Sometimes the dynamics of a group house gets to a point where something is the last straw. The group house dynamics for a dear friend of mine has changed to a point where he is seriously thinking about buying his own place. I asked if I could tell his tale of woe, the same tale that had me, Nathan, & BL laughing and made their 7 mo old cry.
Dear Friend (DF) had his own place once in downtown Silver Spring, but the rent kept going up. So he moved to a collegey area, into a group house with a couple of students (undergrad, graduate and about to graduate). Over the years some of the guys graduated and moved out and they were replaced by other grad students or shiny new professionals. This was fine for Dear friend (DF) until one student had his dad come and live there. Dad had long visits in student’s walk-in closet sized room. Then when a vacancy opened up, dad became a roommate. Imagine, sad old guy on the couch, watching TV, eating spaghetti-Os. When you bring your new girlfriend over, there’s someone’s dad on the couch, looking a little down, watching TV, in his pj’s. He’s like a Depression piece of furniture. I guess few of us would deny our parents a place to stay if they showed up at our doorstep. But living in a group house with your parent, I don’t know. It is not a picnic for the other roommates, but if your roommate said their dad or mom needed a place to stay for a while, would you say no? If you say yes, then you will really have to live with the consequences.
And well, Dear Friend is thinking he might be getting a bit old for the group house thing, thus moving/ home buying/ anything else to get away is on his mind. Of course I think it would help if he cut down the number of roommates to one.
Day: July 11, 2006
BACA meeting notes up
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