The House on Our Kitchen Table

Since October 7, my kitchen has been a construction site. The dining table, covered in a plastic tablecloth, has been host to knives, blades, rulers, squares, three cans and one jar of paint, paint brushes, sanding blocks, a hammer, saw, putty knife, glue, tape measure, painter's tape, and shingle dye. We started out with a very orderly work space, but, as time went on, it has turned into a little bit of chaos, with boxes of materials migrating to the floor and the counter tops. We have been using a card table for our meals.

Hopefully, by Wednesday, we will be completing the project, relocating it to the living room floor, near the Christmas tree, and cleaning up the construction site kitchen. What we have built, over these two  months, is a beautiful dollhouse - Clara's Christmas present from Grandpa and Grandma. I'll post some photos of it later this week, when it is finished, but for now, here's a close-up teaser of the front door, Christmas wreath and all.

We are nearly finished with the most difficult and time-consuming part of the entire project, shingling the roofs. After that we have a little bit more trim to put on top and some touch-up painting. Then we'll be done!

Dan was the general contractor/builder and project manager. My part was the painting and shingle-dying, assembling the shutters; standing beside Dan and handing him the glue, the flashlight, and tools, as he needed them; and being the "gofer".

The house has three floors plus a little tower above that. We will not be decorating the interior because that will be part of the fun for Clara and Kelsey. They can paint, paper, finish and furnish it however Clara wishes. The floors, however, already have finished "hardwood." I anticipate buying dollhouse furniture for gift-giving occasions for a long time to come. Stay tuned for the final pictures later this week.