It sometimes feels unreal that my husband, Austin Day, and I get to work out

It sometimes feels unreal that my husband, Austin Day, and I get to work out of this photo studio with another couple, Dave and Mariah Poyzer. The studio fell into our laps one day via Craigslist. It was being rented by a prop stylist that was moving out of state and needed a short-term sublet with the option of taking over the lease after hers was over. At the time, Austin was growing out of his studio and I was transitioning from full-time employment with a side-business to freelancing full-time. We knew Dave and Mariah would be business savvy, easy to work with, and had growing businesses in need of a studio as well. After inviting the Poyzers to share it with us, we signed the lease and started making it our home away from home. The four of us created an LLC and named the Des Moines, IA studio Water House. The building was built in 1900 as a water pumping station to communities north of Des Moines. At the start of WWII, it was rerouted to pump water to a John Deere plant that produced US military vehicles during wartime. After the war, the building was abandoned. Our landlords bought the condemned building in 2002. In 2006 they completely gutted and remodeled it into a fully functioning commercial photography studio. The three-foot-circumference pipes in the floor that had pumped water out of the building were compressed and covered with new concrete. New electrical, HVAC and windows w...