Up two steep and narrow flights of stairs, in a green Victorian style house with brick red accents, an attic apartment sits above the Carriage House bed and breakfast. Perfect for two fourth-year college students, Maddie Hartog `25 and Mira Diamond-Berman `25, have made Carriage House apartment A their home.
The door opens onto a cozy yet spacious living room filled with eclectic furniture — including a TV perched on an empty bookshelf lying on its side — and decorated with posters and paraphernalia all thrifted from Second Mile. But the real living space is the kitchen with windows overlooking the Iowa sunset, a sink full of dishes and cabinets stocked with the perfect late night snack.
“On a Saturday night, the odds are we are all in the kitchen eating grilled cheese at 2:30 or three in the morning,” Diamond-Berman said.
When not in the kitchen, Hartog can be found in her room, studying at one of her two desks (both came with the house) or reading in her chair that sits in an alcove with four windows.
“Sundays in particular, I spend the entire day here,” Hartog said. “I have three lamps that light up my room, and I light my candles, and I just have a fun aesthetic day.”
Across the apartment is the room that Diamond-Berman calls her own. The room features a clothes rack, mysterious locked door and decorations including photos of friends and family, a “Live Fart Laugh” sign and posters representing her interests in chemistry, running and the places she has traveled to.
“I went scuba diving with dolphins at that beach,” Diamond-Berman said, in reference to one of the photos on her wall. “This dolphin basically made eye contact with me, and it was like, the most spiritual moment in my life.”
As idyllic as the two make their home sound, apartment A is not without its quirks. The attic apartment, as a portion of the larger, older house, lacks vents in the bathroom and kitchen and was home to bats at the beginning of the school year. Though they were peaceably removed, their presence gave Diamond-Berman, who shared a wall with the creatures, quite a fright.
“I think for two weeks, she was on the floor in the living room because they were so loud,” Hartog said. “Now they’re gone, but it was definitely a scary moment.”
Despite the uninvited guests, Hartog and Diamond-Berman are enjoying living together.
“The vibes here are very independent but supportive,” Hartog said. “We very much can do our own thing. And it doesn’t matter if Mira brings home people, or if I bring home people, or if I come home later, if she does, like—”
“If I don’t do the dishes for five days,” Diamond-Berman said. “It’s nice having someone to go home to.”
“I like when we brush our teeth together,” Hartog said. “At the end of the day, because sometimes we’ll be out and about, and then at the end of the day, we’ll come home at the same time, and we’ll just chat about each other.”
Between the lower cost of living and having a space to call their own, Hartog and Diamond-Berman recommend living off campus.
“It’s the rite of, like a fourth-year having an off campus house,” Diamond-Berman said.
“It feels like you’re in a community,” Hartog said. “There’s so many other people here, and there’s so much life in this building, even though we don’t necessarily know them that well […] even the bats.
