Exponent Online


8/17/2001	Welcome Back Issue

Difficulties with lofts frustrate freshmen

Erica Sagon/Managing Editor

MEN AT WORK: (Above) Clayton Runnebohm, a freshman in the School of Technology, and his father, Tim, piece together a loft in Owen. Tim, a carpenter, built the loft at home and said it cost about $65 for materials

(Below) Carroll Bilbrui, a junior in the School of Liberal Arts, builds a loft in his girlfriend's Owen room.

By Dave Stephens
Assistant Campus Editor

The pounding of hammers echoed down the hallway of Owen Hall as Andrew Royalty and Chris Ruppel slowly dismantled a loft.

Royalty and Ruppel, both freshmen in the School of Technology, were not getting ready to move out as they tried to undo the bolts holding the loft together, they had a simple misunderstanding.

Ruppel, who arrived on campus a day earlier then Royalty, bought a single loft for their room. "I thought that’s what we had decided to do when we talked over the phone," Ruppel said.

But when Royalty arrived a day later, he had brought a double loft that he had built at home. "It was a lack of communication," said Ruppel.

But a simple lack of communication seemed magnified in the small room, especially with temperatures in the high 80’s.

"At least they are learning team work," said Royalty’s mother, as she watched her son deconstruct the loft.

"More like miracle work," said Royalty as sweat glistened on his face.

Although deconstruction of the loft posed a special problem, many students also faced problems as they built their lofts.

Carroll Bilbrui, a junior in the School of Liberal Arts, was having trouble setting up a loft for his girlfriend, Patti Kovach, a freshman in the School of Liberal Arts.

"This room's a little smaller than my old room in Owen," said Bilbrui, "so we had to make some of the boards shorter."

Kovach, who had been helping to set up the loft for more than three hours, said things would have gone much easier if the loft had been labeled before it was dismantled.

"We didn’t know which ends went together," said Kovach. "That was probably the hardest part — putting it together."

Chris Peters, a freshman in the School of Science, said modifications had to be made to the loft his dad designed because the bed frame wouldn’t fit in the loft.

"It wasn’t difficult to set up, but we didn’t know the bed frame had those little legs on the end," said Peters.

Many students decided it was easier to pay to have a loft built than build one themselves.

Jim Pelton and Mark Smith, freshmen in the Schools of Engineering, said they paid $250 for their double loft, but the price was worth the hassle of not having to build their own.

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