Open the box

The conversation was approached carefully. The kids and I had just "finished" a complete renovation of the Bear House (Willow Dollhouse by Greenleaf.) We had spent hours of work and I was not sure how the kids would respond to the proposal of building a new house...when ultimately it meant that the first house would go to a new home.

Tortilla was in utero when I received the kit at Christmas (2014.) Thanks Santa! Hours of work were spent creating the house. The older two kids helped as they were able and by summer the house was "completed." Unfortunately, due to the fact that the kids were so little, they kept scraping their arms on the roof. We decided to put the house in the attic.

Several years later, after it was rediscovered by the boys, it was brought out of banishment. A massive renovation followed including complete stripping of the floor. The kids that I watch on Wednesdays thought it was a real treat to scrape the goo and bits of tile off of the floor. I'll admit, it was gratifying! Originally we used peel and stick faux wood tiles on the floors. They looked okay until I saw that someone had made a popsicle stick floor. Thank you Pinterest! I knew we had to give it a try. Almost 800 popsicle sticks later, the house was looking spectacular. I'll go into detail about how we made our popsicle stick floor with nippers, glue, and spackle in a future post so stay tuned!

Recovering of the walls followed as well as malicious wainscoting and custom kitchen "tile." (I'll go into detail in a future post as we share how we created our brick floor for the Garfield!) We sat back one day and realized, with the exception of hiring a tiny elf to hang the front door, the house was complete. We loved playing in the house but something kept tugging on me. The best memories came from creating the house. First with Tortilla in utero, then working with Dino and FC, and even friends who came over to play.

That is when I brought up the subject to Dino (5 year old boy.) I had already carefully researched potential dollhouse kits and found the Garfield by Greenleaf. Swoon. 11 rooms of gloriousness. 7 gables. A hidden room inside a tower. Two staircases. Wowza!

To my surprise Dino started bouncing around saying how excited he was and that it was going to be so much fun to build another house and, "Oh! Could it please have two staircases!?"

So it was decided. The kit was purchased. Upon arrival we all looked excitedly at the closed box with sheer joy. Deflation followed when my darling husband asked, "But how will you get it back up the basement stairs after it is assembled? Look at the dimensions! This thing is going to be huge!"

Um. Wops. Thank goodness my Daddie is an engineer!

Brrrrrring....brrrrring...brrrrring...time to call Poppi!