Inside the Compound

In the FOYER, a simple, elegant chandelier hangs overhead. While the staircase is not necessarily sweeping, as it goes down in a straight line, its carpet spills out in a circle beyond it. It matches the theme of the foyer door, an unusually array of rounded corner steps in three steps leading down to the gleaming tiled floors which host few distractions; a lovely potted tree, the grand piano, and its bench. To the left of the door is a long wall populated by a series of doors, each leading to a bedroom of one of the house’s guests complete with separate bathroom. Each door has the name of the person staying in it etched onto a placard, making it easy to locate one’s housemates.

Next to the stairway leading to the second floor is the REC ROOM. Unlike the game rooms, the Rec Room is a bit more serious. Mostly, this room features art supplies. Easels, reusable canvas frames and material, developing solution. Its bathroom strangely has a toilet with a latch cabinet above it. In this room is a sewing machine, over lock, a barber's chair, many other supplies all in the large closet running along the left wall and three sturdy tables that are currently naked and waiting for use.

Beyond this is THE KITCHEN and attached THE FOOD STORAGE. The food storage is an addition, tall enough to require a built in swivel ladder like in a library. It features a wide aisle and the meat freezer that occupies one entire end, it's entirely shelves stocked with food. The kitchen itself is rather well stocked as well. There are white-and-stone cabinets above the counter and below it. The counter island also has deep cabinets with recesses lower than the white marble floor to store things in. Most of the pans and cooking utensils hang above the island. The dishes are categorized perfectly now.

The large bay window admits tons of light and has four overlapping separate curtains that can be lifted by a drawstring system and selectively dropped to block the sun. Next to that is a wooden table for six and opposite, the fine china built in stained-glass hutch and counter with stools for four people. The walls are immaculately white. All appliances are very modern and stainless steel.

The BACK DOOR FOYER. This is where the first floor washer/dryer combination is located. Outside the door is a small enclosed porch with stairs leading up to the basement that meet together to lead onto the back porch. There are also coat racks and mats available for snow laden garments.

Across the hall is the large DINING ROOM. The walls are covered in gigantic mirrors nailed to the wall with gold-gilded frames and Victorian brocaded wallpaper. The room is dominated by an incredibly long table that stretches almost the length of the room and is so far from the center of the room that the chandelier cafe lighting, which hangs only four feet from the table on both ends and in the center, barely illuminates the edges of the room when it is dark out and there is no moon. It is separated or opened to the kitchen by a dark mahogany folding wall.

The THEATER rests right next to the dining room. Entering through the hallway between the foyer and kitchen, one immediately walks into library-like stacks of films both internationally known and internationally obscure. Through the dark blue curtain is the actual viewing room. Four tiers for seating seats 20 comfortably. Two couches also rest to either side for more comfortable viewing. The flat screen HDTV rests across the far wall, connected to the DVD player. Across from the theater is a half bathroom housed under the stairs.

The next room may be the most impressive for its classic nature. The LIVING ROOM and the accompanying BILLIARDS ROOM are separated by a sliding door. Each side will slide sideways into the wall on either side when unlatched and pushed effectively turning them into one room. The Living Room is filled with comfortable leather furniture: two couches turned in on each other in front of the fireplace with a coffee table in between and two chairs on the end. A roll top desk with a matching chair, another seating arrangement involving two chairs and a loveseat, all lit by lovely floor lamps and Tiffany end table lighters. There is a television hidden tastefully inside a hutch.

The fireplace is the dominant fixture in the room maybe with the exception of one other curiosity. Its presence holds one's attention because of the beautiful stonework of the chimney that surrounds it and rises through the ceiling, still decorated with rifles and shields and old, dull weaponry gone to rust. The rest of the wall is covered in a large woodland mural. One gets the impression that the vantage point is from that of a hunter and a doe with her fawn stands in his line of site, ears perked in his direction. If one looks closely, one can almost see a hand under some of the leaves of a bush that disappears behind the stand-up saloon piano. The elevator is also located in the living room.

The billiards room has a full bar with seven stools and mirrors behind it with the bottles of liquor as well as a minifridge with snacks and bottles of water. A regulation-sized pool table is there, along with a poker table, roulette table, and 60's style jukebox.

