Before my Camino trip, I settled into my new house for the year!
I arrived in Brighton on the 12th of September and moved in the next morning. Once everyone was at the house, the agent walked us through the house and explained how to do inventory. Everything in the house looked (relatively) okay (for a student house) except my bed: I was expecting to have a single bed (I even bought sheets and everything at this point), but the bed in my room was a double and dominated the already small room. I inquired about changing my bed to a smaller one with the landlord, but after a few days of slow progress, I decided to keep the bed I have now. It’s brand new and really comfortable and heaven knows what they’d give me instead if I switched. Unfortunately, I couldn’t return my single-sized duvet, so it looks a bit goofy on my double bed.
Once the agent left, it was crunch time. The lot of us hurried around town buying things we needed for the house and making repairs. After a few full days of shopping, we finally got everything we needed. The next few days, we all got to know each other (besides Diego who waited a few more weeks to move in) and had a great time playing card games and drinking (some of us more than others…) (okay, that might have been me).
I have four roommates: Diego, Alex, Joe and Anthony. I met Diego (second year engineering) on Twitter about a year ago, got to know him well since and met him in person over summer. We both were talking about how we needed a house for the school year and decided to move forward with the house hunt together with his coursemate Alex (second year engineering). We couldn’t find anything affordable or convenient for three people, so we posted a shout on the Sussex University housing page for two other people. Joe (second year computer science) and Anthony (Master’s history) were the first two people to reply and they followed through with everything, making five of us.
After a few days of searching, we all agreed on a house to pursue. At this point in the game, the pickings were rather slim, so we couldn’t be fussy. Joe, Anthony and Alex all checked out the house in person and decided for all of us it would suffice and after jumping through all sorts of administrative hoops (that we’re actually still struggling with), the house was ours.
Our house is located 20 minutes walking or 10 minutes bike ride away from the university and right outside a bus stop going into town. The location has to be my favorite thing about the house, it’s so convenient.
The floor plan is more or less as follows:
As soon as you walk through the door, the stairs going up to the second floor are right in front of you, Anthony’s room is to your left, and the living room to the right.
Past the living room is the kitchen, Joe’s room and the door to the backyard.
Upstairs, there is a water closet and shower room and Alex’s room to the right of the stairs and mine and Diego’s room to the left.
As I mentioned, my room is really small, but with storage solutions such as my shelf and bins inside my wardrobe and under my bed, it’s manageable!
The house isn’t the nicest in the world, but my roommates are great (so far…), the location is fabulous, and most importantly, it’s my first “big girl” house: it’s my first time paying rent on my own!
It looks great! I hope everything goes well with school and learning to live with new housemates!