Alan Chamorro and I were at the house this Saturday to put the capstone on the large capital campaign this summer. The whole house is freshly painted white, the repaired gutters and new roof are sharp. The interior of the back house is transformed entirely.
The undergrads mobilized 25-35 members through the day. They and President Jack Walker were highly motivated to take advantage of this recent change of fortune to greatly improve the house grounds, and are willing to sweat to do it.
Many tasks were completed (mopping/sweeping/polishing floors, re-hanging all composites in back house) on the interiors of the house itself.
The biggest task of the day was to establish grade and gravel on the fence-ward side of the new East yard sidewalks.
6-15 brothers rotated through to work on this project, resulting in constant progress over its 5 hour duration. It was cool to see the good teamwork of the brothers work as a team and exhibit individual drive to perform the heavy work of excavating the area and laying the gravel with picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. The 15 square yard area was excavated 2-4 inches, leveled, then geotextile was laid down followed by 4-8 inches of gravel.
There was a lot going on in Davis that day, with Sorority rush taking at both of chapter’s Russell Blvd neighbors. Rush comes up this week for fraternities as well. The stated objective of the chapter leaders (and alumni board officers) is to endeavor to establish double occupancy in every room in the new and improved back house, which would lead to a much greater positive cash flow through the house, providing opportunity for the fraternal property to self-fund property and tenant improvements in a virtuous cycle.