Free laundry! 2 washers, 2 driers.
"Reuse" is MIT jargon for stuff that, rather than having been thrown away, was put in a designated place for other people to pick over. We keep our own, which contains mostly clothing but occasionally tech/tools/outdoor supplies/random other stuff.
Study room that's good for quiet work in isolation from the usual buzz of activity.
We have printers. We also have a "textbook library", where pikans put their used textbooks for others to access.
We store surplus non-perishable food in this walk-in pantry. Once, many years ago, we had an issue with people leaving the door to the rice/pasta/cereal storage open, and some rodents got in. To fix this, a system was installed such that if you leave the door open for too long, a red light flashed and a casette player starts telling you to close the door in a strange, half-pleading half-irritated tone.
Tiny study room with a desk and a chair, and not much else.
Sometimes we gather to watch movies and TV here. It also stores most of our board game collection, and several shelves of books.
This is the storage room where residents can put their stuff. There's one rule--can you guess what it is?
We have a nicely-stocked machine shop, suitable for smallish projects or bike repair.
The heart of pika, where everyone gathers for house meetings, casual hangouts, and jam sessions.
The second heart of pika, where everyone gathers to eat and talk.
Our massive industrial kitchen, complete with all the spices one could ever want.
Not actually a sex dungeon--this is just our kitchen counter. There are a few stories about the name. One goes that we put up a camera so people could see a live feed of what was being served for dinner, and thought it would be hilarious to put this feed at a URL with "sex dungeon" in it, so that if people were for some reason looking for an MIT sex dungeon, they would just find us serving each other food. We still find it pretty hilarious to send out emails like "Vegan chocolate-chip cookies on the sex dungeon! Come and get them!"
A bunch of couches next to the dining room that's often a nice place for socializing. There are a bunch of abstract paintings on the walls, but no one is really sure how they got there.
One of the first floor bathrooms. Has an octopus mural.
One of the first floor bathrooms. Used to be called the Champion, but then an old RA painted pineapples on it.
Features: Loft, windows on both sides.
Noise: Quiet (unless your neighbor in the Electric Bluegaloo is loud).
Typical Capacity: Single.
Features: The Electric Bluegaloo is the only room in pika with a sink. It also has a double loft and built-in shelving.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single or double.
Name: Some summer residents left a bunch of unusually sketchy drug paraphernelia here once.
Features: Sleeping closet (not in use in the pictures above; if in use, there is much more floor space.)
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Double.
Name: Cool fractal-y murals!
Features: Aforementioned cool murals.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single.
Name: Used to be called "The End", because it was at the end of the hall.
Features: Right next to a bathroom and a door out to the deck. View of back yard. Loft.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single.
Name: There are two rumored stories; first, that this was the room interested freshmen would crash in during rush, and second, that this was the room antisocial pikans would hide in during rush. Take your pick.
Features: Corner room (windows on two sides). Cool leopard mural. Window to the second floor balcony.
Noise: Not quiet; above the Murph. Light sleepers should be wary.
Typical Capacity: Double.
Name: There's a beautiful flowery mural on the door.
Features: Corner room (windows on two sides). Window to the second floor balcony.
Noise: Not quiet; above the dining room. Typically not as loud as the Rush or the Knot.
Typical Capacity: Double.
Name: Many people initially assume the name is related to the net hanging from the ceiling. Actually, it's from the intricate Celtic knot on the door.
Features: Net hanging from ceiling (has been tested up to supporting 2 medium-sized humans). Corner room (windows on two sides). Sleeping closet. Door sawed in half for more extensive door configuration possibilities. Sleeping closet.
Noise: Not quiet; above the dining room, and sleeping closet borders the Party Shower.
Typical Capacity: Double.
Name: Used to have a big rainbow flag and a rainbow painted radiator. Then it had a Dark Side of The Moon Resistor Color Chart mural. Now it's just an unassuming double.
Features: Door to the second-floor back deck. Brick wall. Loft. Door sawed in half for more extensive door configuration possibilities.
Noise: Not quiet; above the kitchen. Lilah also sometimes mewls to be let in at the deck door.
Typical Capacity: Single or double.
Name: Used to have ugly retro fake wood paneling. Then it had a mural of the woods. Neither of these remain, but the name does.
Features: Elegant stork mural. Large closet. Loft.
Noise: Moderate to quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single or double.
Name: It's a pretty small room.
Features: Loft.
Noise: Moderate to quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single.
Name: Originally, the door of the Coke was the front of an old-fashioned Coca-Cola vending machine. Due to fire code, we had to replace it with a real door, which we of course painted to resemble a Pepsi vending machine.
Features: One of the largest rooms. Lofts. Corner room (windows on two sides).
Noise: Moderate to quiet.
Typical Capacity: Double or triple.
Name: Once had a mural of a toasted sandwich ("toastie" in the UK) on the door.
Features: Door to the back deck. Loft. Ample shelving.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single or double.
A bathroom on the second floor, themed around the Boston T system.
A small bathroom named after the sign on the door, which reads "MAXIMUM OCCUPANCY 8000 PERSONS".
The fanciest bathroom in pika, equipped with two showerheads, an extra-large shower, a Bluetooth speaker, and LED party lights.
Name: Once known as "the most hardcore room in pika", painted mostly black. Now it's a little more unassuming.
Features: Skylight. Window to the back deck. Vertical space. Loft. Access to the "void", which is essentially the crawl space between ceiling and roof.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single.
Name: Comes from the Loeb measure in mathematics; all of the walls are kind of at funny angles.
Features: Door to back deck. Corner room; windows on two sides. Loft; bottom of loft lights up.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single or double.
Name: Once had a maze mural on one of the walls. Then it was painted over, and then another maze mural was painted. Then that was painted over too.
Features: Corner room; windows on two sides.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Double.
Name: Unknown.
Features: Funky slanted ceiling with stars on it. Nice view over front yard.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single.
Name: Comes from the spinner on the wall. You spin once, and land on an adjective from one of the circles of words. Spin again to get a noun from the other circle. Then explain what this combination would be like as a sex position. Oscillating centaur, anyone?
Features: Compass game. Corner room; windows on two sides. Loft. Roof access through a window. Interesting door with what appears to be a porthole.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Single or double.
Name:A tiny single originally named "the coffin" for the coffin-like cubby where residents often put their bed. Most of this room used to be wasted space under the roof. Then one day, a pikan who had scored low in the singles lottery asked the house if he were to create a new single, could he live in it? When they agreed, he knocked down the walls of a small third floor closet and recovered the lost space into a really cool room. More recently, a pikan installed a skylight during work week, and got everyone to call it "the skylight".
Features: Skylight. Interesting shape.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Double or triple.
Name: Once had a big projector and screen, and some took to calling it the screening room. Then they started calling it the pirate ship. Guess why.
Features: Very large room. Nice pirate-themed murals. Corner room; windows on two sides.
Noise: Quiet.
Typical Capacity: Double or triple.
A small common area with couches and a workbench alternately used for arts and crafts, sewing projects, and electrical engineering projects.
We got the door for the third-floor bathroom when a bio lab was being demolished--it used to go on one of the big specimen freezers. So the bathroom has an old-school-sanitorium aesthetic.
Our wooden deck spans all three stories of the house!