Home improvements
November 23rd, 2005
I’m still at work on renovating the old dollhouse.
I love this dollhouse. If you missed that chapter of breederweeperland, you can just mosey your fine self on over here to read the original post. There’s even a picture of Sophie with the house a few months ago, before I got all crafty and went to town on it with my tiny hammer and tiny nails and glops of wood glue and mini hand saws and something that sounds like drumble tool and a hundred dollars of Benjamin Moore paint samples.
There’s still plenty to do. But I still have the urge to yell HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES? at people who walk too close to our back porch. Come, take a tour and taste the early fruits of my obsessive labors.
What you can’t see in this picture are all the Calico Critters camping out nearby, waiting for the open house.
There will be a second floor. I just have to figure out how to put it back together.
This is the floor of the second floor. I nearly wept with joy when I figured out how to make cool stripes. I enlarged the stairwell opening too, and almost removed my left index finger in the process. Then I wore a plaid fleece scarf tied around my nose and mouth as I drumbled or drummelled or Drumhellered, because I couldn’t figure out where to buy a paper mask, and I wanted to live long enough to see my granddaughters play with this dollhouse. Sophie thought the fleece scarf was hysterical.
Crazed ceiling stenciling, or The Part That Really Disturbs the People Who Know Me Well. Prior to this, I had never stenciled. Ever.
It is difficult to put into words the bliss I experienced when I successfully put the broken staircase back together. It is also difficult to put into words the bafflement my husband experienced when I stayed up till 2AM three nights in a row painting each stair edge a pink that is different from the shade of pink on the actual stairs. And may I call your attention to the subtle vertical striping effect? May I?
I would live here. I would. If only I could figure out how to make a checkerboard floor.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, Scribbles. (Writing & Art)
16 Comments
1. Eulallia | November 23rd, 2005 at 1:23 am
Would you like to come and do this to my real house? I can pay you in… uh… compliments…? Or something?
2. Tree | November 23rd, 2005 at 8:09 am
Wow, you’ve got the talent! And the creativity! If I had a little girl I would hire you and pay you lots of money and you could make one for my little girl oh my pretty little girl how I want a little girl WHY can’t I have a little girl who would play with a dollhouse with me?
Ahem.
Who knows? Maybe my boys would like to play with a dollhouse?
Heck, Anyone would like to play with that masterpiece of yours!
3. Simon | November 23rd, 2005 at 9:11 am
That is turning into one creative masterpiece, girlfriend!
[insert snap of fingers and sassy head wobble]
Just don’t Drumheller too much, you might dig up some crazy dinosaur bones.
4. R J Keefe | November 23rd, 2005 at 10:30 am
Time to start up Metropolitan Dollhouse
5. Spot the Wonder Dog | November 23rd, 2005 at 10:50 am
What, no wainscotting?
I would like to address this notion that boys do not play with doll houses…
…almost every year around Xmas when my mom would get out out Nativity scene, my brother and I would evict the regular figurines, and stage some totally wicked green army man battles. Sometimes we even brought the Nativity characters back into the “Battle of the Manger”.
“Oh no! That king with the gold is kidnapping the baby Jesus. Quick, get the machine gun guys out here!”
“Look out! There are some bazooka guys hiding behind his camel!”
“Bring in the angel for air support! (The angel swoops down and snatches the camel out of harms way.) It’s clear! Open fire!”
“He’s escaping upstairs! Look out! Two grenade guys just came in!”
“Get a machine gunner on that donkey! Cavalry charge!”
“They dropped their grenades! It’s gonna blow!” (Jesus’ cradle and 2 sheep are blown over the fence.)
“They blew up the sheep! Those @#$%^&&”
“We’ve got some crawling guys going up the back, send a pistol guy up the staircase to distract the king!”
“He can’t get a shot! The king is using Jesus as a human shield!”
“One of the crawling guys just tackled him from behind! The angel swoops in and grabs Jesus!”
“One of the king’s machine gun guys is firing at the angel!”
“Joseph sneaks up behind him and karate kicks him! YAH!”
“Quick, get everyone loaded up into the Millenium Flacon!”
