Residents of 1026 High Street Annie Leverich, Sami Rebein, Clara Kirkpatrick, and Chloe Yates (all ’14), have managed to bring a little bit of North Campus charm to off-campus living. The home, now affectionately known as Norris 5th, is an extension of Norris 4th, where Leverich, Rebein and Yates all lived their first year. Kirkpatrick resided in Rose, but managed to seamlessly join the close-knit group.
“We rescued Clara from Rose,” Rebein remembered. “We imported her,” Leverich added. The group has remained close through their four years and knew they would inevitably fit together well as housemates.
While they may have moved off-campus, they’ve made sure to maintain the familiar feel of residence halls.
“We consider [High Street] an extension of campus. It’s just a big dorm. We have a bulletin board like the ones in the dorms,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s like a trophy wall. It has pictures of us and STD pamphlets—but not just the STD ones, also the other ones, like depression.”
The house is split into an upstairs and downstairs apartment, making communication between the residents a slight challenge. Despite efforts to install a fire/stripper pole to provide easy access between floors, no progress has yet been made. Instead, they have been forced to come up with more creative forms of communication. “In the summer, when Chloe and I were here, I tried to communicate with a broom to the ceiling, but it didn’t work,” Rebein recalled.
The housemates have found the most effective forms to be texting, door slamming and clog stomping, from the second floor.
Photo by Tela Ebersole.
The group has dubbed Norris 5th the best house on High Street with the “hands down best porch.”
“It’s a great porch for spying on people,” Leverich said.
The housemates have spent many Sunday mornings spotting fellow classmates making the walk of shame or stride of pride from various neighboring houses. The porch’s appeal is irresistible to other members of the community, as well.
“One time this guy was just napping on our porch, probably a townie. He was maybe 30,” Leverich shared.
Norris 5th has proved to be equally alluring to various other unwelcome guests, as well—including a hoard of bats that took up residence in the attic and neighborhood pets who have an affinity for the yard.
“Our yard is prime real estate for [our neighbor’s dog] to shit in. He takes poops there all the time. Now that the snow is melted it’s like, big turds everywhere,” Leverich said.
Yet, the group has not let a little feces bring them down. The housemates have managed to turn Norris 5th into a popular site for off-campus social gatherings.
“We turned this into a party house,” Kirkpatrick said proudly. “There didn’t used to be parties here.”
Still, sometimes the group is pressed for ways to entertain themselves. Most of their time is spent watching Netflix, cooking eggs together and forgetting to water their adopted cactus.
“Sometimes we speak in weird voices for extended periods of time to spice things up,” Rebein said.
Although the group maintains that 1026 is the best house on High Street, they have had their fair share of problems with the house.
“Once our toilet seat got detached after one of our parties,” Rebein said.
More serious structural problems have also plagued the house. “Our pipes froze twice. We had a lake in our back yard,” Rebein added, although Leverich insisted that the back yard lake “never really bothered her.”
The housemates even managed to gain their “fifth roommate” when obtaining house repairs.
“We have a fifth roommate. His name is Scot and he doesn’t really live with us anymore,” Rebein said. “He was a construction worker that was fixing the house, so he was around for months. He would always ask Chloe for cigarettes and take naps on our porch.”
Finally, Norris 5th would like to thank Norris 4th and Laura Gogg for bringing them together.
“She really did well. Word,” Kirkpatrick praised.