On the morning of February 14th, a new wing appeared at the eastern side of the house, with access through the dining room (Not Pictured). Instead of the grand windows that used to be in the Dining Room, there is now a large doorway. Through the doors is The Grand Ballroom. With ceilings three-stories high, and a gold and crystal chandelier about the size of a small sailboat, the grand ballroom looks suspiciously like the ballroom from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Rich colors, floors polished clean enough to see your reflection in, and at the north end, a large set of windows and doors that could double as a work of art lead out onto a spacious stone and marble patio. At the south end is another, much smaller door, that blends in with the paneling of the walls. Inside, is a ‘storage closet’ big enough to easily match the size of the food storage. Inside are decorations and props for any type of party one could ever want - complete with costumes from many different periods and eras. There are also various antique instruments, nearly everything but another piano! Also are dozens of books of sheet music for all instruments provided.

Second Floor

This floor marks the departure from the majority public usage of the first and has a more balanced feel of public and private. There are not only more bedrooms, but they are notably larger than their first floor counterparts. The second floor washer/dryer combination is located in the public bathroom that one can find if one heads down the hallway next to game room B.

GAME ROOM B is the smaller of the two game rooms, both housed on the second floor. This game room has an electronic feel to it. A jukebox, even some retro arcade games can be found there. There is a sizeable video game library and video game systems; even some doubles, triples for systems that aren't too old to be hard to find working, but not new enough to warrant much attention, like the Playstation and Nintendo 64.

GAME ROOM A is almost entirely on the other side of the floor. This room is more traditional with a ping-pong table, plush couches and coffee tables for board games, new and old, housed in the many shelves there.

The largest room on the second floor and in the house is THE LIBRARY. This is the place to find computers to update a journal or read what it is the housemates are doing. There's a section for every genre your little heart could ever desire.

Third Floor

The third floor is bedrooms and one public bathroom which houses the washer/dryer combo for that floor.

There is an additional space that seems to be blocked off. Information has not been provided as to what that space is for.

The elevator does not go to the third floor.

The morning of January 19th marked the arrival of what is being referred to as The Mirror Room. No one heard or saw it being built, it was simply there when the sun rose. Solid, sturdy, electrical outlets, and in a condition that would suggest it has been there all along. The Mirror Room is pretty much the same size as most of the third floor's bedrooms, although a bit more narrow. The east and west walls are mirrors, from floor to ceiling. There is a single window on the southern wall, directly across from the door. There is a simple domed overhead light in the exact center of the ceiling. There is nothing in the room.

Fourth Floor

The fourth floor is sectioned off from the rest of the house, for the time being. It is very open and cold, seeming a bit more archaic than the rest of the house. The only rooms in the house that stay marginally warm are the ones located by the kitchen, thanks to the wall partitioning them off from the rest of the floor.

The bedrooms are considerably nicer than their downstairs counterparts, though smaller. Four poster beds, large headboards, dark wood, heavy curtains from the cold, warm colored oriental rugs, the occasional hearth, lovely dressers and armchairs are stuffed inside. The claw tubs removed from the rest of the house were installed upstairs with a few exceptions.

One of those exceptions is THE BATHROOM that has all their toiletry supplies, spare shower, toilet, and laundry/dryer combination.

THE COMMON AREA. It's very much like a college dorm's common area. It holds sturdy coffee tables and chairs with a cabinet containing some board games. There are also a couple of couches available for lounging as well.

THE FIREPLACE is available in the common room to those looking for a bit of natural heat, with enough firewood to last for a while. Across from the fireplace are some hinged travel bookcases which have been bolted to the floor. The books are old hardcovers recovered from elsewhere from the house.

THE LINEN/MAINTENANCE CLOSETS hold extra linens and cleaning supplies for the fourth floor. Four large dust mops with boxes of replacement heads, a few mops and mop buckets with replacements, all purpose cleaner, hand soup refills, some bathroom sprays, and anything else one would expect to find in a maintenance closet.

The wrought iron SPIRAL STAIRCASE heads upstairs to the attic.

On March 10th, the 69th day of the experiment, the fourth floor kitchen was removed. The space is still there, of course, but there is no sign that there was ever a kitchen, or even running water. There now instead, is a mini-art gallery. Paintings and sculptures, mostly. It also appears that what is in the art gallery changes every day.

The Attic

On February 20th, the metal wall closing off half of the attic disappeared - showing a long hall and six bedrooms. All of the attic bedrooms are much like those on the fourth floor, though larger and with sloped ceilings.

THE GREENHOUSE is filled with blossoming plant life all in perfect condition. THE LIVING GREENERY or the non-season bushes and trees set in the light of the very large studio window sits outside of it, a miniature version of the large greenhouse. There's a chart and instructions on the wall for the care of each individual plant through the rest of the winter.

