By Amanda Weber
weberama@grinnell.edu

Move-in may be over but, for some students, the memories are still very fresh — both positive and negative. From renovations to roaches, off-campus residents had a number of obstacles to overcome before they could call their houses homes.

For Lukas “Lucky” Resch ’19, a resident of 1008 High St., the process of moving in really started in October of 2017, with the signing of the house’s lease. 

“Back then, 1008 did not look like this,” Resch said of a living room featuring relatively newly-painted walls. “And then mid-way through the year … we learned that some damage happened to the house, actually about $40,000 worth.”

Over winter break 2017, the future residents of 1008 discovered that frozen pipes had burst and radiators had shattered. During the resulting renovation, the landlord told the residents that in order to keep the furniture that came with the house, they would have to figure out a way to store it or it would have to go.

“We were like, ‘Obviously we want it.’ We saw the house with all the furniture, that’s what we signed up for,” Resch said.

What followed were a series of negotiations for rooms in the house to store the furniture month by month, and what Resch referred to as a “garage rental.”

“People could come rent furniture for the semester, as long as they promised to give it back, so that by the end of the semester when I moved in we had this giant pile of furniture just in [the living room] that me and my housemates slowly started to unpack,” Resch said.

“Long story short, move-in was hard. I had to put a lot of effort into the house first thing,” Resch said, but went on to add that things could be worse. “Some off-campus houses come with a myriad of problems that will be way more overwhelming.”

Indeed, in 1021 High St., Sofia Mendez and her housemates were forced to struggle with a myriad of problems. Mendez moved in at the beginning of the summer, knowing that there would be a good deal of cleaning involved. However, she and her housemates soon discovered that on top of the expected cleaning, the house had a roach infestation.

“[The infestation] just kept getting bigger the morning we cleaned,” recounted Mendez. “First we just moved the toaster and there were a couple dead ones there, and then we moved the microwave and there were a lot there, and then we just freaked out.”

Three exterminator visits later, Mendez believes that the problem is almost entirely solved.

“It’s much better now,” Mendez said. “They are, I would say, almost all gone.”

Ashley Wehrenberg ’19 also faced unexpected difficulties during move-in. Wehrenberg moved into her new home about a week after graduation ended to find a mess, which she later realized was the least of her problems. Having previously stored electronics such as her TV in the house, Wehrenberg searched through the new home to find her possessions had gone missing.

Even after looking around more and enlisting the help of two other people, Wehrenberg was no closer to finding her electronics. She also realized that some of her bags had been rifled through, and when she was still unable to find her belongings, she called the police and reported that four TVs, a computer, a speaker, an Xbox and a guitar had been stolen.

When police arrived at midnight, Wehrenberg says that they told her that her stuff was probably all gone and that it had likely been stolen and sold.

“Basically what happened was, [the housemates] left the house unlocked for the one week that I went home, and in those couple days people came in and stole a bunch of stuff,” Wehrenberg said.

Yet, in spite of everything that has happened in the different houses, Resch, Mendez and Wehrenberg maintain that they are happy to be in their respective off-campus residences.

“The house is great, I really love living here,” Resch said. “We were really prepared to live in a very different house, … so to have a place this nice and to pay what we signed up to pay is really, really awesome for us.”

Wehrenberg still had one recommendation for those considering off-campus life.

“If you move off-campus in the future, get renter’s insurance,” she said.