A Little House Needing Big Work

Our neighborhood has a Yahoo group. While it was originally started for crime prevention, it ends up getting a good amount of use as a way for neighbors to give away or sell things before they end up on Craigslist or given to charity. Many months ago someone posted about giving away an old doll house. The man was about my parents age and only had a daughter. His daughter, now married and with kids, only had boys, and gave him the okay to give away her old doll house since her kids wouldn't need it.

Sue immediately inquired and was lucky enough to get it. The dollhouse was in disrepair after years of neglect. The dust bunnies had dust bunnies. The roof needed new shingles. The chimney was falling about. It seemed like a good idea at first but there it sat in our garage, knowing that it would take hours upon hours of work to restore the dollhouse - time that we didn't have.

In steps my dad during their Thanksgiving visit. They noted it sitting in the garage, taking up room. We told them how we'd love to give it to Whitney, but how it needed so much work. My dad volunteered to do clean it up, repaint it and reshingle the roof. Since my parents drove during that visit, they were able to load it into their car and take it back with them to Las Vegas.

There it sat for many months. But with a visit looming my dad finally got to work. All told, I think he spent more than 100 hours working on it. A labor of love, he patiently cleaned it, taking off the old roof and broken chimney exterior. He lovingly taped it in preparation for painting. And he painted dutifully every tiny detail. Then he worked on the roof, putting tiny new shingles layer by layer.

My parents recently came for a visit to help us while our nanny recovered from a planned surgery. And boy were the kids excited about the dollhouse coming back.

In the meantime, Sue had bought dollhouse furniture. So after my dad finished shingling the roof here (he had run out and we had to order more, having them delivered here) we furnished the house and the kids, particularly Whitney have been loving it every since. Thank you, Lolo!