When I was a baby, my dad built me a dollhouse. It was not from a kit, it was not small, and he spent A LOT of time putting as much detail as he could into it. It had wallpaper, chair rails, wainscoting, paint, carpet, the whole nine. I spent many hours into my TEENAGE years (yes, I can admit that now, that I still played with my barbies in the dollhouse at the ripe 'ole age of 14). Eventually, I outgrew the dollhouse and it sat. I went to college, moved a few times, got married. I tried to pawn it off on family, friends, neighbors, anyone who might be willing to put a little elbow grease into it to make it shine once again. I couldn't bear the thought of it sitting in a landfill. My dad passed away when I was 20, and the house had developed quite a bit of sentimental value over the years.
Eventually, a girl I grew up near who used to play with the dollhouse with me volunteered to take it off of my hands for her little girls. However, I was pregnant at the time and she was willing to wait and see what I was having before coming to get it. Alas, we all now know I had a girl, so with humble apologies I took my gift back.
My mom has been in town from Wisconsin since the end of July, and we thought a very fitting tribute to my dad, as well as a kick-ass birthday gift for Abbie's first would be to put a bit of elbow grease into that house and "renovate." The exterior was in good condition, just needed some cleaning up, and the interior was fine structurally, just needed new flooring and updating.
Though we are still in the process of our project, my mom painted all of the walls, we fixed the minor structural issues, I laid a popsicle-stick hardwood floor in the living/dining rooms, "carpeted" the stairs with felt, and re-glued the wallpaper back to the wall. We will be putting in the remainder of the floors this week and staining the hardwood to give it a cherry color.
I told my mom tonight, the only way Abbie will ever come to appreciate the amount of work that we, and initially her grandpa, put into the dollhouse, is if she has a daughter of her own someday and decides to "update" it for her. I can only imagine the blood, sweat, and tears that went into building that house from scratch, and I can see my dad smiling from Heaven as he watches mom and me restore it back to its former glory.
Love you daddy. Thank you for such a treasured keepsake. :-)
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