Doll House Remodeling

I acquired a charming fixer-upper for Erin when she was a baby. It was in the basement of Mike's grandparents house and was built by Mike's grandfather for Aunt Mary. It was rather dust covered and the removable front is a bit water damaged but for the most part, it is in great shape. It was very well made with a lot of attention to detail.

For about five years it just sat in storage but when we moved to our current home, I pulled it out, cleaned it up and painted it one Christmas. However, I only slapped white primer all over it (it had never been painted) and painted the window trim and roof dark green. Then I created little Christmas wreaths with red bows, bought some doll house Christmas lights and put it out next to our tree. It looked great at Christmas but after Christmas I put it away again.

Now that Erin has sort of grown out of the chunky plastic fisher price doll house and we've gotten rid of it, she's ready for this one. I acquired the living room set and dining table and chairs at an antique show a few years back and just hung on to it until she ready. The other furniture is either from Michael's or chunky paint it yourself doll house furniture she got two years ago for Christmas. She has found a kitchen, bathroom, and kids bedroom set she would like and put them on her birthday list (August), so for now, we are using what we have.

Erin picked out a lovely shade of yellow called "Tigger's Belly" (a disney color made by Behr)for the outside. The trim was still dark green from my initial painting. We have yet to paint the front door trim and would like to purchase a front door as well. In her dream world, her mother would get enthusiastic about wiring the whole house too and purchase light fixtures. I have a hard time forking out $9.99 for a doll lamp. It was hard enough paying $50 for wood flooring for the entire house, although I do admit, it really makes the place look great. At least we did wall paper and paint for the interior for much less. I still have a bit of touching up to do and some furniture to stain, but it's good for now.

Erin and I have had a lot of fun checking out doll house furnishings lately and planning. We found this lovely blog called Call of the Small in our searches. Wow! Talk about some cool doll houses.