Five's Company

9:08: "McSteamy looks like George Michael," one of the women says.

9:10: Susie gets home, corroborates that McSteamy looks like George Michael.

9:12: Teresa announces that her sister will be appearing on "The Colbert Report." TV volume is muted to discuss this development.

Living in a group house is like living in a TV dinner. You try to keep your life contained to your room, to your compartment of the microwaveable tray. But spillover is unavoidable. Other people's spillover is also unavoidable. "Grey's Anatomy" comes with a dollop of soccer. Your Netflix night comes with a dash of someone else's house party. It's separate togetherness -- knowing the most intimate details of someone else's life.

Like sex.

Park Road had a recent subletter

who had a lot of it, very loudly. "It was

like THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP," says Elizabeth.

"What can you do?" says Teresa. "The walls are thin."

So you deal with thin walls, and you negotiate personal space creatively. You take a sick day when you're not sick, to see what it feels like to make toast in your underwear. You keep your Oreos in your room, so you don't feel guilty about not offering any to your roommates.

You develop a shower schedule: bathroom time begins at 6:50 and goes in 20-minute increments until 8:10, because Joe takes showers in the evenings. You develop a chore chart.

The chore chart at Park Road is particularly elaborate. In May, for instance, Teresa had yard duty. The next month she moved to trash patrol, followed by "Living/Dining D" (differentiated from A, B, and C because it includes dusting).