This dollhouse was 20+ years in the making. On Sunday Matt and I finished it just in time for Daphne to play with. My parents gave me this dollhouse for Christmas back in elementary school. The bought it in the summer during our trip to Rhode Island where there are – or at least were – quaint little shops that sold wooden dollhouse kits.

It was a great gift to receive, until I didn’t finish it and it weighed on my conscious as it collected dust in the basement. My dad and I worked methodically on it for a few weeks and only had a few steps left before it neared completion, but we just didn’t make it. Perhaps I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, or I got too old during the process and started to care less about being able to play with it, or I was too obsessive about the paint color and the trim and couldn’t make a decision… or maybe I was just tired of sitting in the basement working on it. Our basement was unfinished and my sister used to make me walk down there with her because it was so scary. Either way, I both loved being able to work on the project with my dad and hated that I didn’t finish it.

This Sunday I did finish it.

We chose to completely repaint the outside (my artistic eye was apparently off in elementary school) and did not install all of the gingerbread trim that went with the house, but it’s done. Isn’t it strange how the door is off center? You didn’t notice did you. I guess that’s my “attention to detail” shining through. Now it can sit in Daphne’s room and look like the adorable toy it should be – until it is covered in crayon and we have to repaint it all over again.