“Take off! Strafe the guys still in the manger! Whoa! The hay bales exploded! The manger is destroyed!”
“Alright, let’s fly to my room and pick up Chewbacca and the Jawas, then we’ll go see if we can find those Tusken Raiders who kidnapped the Shepard.”
See? I played with “doll houses” and I turned out great. I’m sure my younger boys would have a grand old time playing with a doll house like the one you’re restoring.
6. Ryann | November 23rd, 2005 at 11:20 am
Wow, Spot, your epic battles took place across time — Jesus, modern army men and Star Wars all in the same play scene.
Did your mother ever come upon you two and say: “Put that Baby Jesus back where he belongs!!”
Jen — you’ve done such a nice job that you’ve made me think longingly about the dollhouse sitting at my parent’s house, and how I always swore that I would paint the interior, and add individual shingles to the roof, and get teeny tiny carpet samples to put on the floors.
Sophie and Hannah will be lucky to have such a cool dollhouse to play with — if you let them, after all that time you’ve invested!
(which would be my A/R fear if I ever do fix up my dollhouse).
7. Katieface | November 23rd, 2005 at 11:58 am
But where is the cranberry screen door?
8. Tree | November 23rd, 2005 at 12:42 pm
Spot, that was hilarious!!
And you’re right, my boys do have thier own way of playing with dolls…only most of the time it involves violence and destruction. But that’s ok, too. Right?
;)
9. Pink Rocket | November 23rd, 2005 at 12:43 pm
Wow! It looks really good! If you’re really thinking of adding a checkerboard floor they do make stamps and stencils in the checkerboard look.
10. Kim | November 23rd, 2005 at 3:08 pm
As usual, I am in awe.
drumble = dremel
Very useful on three sets of Clumber Spaniel toenails. At least that’s all it gets used for at our house.
11. another anna | November 23rd, 2005 at 6:01 pm
Yeah, like Pink Rocket said– for checkerboard floors you could potato print the squares. And for less annoying corners you could potato print onto heavy paper, seal the paper with acrylic, and glue it down to the floors… Or make the sealed paper into “oil cloths” that are removable… Or make real oil cloths… Or… Or…
Yeah. Keep in mind that I may be a veritable fount of Craft Advice, but my ah– “helpful tips” tend to add more opportunities for tedium and heartbreak to a project. Just what everyone looks for in a craft project! Good old tedium and heartbreak.
12. Katie | November 23rd, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Jenn, now you’ve got to get your hands on a book called Dollhouse Magic: How to Make and Find Simple Dollhouse Furniture. I still remember making an elegant stone fireplace out of a cardboard box and the rocks from my driveway. I actually haven’t seen this book in years, but I remember it well–crafty, but designed for kids so it’s not too hard.
13. JustLinda | November 23rd, 2005 at 10:44 pm
I just ordered a dollhouse for the big toy holiday coming up. I don’t remember the online description talking about painting or putting up shutters or wallpapering. Now I’m having 2nd thoughts. LOL
Well, I suppose if my girls are accustomed to their real house falling down around them, an unfinished dollhouse won’t be much of a shocker. haha
14. Veronica | November 24th, 2005 at 12:02 am
Wow, my kids totally demolished the dollhouse they got when they were too young to have it and I was thinking I would remodel it and now that I see yours it gives me inspiration. Thank you.
15. Jen | November 28th, 2005 at 1:12 am
My parents restored an old dollhouse for my younger sister and I when we were kids, and it was my favorite Christmas present EVAH. I used to love shopping for little doll knick knacks at craft stores and imagining how I would fix the place up myself. Hence, my current obsession with Trading Spaces. Have fun!
16. roo | December 4th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Your dollhouse is looking just beautiful (and your previous post about it was lovely.) Someday I hope to have children of my own, and I’ll pass down the dollhouse my father (also a carpenter) made for me when I was a girl
Re the checkerboard floor: There’s a simple way to paint a floor to look like gingham. First you mask alternating strips of the floor with tape, paint the whole surface, remove the tape and let the paint dry. Then you mask alternating strips perpendicular to the first stripes, paint, etc.
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