The Top Floor of the Model D House Hides a Great Apartment

Whether it's an alleyway carriage house or the unused floor above a popular storefront, the best apartments are often in tucked-away spaces largely unnoticed by passersby. Perched on the top floor of Midtown's Model D house, Lisa Waud has an apartment worthy of envy.

Lisa obviously has a sense for these sorts of spaces, as she plans opening the Corktown of Pot & Box, her Ann Arbor-based floral shop, inside of what used to be an abandoned service station. Her "two bedroom, one bathroom, one awkward nook" space at Second and Prentis isn't huge--128-year-old apartments rarely are--but it's functional, offering great views of Midtown and a walk-out rooftop space.

How does one score such a prized apartment? After glimpsing it during Model D's office warming party, it took a combination of luck and determination. Lisa emailed us the story:
It was new year's day, I went to Bronx with friends for the first burgers of 2013. I declared that I was ready to move from Ann Arbor to Detroit and that the only place i wanted to live was next door, on the third floor. Everyone scoffed. When we left, there was magically an apartment rental sign in the yard. which i promptly,with no second thought, yanked out of the ground and hid behind the garbage cans. By noon on january 2nd, I had signed the lease.