Of all the Houses, Dunster is this year’s biggest wild card. In the past some have seen it as one of the more undesirable Houses due to its notoriously cramped living quarters, it’s now set to undergo a complete renovation during the 2014-2015 school year. Freshmen placed in Dunster this Housing Day can enjoy the furry moose antlers and the flurry of House spirit; they’ll get a year of swing housing before moving into the swankiest (though not the most convenient) House on campus. Your biggest takeaway from this profile should be this: Forget everything you’ve heard about Dunster housing—it’s all irrelevant.

Next year, Dunsterites will be spread out among various swing locations, the centerpiece of which will be the newly-renovated Inn at Harvard (1201 Massachusetts Ave.), complete with a dining hall, House offices, meeting spaces, study lounges, music practice rooms, and fitness equipment, according to Dunster House administrator Rachel A. Barbarisi. While the Inn at Harvard will not have any kind of equivalent to Dunster’s iconic dining hall, the same staff that currently works in the Dunster dining hall will move with the House to the Inn.

If they’re not at the Inn, new meese may spend the next year living in Fairfax, Hampden, or Ridgley Halls, (near Qdoba, the Harvard Book Store, and Insomnia respectively) or in new swing housing on Prescott St.

Dunster House itself will be off limits for the year, but come fall 2015, House residents can expect to move back into a renewed space with reconfigured hallways and entryways, bigger common areas, music and art facilities, an updated Grille, a “smart classroom,” and more.

Luckily, those who will spend their swing year pining for Dunster’s postcard-perfect looks need not despair. Plans for the renovation ensure that Dunster will retain its signature “old Harvard” feel: the famously wood-paneled spots like the dining hall, junior common room, and library, as well as its neo-Georgian exterior, from the red bricks to the recognizable red dome, will remain the same.

“I think students will appreciate returning to a House that, while renovated for a new era, still feels like home,” Barbarisi wrote in an email.

So essentially, next year you will either live in a hotel or in an apartment building, just steps from the Yard, for the same price your peers pay to live in Winthrop doubles. The year after that, you’ll be in a fancy, high-tech but still old-looking, classically Harvardian House. What more could you ask for?

As lovely as it might be to live in apartments with kitchens or in a hotel three steps from the Yard, this dispersion could hurt House community. But fear not, future-meese! Dunster HoCo is already thinking ahead to ways to bring the House community together even when they’re physically apart next year. “Dunster community is very tight-knit and I don’t think that’s going to change just by moving locations,” says Priya Duvvuri ’15, HoCo chair.

This strong community is made up not just of students, but also of Dunster’s House Masters and tutors. Dunster residents praise their Masters, professor Roger B. Porter and his wife, Ann Porter, for being kind and supportive of their students’ passions. They attend sports games of Dunster athletes, hold well-attended Masters’ open houses with food made from scratch by the Dunster Culinary Team, and Ann Porter has been known to distribute freshly baked goods late at night. And the tutors, says Monica C. Nesselbush ’14, are “amazing.”

The House also comes together several times a month for Stein clubs, which happen on Friday nights and are reportedly gaining increased popularity after a lull in attendance in recent years.

If you’re someone who enjoys quirky House traditions, you will love Dunster. Each fall, the House has a “hoe down” and petting zoo (some claim this is where the current Harvard-wide petting zoo craze began.) In the spring, residents enjoy the annual “goat roast,” where a goat is skinned and roasted using only primitive stone tools. This tradition is said to have been born out of one tutor’s shock at Harvard students’ lack of wilderness survival skills. And for those who don’t want to eat an animal they’ve just seen skinned, HUDS also caters with classic BBQ fare. There’s a rumor that mischievous Dunsterites like to place the goat head in Eliot courtyard, but Nesselbush insists that happened only once.

Not only is Dunster dhall beautiful, it also has a reputation for serving the best food on campus. But that may not even be the best part: dinner is served until 8 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, and is restricted only to athletes in season and lucky Dunster residents plus one guest. Think about it: normal dinner hours, and none of this 5:30 p.m. nonsense.

Dunster also houses the Grille for River East houses, so if you want mozz sticks less than twenty feet from your room, you’re in the right place.

So it’s no coincidence that you’ve seen the House’s trademark sweatshirts everywhere. “Dunster’s a very spirited house,” says Duvvuri. It’s “super friendly, super welcoming.”

As expected with House renovations, there’s a chance that House spirit may not be as strong as community is spread across the Square next year. HoCo is of course hopeful that Dunsterites will stick together, but only time will tell.

And even with the renovations, one significant downside remains. Renovations might make the house a nicer home internally, but Dunster will still be just as far from the Yard as ever, (though it’s not hard to catch the Mather shuttle out front).

The other major drawback of Dunster is that non-Dunsterites can’t swipe into Dunster past midnight most nights, so booty calls should be made by midnight, lest you actually have to leave your room. Administrators have not yet decided whether these restrictions will remain in place at swing housing facilities next year.