Getting a tour of 1518 Frericks just might make one think they are in an episode of an HGTV show. With a small Christmas tree left up all year round and the housemates having made a tree out of their growing collection of cups from Cousin Vinny’s, this festive house was a finalist in this past year’s Christmas on Campus house decorating contest.

But besides pouring hours into decorating their humble abode, the five women who live in this house are quite busy. So much so that they have to fuel themselves up with their own coffee bar, set up right in their living room. To help unwind after their long and busy days, the roommates engage in “weekly roommate nights,” where they’ll do a different activity as a group. They also have partaken in house-wide yoga, playing pickleball, countless roommate debriefing sessions, and Dance Moms marathons.

While the housemates keep the house feeling festive and comforting, a few quirks hold it back from being a true dream house. Whether it's the doors that open and close by themselves or the creaky and uneven floors upstairs, there are some issues that not all of the Cousin Vinny’s cups in the world can fix. Even the bathrooms are unevenly distributed between the four roommates who share one bathroom upstairs and the one roommate who has the downstairs bathroom all to herself. Nevertheless, these roommates love the location of their home, being close to various campus facilities and the bus stop.

If you ever become one of the next residents of this house, the housemates have a few words of advice: “Keep the doors locked” and “put cups above the cabinets.”

Photos by Gabriela Bott '25