If you do not
want to read my rambling, just know, I am working on my old dollhouse for the
kids. You can skip the rest.
When I was around
11-12 (I think, Dad correct me if I am wrong), I begged my Dad for a
dollhouse. I had always wanted one. I remember my cousins had one of those Fisher
Price ones. So jealous…they also had a
motorized Barbie Car! I also remember
meeting this little girl with a HUGE at least 20 room wooden dollhouse that her
grandpa built her. It was amazing, so
many teeny details. At 11-12, I was a
little old to play with dolls, but I wanted to decorate one, and buy furniture,
and rearrange that furniture. Likely
where my love of decorating and houses started.
My Dad would get me anything if I asked enough, so of course he
delivered. On Christmas, he and my step
mom bought me a huge Victorian/painted lady style wooden dollhouse kit. It of course was still in the box. And it was a ton of work to put
together. A ton! My Dad did it for me though. I painted a little and remember helping with
the bricks around the bottom. I cannot
even begin to imagine the amount of hours my Dad put into it. I cannot remember if it took a few months or
a full year for it to get fully assembled.
Whichever it was, it felt like forever.
And I quickly realized how much money it would cost to furnish and
decorate with all those tiny details.
(This was before Ebay and Craigslist and Pinterest.) We visited this awesome miniatures shop in
Nashville. They had everything, like
even mini plungers. Yes, that is what
stuck out to me. I ended up only acquiring
a mini kitchen set before I lost interest.
I became a teenager with more important things to do. And when I packed it away in my shed, I
promised myself that I would finish it someday for my kids to play with.
Its time in the
shed was not good to it. I am pretty
sure I remember being told (or maybe just assuming) that my brothers friends
destroyed some of it while messing around in the shed when they were
teens. My brother swears not. It really does not matter as it was over a
decade ago. Either way, my dollhouse is
in need of restoration. I finally
brought it home and have begun work on it.
My first step is to repaint. My
style has changed quite a bit since then.
I have easily clocked 10 hours on it so far, and am maybe halfway done
with the painting. Then I have a lot of
parts to reassemble. Only then will I be
ready for the fun part. I already picked
out scrap paper to wallpaper it. I am a
bit dollhouse obsessed at the moment, and realize that me working on it at the
moment is 90% for me, 10% for the kids.
Levi has taken
somewhat of an interest, and wanted to help me with it. So I let him paint some stairs. It lasted about 5 minutes. The dollhouse is probably more for Mira than
him once it is completed. I see it being
a toy she will play with for years and years.
I think Levi will enjoy the role play a bit as a young kid, but am
hoping my girl will enjoy the decorating and such as she ages. Levi does have plans to move his superheroes
in. I am taking advantage of my motivation at the
time to work on it. I will give it to
Levi to play with once I start buying furniture, but Mira cannot play with it
until she is at least two. ;) I do plan
on buying chunky wooden furniture instead of delicate collectible furniture,
and am going to avoid too many details.
That dollhouse has set for over 15 years with no love, and I am ready
for it to be played with! Maybe when the
kids get older, they can help me redecorate and add lots of teeny details, like
a plunger.
So here are a
couple super terrible “before” photos. I
should have taken photos before my Dad took it to the basement.
Since I would not let Levi play with the dollhouse now, we
built a superhero house out of blocks instead.