The HOBBY AREA features yarn, knitting needles, a pool table, card decks, and puzzles.

The FITNESS AREA consists of a set of free weights and bench, jump ropes, a couple of rings hanging from two rafter beams and some mats for calisthenics. A couple of full length mirrors are propped against the walls.

Basement

The only way to get to the basement besides the back door is the small stairway through the kitchen. The most prominent feature the basement is THE POOL, which isn't exactly Olympic-sized, but certainly large. Around the pool are lawn chairs covered in wet-resistance plastic weave with padding. There is also a mesh barrel filled with various pool paraphernalia.

To the right of the stairs are the men's and women's locker room. The right wall runs a row of open air lockers with a bench running two feet from it. Across are modesty changing stations. There are three urinals and two stalls in the men’s and women's locker rooms respectively. Each shower stall has a curtain partitioning it from the tight dressing area and the actual place of washing.

There is also a downstairs SAUNA is amazing for not letting that precious steam escape and a HOT TUB. A mesh modesty screen blocks off full view of the hot tub for privacy purposes.

Across the hall is THE STORAGE ROOM. The storage room is full of old items. It almost appears as if the house had previously been stuffed with items that related to the house's original time period, but was hastily moved to the basement and never removed from the house.

The last room of the basement is the FITNESS ROOM. Exercise bikes, Nautilus, treadmills, a stair climber, a free-weights set and a row of mirrors with a dance bar comprise the fitness area.

B2 - Medical

The second basement level is, judging by the elevator ride, twenty-thirty feet below the first basement. The only way to get there is via the elevator. When the elevator doors open on the B2 level, one might really believe they have left the house entirely, and entered a hospital. There isn’t even the faintest sign that the entire level is under a basement - and even beneath a pool.

Upon exiting the elevator, there is a small entrance room, all decorated lavishly, as if it were the waiting room for an elite private doctor. All in soothing blues and creams, there are two couches, a wide-screen television and DVD player, several bookshelves, two sets of cabinets with a large selection of large jarred, scented candles, and even a large ten-gallon fish-tank, with a small assortment of exotic fish.

Directly across from the elevator doors is a set of double doors, leading into a short, pristine hallway, decorated modestly in white walls and marble floors. There are five doors in this hall - two on the left, two on the right, and one at the end of the hall. The left-side doors lead to matching exam rooms, well stocked and looking like your average hospital room. The door at the end of the hall is labled X-Ray, inside which is, yes, your average X-Ray room. The far right-side door is labled Storage, inside which are various machines and equipment, as well as a large and varied stock of drugs.

Finally, the last door in the hallway is labled with a gold plate reading Doctor Peterson. Inside is a large office, decorated in dark woods and dark blue carpets. Inside the office are several shelves of medical books, a large desk and comfortable mahogany and leather chair, a computer (installed with a large medical database, encyclopedia, and drug guide, as well as connection to the journals and request systems). Perhaps the oddest additions to the office are two sets of bay windows (bullet proof, don’t even attempt to break them), and if one did not have the knowledge that they were underground, they would really believe they had an ocean view - complete with lighting and sound effects.

All doors in the hallway have double sets of locks, and David was the only housemate given a set of keys.

B2 - SECURITY

The opposite doors of the elevator lead to the Security level - which is literaly a small jail. It contains the main room, with locked cupboards containing various sets of keys and 'security tools'. There is a desk with computer and phone, and two jail cells.

B3 - Mental Health

Accessible via the elevator only, B3 opens up into a short hallway lined with doors. To the right, there are three rooms that are set up a lot like the hospital rooms on Dave's level, only with less medical equipment, and they seem more cheerfully decorated. On the left, there's a therapy/waiting room, including most things used for active therapy, including foam bats, art equipment, and other odds and ends.

At the end of the hall is Kaori's office, which has been decorated in black red and white, Japanese themed. The office also contains a 'window' like Dave's, a camera feed that's set viewing a tree line. There are filing cabinets, a large desk, and of course, the all important couches and other comfortable furniture for sessions. A door directly across from her desk is locked, but behind it lay a safety glass-cabinet lined hallway with any medications she would be able to prescribe, and at the end of the hallway, four narrow doorway locked rooms with steel doors. Each door has a small window set into it, that has a shutter that can be opened or closed to view inside the room. These are the padded rooms, and drawers underneath the medication cabinets hold restraints--including straight jackets.