Possibly Done

They say to never bring anything inside until you are sure its done-done because otherwise you will play with it and then never complete it. That could be what is happening here. I brought the dollhouse inside because the kids wanted to play with it and we wanted to see how it looked in the room.

But I get ahead of myself. First I should show you what I did since the last time you read my blog (assuming anyone actually reads this). I painted the whole thing white.

Then I cut out and painted all the pieces for the background. I didn't actually get around to painting the top piece for the attic. My husband wants it wood colored and I wanted red. Thanks to Christmas we were unable to get out and buy any paint for that part. We had bought a small thing of purple for the bedroom, but I didn't think about needing some red until the stores were closed.

For the kitchen area I added some peel and stick tile. I wanted it to have just that little extra bit of coolness. :-)

Now, this is where I made the mistake of bringing it inside. I still needed to finish the attic and finish painting what furniture I had. But our friends were over and the kids were restless so I figured why not bring it inside. Which means the other plans I had for it like the crown moulding in the bedroom or painting on windows and art work hasnt' happened. Who knows if it ever will. Its so hard once the kids are playing with it and not noticing those things not being there, to actually make the effort to do those finishing touches.

Since I do have the attic piece of wood cut, that WILL get attached and the whole unit anchored to the wall, but we will see how long that takes me to do. I just need a little bit of red or stain it or something and nail it in there. :-) As you can see, chaos ensued after I got it inside. They had other dolls and all kinds of mischief happening before I could even get the furniture in there. Oh well, they are happy so I am happy.



Some Changes

Robert wanted to have me change up a few things. So I did. He didn't feel the attic was large enough. So I lifted the roof a good 3-4  inches. I have also finally built the railing for the patios. Its taking a long time to do each little step, but its good work and it feels good to have stuff done. Sometimes its hard to do all the sanding by hand and designing as I go, but I am happy with the progress.

Here you see the raised roof. As you can see, I did a little boo-boo. I was twisting this around accidentally hit the basketball hoop and broke the glue on the whole roof structure. The nails kept it in place, but I needed to hurry and build the railings to support the attic.

My goofy husband helping me illustrate the height of this massive dollhouse!

This is my tester railing. I wasn't sure on the design. In the end, I simply can't do better. I don't have the money (hence me making this all from scrap wood) so I had to do what I could do with my own skill, as low as they are. Anyway, my skills are minimal at best, so a boring simple plain railing was all I could make happen.

What a lucky find in my wood box. I had one single piece of trim left that was a nice full 8 feet long. It was already while too which is great since I will be painting a good part of the dollhouse white. :-) It was JUST long enough to wrap around the bottom of the dollhouse.

So, I know these pictures are out of order, but I just didn't have the energy to load them one by one. I got more of the railing done and decided to set some of the doll furniture into it just to see how it would look. Can you say CUTE!!!!! I am loving it. I MAY have to spend some time playing with the dollhouse once its built. I never had a dollhouse growing up.

The overall look of it before I lowered it to the ground. It was just getting too tall for me to work on while still on the table.

A close up picture of the furniture. Is this just the cutest patio ever!!! Okay, some day I need to build a life size room. I really do! Here you see another little boo-boo. Between the tester railing I used to show Robert what it would look like and the final sets of railing, I must have changed the width of my table saw and stop block. Oops. The new railing on the side and back are just a HAIR wider. Oh well, nobody said I was perfect.

I do love this patio!!!

What Comes Next

Apparently its not the next ROOM, but a whole house. Well, a dollhouse at least.  We came up with the idea on a whim. See, I had a vacation that turned out to be not a vacation.....well, that's another story. My husband says I should just play in the garage and try new things. I SOOOOO wanted to do that, but hey this is real life and I was just plain BROKE! So I say "Hey, how about I just see what I can build with the scrap wood in the garage only?"

And so the dream was born. Robert went online and found a picture of a dollhouse he liked for the kids. It's called the Savannah Dollhouse and it's BIG. Don't know if I am allowed to post the picture so I will skip it just in case. Just google Savannah Dollhouse and you will see it.

I asked Robert how big. He starts pointing and indicating and then before you know it....well....its going to be HUGE. Its going to be about 4 feet wide and about 5 feet tall. Large enough for both the kids to play with and not grow out of anytime soon. Its coming together, but there is still a lot of work to do. Needless to say this project has been interesting. I have learned that I had A LOT of scrap wood and I can be pretty darn creative when I need to be. Since I got all distracted and didn't have time to write a lot, I will leave you with with some pictures.

So far, my favorite part are the stairs. YES, they look a bit funny, but once they are painted white it will show off the walnut stained parts. I know I should have waited, but I really wanted to see how the walnut stain would come out. :-) Patience is NOT my middle name. But if it was, apparently it would be in all caps since I like to intersperse them in my writing so why not my name, right?!