Anniversary Adventure.

A little over a week ago, Kerry and I celebrated our third anniversary.  It fell smack in the middle of the week so I wasn't expecting too much of a celebration.  However, when I got home from work Kerry and Ona were all set to go on a little anniversary adventure.  We headed towards Madison, WI in search of a Craigslist find.  We had been searching high and low for a credenza to use as a stand for our television.  We have been using a little stand that Kerry had in his high school bedroom.   

Looking back, that thing is tiiiiny and totally not our dream style.  To make a long story shorter, we ended up seeing a credenza on Craigslist.  To be honest, we thought it was kinda ugly with a hint of cuteness, but the price was super, super pretty.  The owner was asking $25 for a credenza and a bookcase.  Wow.  We arrived in this older part of town and were told that these pieces were once in the CEO's office of an old electrical company.  The nice Craigslist man's dad had commissioned the building of the furniture.  Don't you just love Craigslist stories?  After seeing how large these pieces were, we decided that we only wanted to take the credenza home.  Mind you, we had already loaded up the bookcase on our trailer.  While Ona and I stood watching cheered the guys on, they loaded the bookcase, unloaded the bookcase, and loaded the deceivingly heavy credenza.  I took a few photos with my phone, but they all turned out blurry due to the trying to take a quick photo, so the Craiglist man doesn't think we're creepy factor.  Because we caused the man to break out in an all out sweat hauling all of this, we offered him $20 for just the credenza.  Here she is in all of her un-refinished glory back home in our garage.

Yeah, kind of 70's.  Kerry was all about refinishing it in an I love my wife sort of way.

So we disassembled the beast.

And sanded it.

At this point, Kerry took over while I was at work for a few days.  He spray painted the outside and hand painted the inside a slight off white.  He spray painted the top and the hardware a metallic copper.  The transformation basically boggles my mind.

As soon as it aired out enough, we hoisted that baby into the living room.

The higher placement of the television meant that we had to adjust up the wall collage a bit.  We added four more frames to the left and right of the television.

Here's a little detail close-up.

And here's our everyday view from the couch.

We are in love.  It moved the space from dorky high schooler, to a more sophisticated, albeit only a smidge less dorky, adult look.  Just for kicks here's the before and after again.

Three cheers to three years with my handsome, handy husband.  You sure know the way to my Craigslist lovin' heart.