House Anniversary

I can't believe its been a year since we moved into our Bayview Bungalow. Last year we were moving in boxes in the cold rain, and couldn't sleep the night before our move because it felt like Christmas. Yesterday which marked the actual anniversary we were replacing our toilet that has been giving us problems since we moved in, which was very fitting. Mike let me smash it with a sledgehammer, now that is love. lol

This truly has been an amazing year, first the move then a major renovation followed by a beautiful wedding. I can't believe how much we managed to accomplish in just one year, our house is now a home and we have not only completely transformed the upstairs but continue to make changes throughout the entire home to bring it closer to our 1930 dream home.

What makes this year even more special is spending it with my wonderful husband who I love more and more everyday, I am very happy we managed to not electrocute ourselves and renovating has only made us stronger.

Say Wisconsin Cheeeeeeese!

Between moving 4 times in the last 4 years our collections have been sitting in boxes along with most of our belongings. When we moved into our new house unpacking was like discovering our antiques all over again. Then came the decision of where to put them and how to display them. The cameras were most important to me, because not only have we been collecting them forever family members and friends have graciously donated to our collection over the years so I wanted to give them a good home in our new home. We first decided the office/studio would be a good spot there is this one wall in between a closet and the door to the hallway that doesn't have much purpose beyond hanging something. We played with the idea of building something but that would have to go on a long list of things we had to do. Then on one of our trips to the Waukesha antique store we came across this display case that we fell in love with. It was craftsman style, with a light and was the perfect size to display all of our cameras. SOLD!

Thanks to everyone who has donated to our amazing collection we love telling everyone how we got each camera and their history. They will be apart of this home and every home in the future until our future kids tell us they don't want our junk.

I left my hairdryer out and he built me a vanity.

So I may not be the girliest person in the world (if you haven't figured it out yet Nicole is writing this post not Mike) but I am so excited to have a designated area to get ready in the morning and have all of my personal bathroom items where Mike can't hide them on me. It turned out so beautiful and completed with all salvaged pieces. The actual vanity I wanted to have a lot of drawer space but still be able to fit my legs underneath so I could sit near the counter top. We had a really difficult time finding this size cabinet, until Mike went wandering in our neighbors trash and found a discarded remnant of a kitchen cabinet that fit perfectly. All we had to do was strip it of the 50's era yellow paint and stain it to match our pocket door. The marble top was found at a local salvage yard and we had it cut to match the style of our sink top. We added hardware to tie in the look with the rest of the bathroom and added the same mirror that is above our sink. My favorite part is the top drawer that Mike put in small dividers for all my jewelry since I have been using the same crappy jewelry case since college. I have officially moved up in the world.

The background to this story shouldn't be lost, we almost made this area a closet but instead knocked out a portion of the dormer for a medium sized closet to gain space and not lose the vanity. This whole project stemmed from Mike's pure hatred for my hairdryer. Which now has a home underneath the vanity where he will never have to see it.