the two of us and this amazing building somehow pulled together a complete kitchen and common space in a very short amount of time… One particular day, I had walked into the kitchen to make something and had thought “it would be nice to have a butter dish”, the next day Jesse came back from Ikea and said I got you a butter dish”…. This kinda thing happened all the time…
We had for the first two months security guards round the clock, in the moving of all of this building they had to move Darlington’s art collection, so while they were awaiting it’s transition it was required by insurance that someone be on sight 24 x 7 to make sure no one made off with it… The great part of this was that we had Dave! Dave is a wonderful guy and fun to chat with, and he had been working in this building for 30 years… So he knew everything about the building and he knew what they would be throwing out… So if we needed something, that was gonna be thrown in the skip, he would let us know in case we might want it… I got most of my furniture this way, and refurbished it… We had furniture stacked up all over that was gonna go different places and we were able to use it until such time as they took it off where ever it might be going… That is why we had a fridge right away… So between this amazing building, Dave knowing the amazing building, and a great site called freecycle, I furnished my room, and we pulled together a kitchen, including a washing machine for almost no money in under a month…
Our next housemate would be Ian… He would move in about two weeks after us, Ian is from Darlington, and he got the really big room his had been the Dining Hall/Break Room… His room is the only one with cable, and he also has a kitchen, there had also been a pub this room, so he has a full sized kitchen area, with large sinks and shelves… His room is approximately 1500 square feet, with sliding glass doors and huge Windows like mine, he also has a bedroom space as well as a huge closet… He was the first one to see the rooms and had first pick… (yep I was a little jealous)…Ian tends to be very trendy, and used to frequent this building when it had the pub in the entry (now our kitchen)…
Tom would be in next… Tom is also from Darlington, and he was placed into the Music Room… His room is in the large glass hallway… His room is about 600 square feet with 16 foot ceilings… Tom is very cheerful, and willing to help…
So these are the players for August, we would spend a lot of time getting our spaces sorted and hanging out in the common room getting to know each other, with a mixture of different security guards thrown in… We would have Dave during the day and various others in the night… It got to a point that some would get so familiar that they would think they were part of the group, and a few were even drinking and carrying on with everyone… You can see how there might of been time where it got a bit out of control…