Organizing and Fitting

So after about 2 weeks, the sun has finally come out in Northern California. I had cut out my main walls and floors and sanded all the edges. Yesterday working on the patio table in the warm sunshine, I used a spray sealant on everything. The wallpaper and carpeting has arrived, as well as the parents to the little family (the baby and kitchen linoleum are on backorder). I also bought a little card table and chair set from Walmart so I don't have to keep moving things off/onto the dining room table.

My level of frustration was pretty high yesterday. The neighbor's teenage daughter decided to have friends hang out with her out back as I was starting to seal the wood. They were running around and screaming and blasting her stereo so loud that it was echoing off all the fences in the entire neighborhood. I couldn't concentrate anymore, my peace of mind was shattered, and I came inside and put everything away.

Today, I am cutting the wallpaper to fit the walls before putting the walls together. Thankfully, Steve is here to help me with the puzzle of pieces. The directions are pretty straight-forward, but I wish they had more pictures of each area so I could understand it a little better.

This is definitely something that I'm going to take my time with. No rushing for me to get it done. As soon as I feel frustrated, away it goes, which gives me time to think about what it is I am trying to do or need to do. And taking my time, is so not me! :-D

The dollhouse kit has arrived!

Here I am, in my second childhood apparently. A few weeks ago, I won an auction for a beautiful, "reborn" baby doll that is a collector's dream. She is so lifelike, I've been told (many times) how creepy she is. Hehheh. She sleeps in a Moses basket, near my computer desk, in my office.

Then, after many weeks of gloomy, rainy weather, I realized I needed (desperately needed) a hobby. My Aunt Genevieve has a custom dollhouse and had shared pictures of her beautiful, furnished dollhouse with me. I then searched online for different models from different companies and decided that I'd actually build one from a kit. I chose the Westville model from Greenleaf Dollhouses.

The kit arrived in the mail this past week. I opened the box and briefly looked at everything in it. Gathering much information via the internet and by visiting a wonderful miniature shop in San Carlos (Sherrie's Minis), I feel like I can actually build this.

Today we went to the hardware store and purchased the few tools and glue that I will need to start. Yesterday, I chose and ordered the wallpaper (so darn cute!), the carpeting and the linoleum flooring for the kitchen. I also ordered the family (!) and some nursery pieces. I'll wait a while for the rest of the furniture. It's not exactly inexpensive stuff.

Years ago, my dad built my two daughters a replica of his house in California. He then made my sister a replica of the NH house we lived in back in the 60s and 70s. My sister then found or created the same type of retro furnishings that was in the house at the time we lived there. http://gigglebytesnh.tripod.com/

My dad also made my two, little granddaughters another beautiful house a few years ago. He built the teeny-weeny kitchen cabinets for that house. He built these from scratch and with his own imagination. He has all the woodworking tools of a dream workshop and he is a very skilled and creative woodworker. Unfortunately, he is in Florida and I am in California.

As kids back in NH, he would let us use some of his woodworking tools (supervised of course) and we used to make things like doll furniture. I wish I had access to his tools now!

So here I am, embarking on a journey that will require loads of patience and following instructions to the letter. I know I have Steve to lean on if I get stuck with any particular part of the instructions (he follows instructions well, heheh!). This is not a weekend project.

So here I start, today, pulling out,sanding and sealing the main walls of the structure of the house. Gulp! Photos to follow as I move forward!