The Dollhouse!!!

Last Thanksgiving, on Small Business Saturday, Mee-maw, Sarah, and I headed off to Snow Hill to do a little Xmas shopping.  We stopped in to pick up some specialty olive oils, checked out a few of our favorite shops, and took a look around an antique store.  We had quite a few giggles as we strolled around the store, but something caught my eye in the very far back corner of the shop.  Surrounded by random pieces of furniture, old clothes, and multiple colored glass bottles, I saw an old and VERY run down dollhouse.

                         

                     

I am not sure why this dollhouse caught my eye, or what made me immediately think of Lauren.  She had never really played with a dollhouse or expressed an interest in anything like it, but somehow I knew that I needed to get it.  We called someone over to ask about it.  They were asking $110 for it, which I thought was a little high. (This was actually a great price, because similar dollhouse kits sell for $800)  It needed a lot of work, and plenty of replacement parts.  We walked out of the store and continued shopping, but I could not get it out of my mind.  At the end of the day, we went back and I decided to go for it.  We loaded it up in the car and took it home.

A month later, Lauren was watching a show on the Disney Channel, and the main character got a big dollhouse for Xmas.  I almost started laughing, and certainly had a huge smile on my face, after Lauren told me that she really wanted a dollhouse.  Chad and I told her we would look around and see if we could find one for her birthday.  We needed a few months to get everything done!!

We bought 1200 shingles for the roof, new doors for the front porch and the upstairs balcony, new railings for the front porch and the upstairs balcony, flooring for the inside, wallpaper for the inside, trim for all of the interior doors, baseboards for all of the rooms, and paint for the outside.  We worked on it over the course of a few months and many times we had to remind each other that we were not actually moving in to this house.  But we are very happy and proud with the final outcome!!

Wallpaper!!

Shingles

 

Making the doorway bigger (so our new doors would fit)

The finished product

 

Decorated rooms!!

Kitchen (with Scooby)

Front entry

Dining Room (We left the wall on the left, under the stairs,
the same to remind ourselves what it used to look like)

Living Room

Bedroom

Upstairs Hallway

 

Bathroom

Second Bedroom

 

The Grandpa Writing Room!!  =)

I look forward to watching Lauren and Charlie play with this dollhouse.  And we plan to hold on to this so that our grandchildren can play with it, one day, as well!  (We are partly being sentimental and also because Chad and I only have the desire to go through this one dollhouse renovation)