Handing Down the Dollhouse

My all time favorite gift as a child was my dollhouse. My parents bought it at Canton and decorated it with the wallpaper from my childhood bedroom, added working lights, a few coats of paint - and presto - hours of fun. My best friend, Carolyn, and I spent many days playing house.

The dollhouse has been in my parents attic for years. A couple of years ago, my Father actually risked his life (seriously) to climb into the "spooky" attic to retrieve the doll house. Two broken wrists and a concussion later - it remained in the attic. Chris brought it down last year and we realized that it looked more like a foreclosed home than the darling doll house from my memories. So after a thorough cleaning and throwing out the old carpets - the doll house, minus furniture, was ready to go.

The furniture was a whole other story. Everyone that had recently been in the attic promised me there were no boxes of doll furniture up there. They had all searched high and low to no avail. When we were back at Christmas, I just knew it HAD to be up there. So I decided to brave the attic. I was seriously scared of what I might find up there - mice and squirrels and raccoons came to mind. But instead what I found was a box marked Doll House Furniture.

It was so fun to pull each piece out! I very clearly remembered each one - from the stone fireplace to the little book called, "How to Knit". There were even pillows I had made as a little girl.

As a backup, in case we did not find any furniture, my Mom had LOVINGLY braved the lines at Walmart to buy several rooms of Dora plastic doll house furniture - it would have worked fine and BOY WAS IT BRIGHT... but as I inspected the little wooden sewing machine, bunk beds and dining room table complete with a candy dish and sliced bread, I whispered a Thank You prayer. Each piece of this doll house has been truly loved, something that I doubt the plastic orange Dora furniture could have lived up to.

Piper spied the doll house in the garage and told Chris, "I think that doll house is for me." Chris asked her why she thought that and she replied, "Because I am 3 and 3 year old girls really love doll houses." Well, she was right! She enjoyed setting up the house. And I have to admit I did a little remodeling when she left the room. She had WAY to much furniture in the children's bedroom. And not that I am a control freak or anything - but the kitchen was just not right. Piper did add a nice touch by putting the stone fireplace in the Master bedroom (wish I had that in my real house!). And Chris and my Mom had to remind me that it was Piper's house now.

Now the only hurdle is getting it to Colorado. Lindsay is working on it, but if you happen to be driving in this direction from Texas, let me know. :)