The current residence of Steel House is located at 620 Idaho Ave. It's a five-story building set up as follows:

1st floor (sub-basement): This floor contains a trunk room, laundry room and TV room. It's a great place to hang out and watch the many options offered through cable TV while doing laundry. There's no need to rent a storage unit as there's ample storage for bikes, bins, and extra items only needed once in awhile. The laundry facilities are free!

2nd floor (basement): This floor contains a pool table and study area, along withthree "day rooms" where residents keep their personal belongings. In addition, there's a small half-bath that's shared with guests. The study room is set up for residents to have a quiet place away from their room to study. Steel House is set up with wireless Internet through the University of Idaho.Take your computer or laptop to any place in the house and "surf the net" while doing homework. Grab a bite to eat out of the fridge while you study.

Off the back of the house, there's a door that leads to a very large deck with a BBQ grill for those warm days! Sun yourself or sit and enjoy the view of Moscow Mountain. In addition, there are twelve parking spaces belonging to Steel House in the parking lot below the house.

Main floor: This level of the house contains the formal living room, dining room, kitchen and the president's room. It's the coziest area of the house where on a cold winter's night, you can sit by the gas fire and sip a cup of warm hot chocolate while listening to someone play the piano; and yet another resident is making cookies in the kitchen.

4th floor: This level contains "day rooms" and the main bathroom that's shared by all the residents. Each room is different from another. No two rooms are alike, making them each unique. Several single rooms are available in addition to the usual "doubles" that are shared by two residents.

5th floor: The entire floor is devoted to sleeping. 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, you can come to your bed, crawl in and sleep without the worry of those around bothering you. The "sleeping porch" arrangement is typical of all sororities and fraternities on the U of I campus. However, if a resident prefers to sleep in her room, there are a couple of rooms that are large enough for a bed too. Most residents find the porches more appealing because of the 24-hour quiet.

1) By being a resident of Steel House, you are considered an on-campus resident. Our "sponsor" is the Dean of Students office.

2) By living in Steel House, your "group" or "club" may schedule meetings to be held in the formal living room. Why rent a room in The Commons when you can bring them to our nice cozy living room at Steel House?

3) Residents of Steel House make up the "rules to live by" each semester. Through the "Steel House Constitution," residents update this yearly to fit the current needs of those living in the house.

4) By choosing to live in Steel House, you will be saving at least $1,000 from that of dorm expenses by sharing in chores. Each person has one janitorial chore(on a rotating basis) and�two weekly kitchen chores (fall 2009). If you have a single, the savings is more than $2,000 less than the dorms.

5) Steel House has a personal chef. S/He cooks dinners and makes sure there's plenty of food to eat for breakfast and lunch. No need to make those trips to the store to buy food or wait until the dining hall is open. You can eat when you want and it's all purchased for you!

6) Steel House is a unique community of women that learn to live together despite their differences. They come from various walks of life, and most of all, are women who want to live with others and learn to take pride in caring for their living quarters.

*** e-mail at least three off the list above to assure you'll get a quick response!

Steel House Chef... Lynn Swisher. Steel House welcomes Lynn Swisher as our new cook at Steel House. She is cooking dinners on Monday through Friday for the residents. Lynn is from the Northwest but married a man from Saudi Arabia twenty-something years ago. The family has lived in that country for the past 16 years. They (including nine children) are now living in Moscow. Her youngest children are finding out what American school is all about! You may often see the two youngest hanging out in the dining room coloring or doing other little projects with the residents of Steel House. We love the variety of foods Lynn has to offer. Having learned to cook food from Saudi, she's bringing a taste of food not often eaten by Women of Steel. The residents love her and her food! While in Saudi Arabia, Lynn owned and operated her own bakery. She's a wonderful pastry maker and relishes the "decent" equipment that she now has to cook on compared to what she had in Saudi Arabia. We are truly grateful that Lynn has come to Steel House.