Village 1 - E3 Single Room

Single Room

• single bed and mattress
• closet, vanity & dresser
• desk, desk lamp & chair
• bookshelves & waste basket
• active telephone line
• ResNet (high speed Internet) connection
• cable-ready (each student must make their own arrangements with a local cable company once they arrive)
• approximate room measurements
  3.0 x 2.9 metres

This is a three-dimensional diagram of a Village 1 single room. The bed is placed next to the door with the desk and bookshelf next to it on the side wall. On the back wall, there are two closets with a dresser and vanity area in the middle. Beside that is the window. The far side wall is covered in cork board.

There are actually a number of configurations. Does anyone else find that their three-dimensional diagram...lacks a third dimension?

Here are some quick facts about Village 1:

• single, double and interconnecting rooms for 1379 residents
• 4 quads (North, South, East and West) with 6 to 8 houses in each quad
• each house has 50-60 students and one don
• each house is connected to at least one other house by an elevated walkway.
  
• houses contain 3-4 floors of approximately 16 students per floor.
• for first-year students in the fall and a mix of first-year and upper-year students in winter and spring
• on-site cafeteria and required meal plan

I'll be living on the First Floor in the Third House of the East Quad. With the purchase of the minimum required meal plan of $1580, I'll be getting a discount of 50% off most food purchases made at UW Food Services eateries, because the fixed overhead cost of $790 for operating UW Food Services eateries is deducted from the cost of my meal plan. I'll also save up to an additional 14% because most UW Food Services purchases are ORST (Ontario Retail Sales Tax) and GST (Goods & Services Tax) exempt. However, ORST and GST may apply when purchasing some confectionery and non-food items. The fixed overhead deduction is applied towards utilities, updating and renovating UW Food Services facilities, offering flexible operating hours, facility rental, ensuring a variety of menu items to meet different dining lifestyles, labour costs, and providing conveniently located eateries. The fixed overhead cost deduction works out to be about $7.50 each day of the term.

After all the trouble I went through to upload my own photographs, I just noticed that they had a "Village 1 Virtual Tour" with Java that I never bothered looking at. Since I'm already almost finished, I'm just going to leave this post as is and you can have a look at their cluttered example if you'd like.

"The oldest of the UW residences, Village 1 offers an ideal combination of privacy and community living to first-year and upper-year students. V1 is a traditional style residence with a large community centre and on-site cafeteria. It is located near the north-west corner of campus with Mackenzie King Village and Ron Eydt Village.

V1 was designed to help students meet their academic and personal goals. It is a traditional style residence with single, double, and interconnecting rooms arranged in "houses" of 50-60 students. The on-site cafeteria and location on ring road mean that you can spend more time studying or socializing and less time preparing meals or walking to class."

I didn't take too many pictures of the large community centre because it has a fairly generic cafeteria that wasn't open and a recreational area that was missing its pool table for some reason. I took a picture of the laundry room behind the windows, while standing where the pool table should have been. I believe their machines are paid through the swipe of a WatCard and a deduction from the deposited Flexible Dollars.


I finally managed to bring my lazy self to upload the pictures I took on Saturday to provide a better idea of what a typical single room would look like. I only realized when I got home that these pictures really aren't very good because I had to take them quickly after waiting for people to get out of the way. All the items included on their list are italicized.

The desk and its corresponding chair in this room is next to the door and under the aforementioned desk lamp. It's also in front of the active telephone line and ResNet (high speed Internet) connection.

They failed to mention that I was actually getting, not one, but two lamps - one around my desk and one over my head while I sleep.


This is the included single bed and rock hard mattress. I don't think the way that the corner of that bookshelf would be directly over a person's head is very good feng shui, but the positioning varies every so slightly from room to room, so it depends on my particular room.


This is the closet, vanity and dresser promised. At least the mirror isn't facing the bed.


Here's a better picture of the door from the first photo. It has a little bar over which towels may be draped to dry...
...After taking a shower in the shared washroom on the floor. In case you're as worried as my parents are, "most houses are co-ed but each floor is single sex". They keep asking me about that because they claim that my brother's floor was coed...and so was the washroom. I doubt that, but I don't have the best recollection of his residence which I visited once about four years ago, so I won't argue.


Here are a couple of photos of other rooms. They're all largely the same.

We're looking to find somewhere convenient to put a mini fridge. Since I'm going to be moving in and out twice, we're probably going to rent one instead of buying my own. The one I think I'd choose is something like $75 for one term or $90 for two and includes services/repairs. It would probably cost roughly $100 to buy one, but we'd rather not have to deal with the hassle of trying to move it with our sedan.


This is how it looked outside. If you look closely, I was trying to take a picture of what appeared to be a groundhog. I was in a rush and I was deleting photos at home and I think I got rid of the better ones on accident, but you can see a grey-ish blob if you look really carefully.





In contrast, this is where I would have been living if I had started school last Fall:

All Mackenzie King Village suites come fully-furnished and include:

• 4 bedrooms - each with:
• single bed and mattress
• desk, desk lamp & chair
• dresser & closet
• bookshelves & wastebasket,
• ResNet (high speed Internet) connection
• active telephone line
• cable-ready (each student must make their own arrangements with a local cable company once they arrive)
• living room (live cable outlet, 2 chairs, loveseat & end tables)
• kitchen (table with 4 chairs, fridge & stove)
• 2 full washrooms
• 2 storage closets

This is an extensive three-dimensional diagram of an MKV suite. The suite is split into two sections with two bedrooms on each side. Each side has its own bathroom and storage closet. The living room, kitchen and entrance are placed between the two sections.

Cleaning and Maintenance

All residents at Mackenzie King are responsible for the day to day cleaning and maintenance of their suite. Early in the term, suitemates should delegate cleaning tasks and set up a mutually agreed upon cleaning schedule. Monthly inspections will be conducted by UW staff (prior notice given), to ensure an acceptable level of cleanliness is met.