The Dollhouse Diaries

Hello Everyone!

Yes, I realize that some people might think it lame to be home on a Friday night, blogging about the progress of a dollhouse, but who cares? I'm a busy person, I like to do next to nothing on the weekends. Besides crafting.

So, dollhouse! Number 87 on the big list. I got this as a gift when I was 3 years old. My dad and oldest brother made it for me as a Christmas present. Normally, we didn't get such big presents, but that was the year my little sister came into the picture. I like to think the parents were making amends. COMPLETELY JOKING! Mostly. I love my little sissy.

Among other things, we had to pull all of the remaining old shingles off, pull out 2 window frames and the door frame, and sand, saw, and shave off the edges in some places. This house is over 22 years old, and it was in pretty terrific shape overall. The was no structural damage, and after some basic clean-up, we got right to work.

Sadly, due to an unfortunately timed hard drive crash, I don't have any pictures of the stripped down house. Even more sad, I've misplaced the pictures and negatives (remember negatives?) of the damaged version of the house. Honestly, that's completely unlike me. I'm organized to the point of ridiculousness. To quote 500 Days of Summer, "They use to call me Anal Girl... I was very neat and organized." Anyhow, I have one of those printed sheets of all the pics on the roll, which as I learned tonight, you can't do anything with in terms of reprinting. But my darling husby scanned it in and if you look carefully, you can see the initial troubles.

To date, we've replaced 2 windows and the front door, replaced the shingles and sealed them, and repainted the entire thing. We've also filled in some spots on the inside that had divots with wood putty and bought one piece of furniture!

It's been more difficult than I thought it would be. I couldn't match the paint exactly, but after mixing 4 colors, I hit on a shade that was just a touch darker than the original color. And it's fantastic. I love the blue-gray with the white accents. I decided just to seal the shingles instead of staining them because the lightness reminds me of a beach house. I think it's just beautiful so far!

Aside from the coolness of fixing something from my childhood that I can hopefully pass on someday, it's been a great experience to work on it with my husband. He's such a good and patient guy. Never minds that most of the house is covered with works-in-progress. Here he is while we were installing the windows.

We have a long way to go yet. Next up is wiring the inside. It wasn't wired when I was a kid (safety and all that, I suppose), but there are notches in the walls for the wires to go. After wiring, it's time for flooring and wallpaper! So, I should probably think about that. I've decided to go with pink fixtures in the bathroom... just go with me on it. Also, the kitchen is going to be very old fashioned. A teaser:

http://www.cadollhouse.com/flourbinhutch.html

Thanks for reading!