PKT25: Touring the House, Part 10: Attic & Errata
We've reached the end of our tour of the Phi Kappa Theta house, circa 1996-2001. We'll hit the attic and some errata.
The Attic
The last door on the third floor hallway was the door to the attic. This was a trap door ladder mounted in the roof above the end of the hallway near Whiskey's Roost, The Cave and The Brewery. Although the roof came down quite far around the third floor windows, it also peaked quite high, and it as a result the attic was actually surprisingly spacious. It ran nearly the length of the third floor's main hallway, and you could nearly stand upright for much of that distance.
Given the amount of space in the attic and the relatively spacious entryway, there was often quite a bit of stuff stored up there. I believe that on at least two occasions we did major attic clean outs and removed such items as old mattresses and other things brothers had seen fit to store up there, like a full sized movie theater display complete with spinning globe for the movie Spice World (looking right at you Jon!) or an unloaded shotgun that Eli had put up there for some reason.
One of those attic clean outs so we could install an attic fan to vent some of the hot air to the exterior, which didn't make a dramatic difference in the perceived temperature of the third floor but probably helped preserve the then nearly new roof.
Errata
You'll note that most of the room descriptions don't really dwell on the furniture, with a few notable exceptions like The Red Room or The Study Room. That's because the furniture in the bedrooms was largely interchangeable, aside from a few rooms with built-in desks or the like. Most rooms had a desk and a mattress, and that was about it. Brothers moved furniture around all the time, or brought their own stuff from room to room with them. Desks often didn't move just because they tended to be big and heavy, but there were really no rules about furniture.
You'll also note that I mostly didn't talk about the decoration of these rooms, aside from a truly horrible paint job or two. Once you moved into a bedroom, you had pretty much free reign to repaint it or whatever else you wanted to decorate it with so long as you didn't cause permanent damage. I never personally did any painting, but other brothers did plenty. I'd wager that at least half the bedrooms in the house got painted at least once while I was living in it. I seem to recall a few who even put up curtains, or whose mothers or girlfriends did. Heck, you could even go farther and add an entire closet or a door to another room, both of which happened in The Ballroom at various times. There was a truly impressive collection of cast off furniture throughout the house, not to mention a wide assortment of light fixtures and ceiling fans, old fridges (both full-sized and dorm sized) and far more computers than people.
There was also the matter of pets. As mentioned, dogs were prohibited by an explicit house rule in memory of Whiskey and his flight from Whiskey's Roost, although I think Dolan ended up having one anyway when he lived in the apartment after the rest of his pledge class graduated. Beyond that, there was no particular rule around pets. Zuck had Herbie the parakeet for a few years, Mitzi the Ferret lived with Davis in The Brewery, Craig (or maybe it was Shawn) had a hamster who escaped from his cage and died in a wall in The Ballroom. I have this vague recollection that someone had a cat for a semester, but maybe I'm imagining that. In general, most of us didn't have pets and there certainly wasn't a house dog or anything like that. The closest we got was a house baby, as Neal's daughter was present more or less constantly from 1999 to our graduation and even made it on to a composite with the position of "Pumpkin."
Now that we've finished touring the house, it's time to get back to what happened with the Associate Member Education program for the Fall 1996 pledge class.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata
Events Detour
Pledge Classes Fall 1996
Other Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History
The Attic
The last door on the third floor hallway was the door to the attic. This was a trap door ladder mounted in the roof above the end of the hallway near Whiskey's Roost, The Cave and The Brewery. Although the roof came down quite far around the third floor windows, it also peaked quite high, and it as a result the attic was actually surprisingly spacious. It ran nearly the length of the third floor's main hallway, and you could nearly stand upright for much of that distance.
Given the amount of space in the attic and the relatively spacious entryway, there was often quite a bit of stuff stored up there. I believe that on at least two occasions we did major attic clean outs and removed such items as old mattresses and other things brothers had seen fit to store up there, like a full sized movie theater display complete with spinning globe for the movie Spice World (looking right at you Jon!) or an unloaded shotgun that Eli had put up there for some reason.
One of those attic clean outs so we could install an attic fan to vent some of the hot air to the exterior, which didn't make a dramatic difference in the perceived temperature of the third floor but probably helped preserve the then nearly new roof.
Errata
You'll note that most of the room descriptions don't really dwell on the furniture, with a few notable exceptions like The Red Room or The Study Room. That's because the furniture in the bedrooms was largely interchangeable, aside from a few rooms with built-in desks or the like. Most rooms had a desk and a mattress, and that was about it. Brothers moved furniture around all the time, or brought their own stuff from room to room with them. Desks often didn't move just because they tended to be big and heavy, but there were really no rules about furniture.
You'll also note that I mostly didn't talk about the decoration of these rooms, aside from a truly horrible paint job or two. Once you moved into a bedroom, you had pretty much free reign to repaint it or whatever else you wanted to decorate it with so long as you didn't cause permanent damage. I never personally did any painting, but other brothers did plenty. I'd wager that at least half the bedrooms in the house got painted at least once while I was living in it. I seem to recall a few who even put up curtains, or whose mothers or girlfriends did. Heck, you could even go farther and add an entire closet or a door to another room, both of which happened in The Ballroom at various times. There was a truly impressive collection of cast off furniture throughout the house, not to mention a wide assortment of light fixtures and ceiling fans, old fridges (both full-sized and dorm sized) and far more computers than people.
There was also the matter of pets. As mentioned, dogs were prohibited by an explicit house rule in memory of Whiskey and his flight from Whiskey's Roost, although I think Dolan ended up having one anyway when he lived in the apartment after the rest of his pledge class graduated. Beyond that, there was no particular rule around pets. Zuck had Herbie the parakeet for a few years, Mitzi the Ferret lived with Davis in The Brewery, Craig (or maybe it was Shawn) had a hamster who escaped from his cage and died in a wall in The Ballroom. I have this vague recollection that someone had a cat for a semester, but maybe I'm imagining that. In general, most of us didn't have pets and there certainly wasn't a house dog or anything like that. The closest we got was a house baby, as Neal's daughter was present more or less constantly from 1999 to our graduation and even made it on to a composite with the position of "Pumpkin."
Now that we've finished touring the house, it's time to get back to what happened with the Associate Member Education program for the Fall 1996 pledge class.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata
Events Detour
Pledge Classes Fall 1996
Other Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History