| by Elizabeth Bewley "Umm…hi…umm…I was just wondering if I could come inside and check out your place," a guy on my porch says. "I talked to your landlord on the phone. … Oryssia, I think that's her name. Umm, yeah, so she said I could come in." He's a lanky, 19-year-old redhead wearing a t-shirt that reads "We're funny" on the front and "Looking" on the back. I let him in. Over the past few weeks, there have been several such visits to my apartment; people are looking for places to rent next year. The redhead walks into my bedroom, in order to "check out the dimensions." "Big closet," he says, poking his head in amongst my hanging shirts and stacks of jeans. He lingers for a couple of minutes, glancing over the photos on my dresser. "OK, why don't I show you the kitchen," I say, ushering him out of my room. A few minutes and multiple questions later, he finally exits the apartment. I lock the door, collapse on the couch and smile in recognition of a fellow snooper. The redhead and I, and thousands of other people, are what my grandfather would have called "buttinskys." We aren't stalkers, or peeping toms, or anything else elicit. We simply like to nose around and check out other people's property. Fueled by my own voyeuristic tendencies, I decided to hold the first-ever NUcomment Housing Contest. My objective? To find Evanston's four most unique and four trashiest student homes. At least, that's what I said my objective was. Underneath this journalistic veneer, I really just wanted an excuse to poke around various houses and apartments. So, for the past couple of weeks I happily toured dorms, frats, apartments and houses, including basements. I looked for places that defy the generic NU student home standards. In other words, I was searching for something beyond Monet reproduction posters and tapestry-covered futons to call "unique" – and, well, something heinous enough to call "trashy." My eight selections exemplify the standards of the NUcomment Housing Contest. That is to say, they're all worth snooping around.
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