Kappa Sigma house gets a makeover

By Stephanie Reyna
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

"Monster House," an extreme home design show on the Discovery Channel, has come to Long Beach. The show, which is known for turning a regular room into the ultimate theme room, picked the Kappa Sigma fraternity from Cal State Long Beach.

The show consists of five construction workers having five days to work on two or three rooms of a house. This episode was an exception, however, as 10 workers from previous episodes came back to work on the Kappa Sigma house and had seven days to finish the project. In the end, the Kappa Sigma house will have two times the work done to it than the other houses.

The Kappa Sigma house will receive five themes, all-relating to the themes of the shows on the Discovery Channel to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The house will include a Roman-Greco Parthenon stage area, a dinosaur dig site BBQ area, a gear head kitchen, a Spanish galleon ship deck and a medieval charter room.

In August, the show started looking for off-campus fraternities located in the Southern California area. After interviewing many fraternities, the producers felt the Kappa Sigma guys "had great attitudes, were really into it, and had a cleaner home than most." The producers then met with the fraternity's chapter to get permission to begin construction. The producers also had to meet with the Long Beach building department to approve the major construction.

Once the charter agreed and the Long Beach building department approved, the producers told the fraternity members they had been chosen and they had two weeks to pack all the things they needed. The 15 guys that were living at the house relocated to a local hotel, which was provided by the show, and the construction crews moved in. They were not allowed to come back to the house until it was finished. Some of them tried to sneak a peak from across the street, but the producers caught on, and installed a giant white tarp to block the view into the backyard.

The first day of building began on Oct. 2, with CSULB's dance team, cheerleaders, and mascot all there to kick off the building project. The show's host, Steve Watson, led the groundbreaking.

"The cool thing about this is the constant flow of new people that will enjoy the design of the house for years to come," Watson said.

The Roman-Greco Parthenon stage was built first, and it included concert lighting for events. Next came the dinosaur dig site barbeque area, which was built to resemble the remains of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The design team made the dinosaur's mouth a cooler for drinks.

The gear head kitchen was made to look like an auto shop. A Porsche 911 was cut in half and put against the wall in the kitchen, the hood serving as a cupboard. The medieval charter room included a meeting table that comes down from the ceiling, retractable blinds with Kappa Sigma's emblem and a three-chair throne. The Spanish galleon ship deck was added on to an existing room.

The revealing of the house will take place on Oct. 12, at the Kappa Sigma house located at 730 Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach.

The episode will be a two-hour special in January, airing around the time of the Superbowl.