The renters of 1220 6th Ave. have got it good and they know it.
“I moved in first this summer and the day I moved in I got a call from the landlord saying, ‘Yeah, we put in air conditioning,’’’ said Hannah Lytle ’11. “And I was like ‘Oh that’s great,’ thinking it was one of those window boxes. No, the guy installed central air.”
Trenton Bush ’12, Chris Hwang ’11, Joe Sinwell ’12, Sam Sherwood ’12 and Lytle have dubbed their rather luxurious abode “The Fairgrounds” after a mysterious municipal sign in their front yard that points directly at it. The house is also home to a kitty, Mica.
“I know someone who found him on the side of the road,” Lytle said.
The group of housemates found themselves together because of pre-existing friendships and a joint interest in living off-campus.
“Chris and I talked and we wanted to live together and then I think we talked to [Sherwood] and [Sherwood] had [Sinwell] and [Bush],” Lytle said.
Bush and Sherwood were roommates their first year at Grinnell. During their second year they recruited Sinwell to join them in living in a Dibble Annex triple that was known as “The Bat Cave.”
The Fairgrounds features many amenities to be cherished in college life, including the aforementioned central air, a dishwasher, laundry service, new carpeting and a Jacuzzi tub. Sweet digs, indeed—and their landlord hit them with another surprise just a few weeks ago.
“The landlord e-mailed us and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to come by your house tomorrow morning just check out the roof,’” Bush said. “Then at 7:15, there is 15 dudes on our roof completely redoing it.”
Considering all members of the house are on sports teams, they are rarely all home together. Still, everyone seems to enjoy their off time in a relaxing manner.
“We watch a lot of SportsCenter or as Hannah calls it, ‘That Sports Channel,’” Sinwell said.
Many meals are taken in the Dining Hall due to busy schedules, though Sherwood does admit there is a lot of microwaving. Still, while home-cooked meals may not be essential at the Fairgrounds, the nightlife at Fairgrounds certainly has an illustrious past.
“It used to be a big party house,” Lytle said. “It was called Red Light House during the early 2000s.”
Then, a new landlord took over and renovated the house, putting in the new carpet among other changes.
Afterwards, its inhabitants included a librarian and a professor employed by the college. The current gang is the first group of students to live in the house since its structural overhaul. One member feels the need to project the landlord’s investment.
“We have a garage, which is great for parties, especially ’cause we have carpet and don’t host parties inside the house,” Lytle said.
However, the combination of cold weather and funding has limited the house’s party hosting.
“We started off the semester throwing a party pretty much every weekend we were here,” Hwang said. “But things have changed since I was a first-year and people don’t pay for alcohol anymore. So, we had to cut it back.”
Regardless, it appears that hasn’t stopped them from planning future endeavors.
“I’d like to build an ice bar, actually,” Hwang said. “Put that in—we’re building an ice bar,” Hwang said.
This idea, of course, inspires other housemates to pipe up with their ideas.
“We could buy all those sh**ty coats at Goodwill for like $1.50 each and hand them out as people come in,” Sherwood said.
Ironically, the staunch advocate for a policy of “no inside parties” causes much of the aesthetic damage herself.
“She has more spills than the rest of the us,” Sherwood said. “[Lytle] spilled red sauce on [the carpet].”
The others feel they originally misunderstood Lytle’s desire to live with clean roommates.
“She was worried about living with clean people,” Sinwell said. “We thought she was just a neat freak, but we realized she wanted to live with clean people because the house would be a complete mess if she didn’t.”
On her part, Lytle admits to having a pretty messy personality.
“I’m probably one of the messiest in this house, mostly because I’m never here and my sh*t is everywhere,” Lytle said.
With three of the housemates returning next year, they are willing to make their crib even better. The high-ceilinged attic, which currently has hardwood floors covered in insulation, has a lot of potential.
“We just have to put [the insulation] from the floor to the roof,” Sinwell said.
Sherwood already has the job noted in his planner.
“That’s the summer project.”
