Picture of the Day: View Along the Needles Lookout Trail

Sequoia National Forest, California
6.2005 

The Armoire of Armoires

Now that Frank and I are married and he has moved in, we are in the process of turning my bachelorette pad into a house that works for both of us. One of the key issues that we have is clothing storage. When I remodeled the second floor I combined two tiny bedrooms to make a master bedroom and reworked the floor plan to make the closet as large as possible. The closet is pretty decently sized now (especially for a 130+ year old house) but it isn't enough space for both of us to store all of our clothes. 

Knowing that closet space was going to be an issue, this past spring I started looking around at some of my favorite places in town as well as Craigslist for an antique armoire. Everything I found seemed a bit too fussy looking for my tastes or not big enough for our needs. Then earlier this summer I stumbled across this ad on Craigslist for an enormous armoire.

At nearly seven feet tall and six feet wide it was the armoire of armoires so I showed the listing to Frank. It was enormous, but we both liked the style and it would easily take care of our clothing storage needs. The only hitch was that it was located an hour south of us. We decided to gamble on it so I called the shop and asked them to hold it for us. We rented a flatbed trailer and hoped that the armoire was as nice in person as it looked in the pictures.

When we got to the shop we made a beeline for the armoire. We knew it was going to be big, but it seemed even more enormous in person. The oak was quite pretty and each of the panels was trimmed out with small egg and dart molding. The armoire had a large drawer at the bottom and the top had enough space for me to build two shelves and a hanging rod for clothing. We decided we wanted to get the armoire if we could negotiate the price down a little bit.

The shop was actually in partnership with a few other shops that were linked together. Unfortunately, the owner of the armoire was on vacation so no one actually manning the store that day could discuss the price with us. Luckily, the guy at the register had the owner's cell phone so I called her and worked down the price from out on the street since there was no cell reception in the store. It was a bit comical at the time but in the end it all worked out.

While we were there Frank and I took a little look around the rest of the shops. There was a lot of neat stuff for sale and if I had unlimited budget and space at home I would have filled up the car and trailer.

I couldn't resist buying a tin mail sorter that I found near the register. After I clean it up I think it will make for some awesome storage in my craft room. We also got a cool ten gallon stone crock that we plan to use for making pickles later this summer.

Once we checked out the next trick was trying to load up our purchases. The crock and mail sorter easily fit into the back of Frank's SUV, but getting the armoire out of the store and into the trailer was quite a feat. After some wrangling and fancy dolly work we were all set and on the road back north.

Since there was no way that the two of us were going to get the behemoth armoire up the stairs by ourselves, when we got home we used our dolly to get it into the garage and there it has sat ever since. Frank is understandably getting pretty tired of having his clothes hanging up on a cheap metal clothes rack so we need get on reorganizing the bedroom to make space and moving the armoire up there!

Picture of the Day: Sunset on Treasure Island

Treasure Island, Florida
12.30.2012 

Picture of the Day: Cliffside Houses in Positano

Positano, Italy
3.22.2012 

Fixtures for my Bathroom Renovation

Now that Frank and I are back from our honeymoon it is time for us to get serious about getting the downstairs bathroom done. I bought the fixtures for the renovation a while back and they have been hanging out in my garage taking up space.

For my sink and toilet I bought an American Standard Retrospect Pedestal Sink and a Sterling Stinson Elongated Toilet. In my master bathroom I really like that I have some flat deck space on my pedestal sink so that was a must have for my downstairs bathroom as well.

For my bathtub I bought an American Standard Princeton Bathtub. Originally I was planning on getting a cast iron bathtub but then I thought that the Americast with porcelain finish would be a nice alternative.

For the bathtub and shower fixture I bought the Delta Leland Monitor 14 Series Tub and Shower Trim with Porcelain Handle Lever which I thought had a nice classic look. For the sink I ended up buying Vintage Widespread Bathroom Faucet from Overstock configured with the white porcelain lever handles to match the shower. I love the vintage styling of the faucet and think it will look great on the pedestal sink.

My next step is to apply for my permit with the Ann Arbor building department. After having this project on the back burner for so long I am really excited to finally get going again.

Picture of the Day: Bananas for Sale in Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, Domincan Republic
7.25.2013 

Back to Reality

July was quite a month. At the beginning of the month I had a little reunion with two of my friends, Danielle and Trisha, who I met while living in Japan. The three of us hadn't all been together in nearly four years so it was great to spend five days together in Trisha's new city, Milwaukee. It was an awesome time full of concerts at Summerfest, lounging at Bradford Beach, a brewery tour and skydiving.

On July 20, Frank and I got married! The week leading up to the wedding was busy as I was making all sorts of things for the wedding like table cards, centerpieces, favors and so on. I will definitely share all of the things I made but I want to wait until I have my professional pictures back since I know she took pictures of everything all set up which I didn't have much of a chance to do. The wedding weekend was fabulous and now I am happily Mrs. DiMaggio.

For our honeymoon we headed down to the Dominican Republic for a bit of history and culture in Santo Domingo followed by some intense relaxation in Bavaro. It was lovely and we really didn't want to head home at the end.

All told, for the month of July I was only at work for ten days. Now that it is August reality is settling back in and it needs to happen fast. Frank and I are planning to have a backyard barbecue to celebrate our wedding with local friends (we only had 16 people at our wedding) so we need to get a lot of things finished at the house prior to then. In particular we need to get the downstairs bathroom done and finish up work on the backyard. It is going to be a little crazy around here for the next six weeks. Wish us luck!

Heading Home From Bávaro

After leaving Santo Domingo on Friday, Frank and I spent the past four days at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Bávaro and sadly have to return home this afternoon. It has been perfect weather and we've spent our days either in the water or in the shade of cabanas. I am not one known for relaxing, but Frank convinced me that we should spend a few days here and he was completely right. I may get used to this...

Postscript: Frank wanted me to say that he is always right. I say haha!

Picture of the Day: Balcony View Overlooking the Caribbean

St. Thomas, USVI
10.2009 

Picture of the Day: Rainbow in the Mist of Montmorency Falls

Chute Montmorency
Quebec, Canada
9.06.2009