Reeve's Cottage Dollhouse

 Dollhouse Number 2!  

This is going to be for my granddaughter Reeve, who is

not exactly dollhouse ready, but I had no choice.  You see, I got a call from an old

friend who was in the antiques picking and selling business.  I met her when I had my shop,

she would come to get some paint for some of the vintage furniture, and we always loved

chatting.  Well she knew my latest obsession is dollhouse stuff, and she ran across a

big pile of dollhouse stuff....like 6 house kits and boxes of furniture and building materials.

 Did I want it, my friend asked? 

If the price was right...and boy was it ever! 

 This is the kit I decided to build for Reeve. A cute little gingerbread cottage with hearts 

on the shutters and rounded doors and windows.  I personally LOVE rounded doors.

Some of the things included this cute coo-koo clock and a crib with Cinderella on it...

all perfect for Reeves tiny dollhouse.

 Although I have never built a dollhouse, I jumped right in.  

As soon as I opened the box

I got nervous. OMG look at this pile of wood and all those shingles. 

 But I just followed the instructions and started snapping out the parts and pieces.

Often one must cut with an exacto knife or box cutter along the precut lines so the wood does

not splinter.  Then lightly sand the edges to make it smooth without splinters.

 This is all one needs to build a dollhouse kit.  Exacto knife and/or box cutter, pencil, screw driver to help poke out the smaller pieces through the wood, ruler, masking or painters tape and a cutting board or a cutting matt, like I have above.  The yellow miter box is optional and I only used it to cut a few pieces I could have cut otherwise with the exacto knife, but it was easier.

 By the way, look at the stuff that came with the 6 dollhouse....all these things!

I personally do NOT like the look of people in a dollhouse, but I knew that for a little girl,

that is essential to the play of the dollhouse.  There was a village of people haha.

 After two days I got the house mostly assembled and was working on painting most of it white

so that it would be a blank slate for Reeve to do with whatever she wants when she is older.

Also, a lot of the furniture came in red check and yellow and lots of bright colors, so I think a white

interior is the way to go for now.

 Yesterday I set it down on an ottoman in the living room so she could have a crack at it.

The roof still needs to be put on permanently and lots of other things done.

But she ran right over to it.

 She played for a good FIVE MINUTES. Lol. 

Then threw some of the furniture on the ground and walked away.

 Today I have begun adding the shutters with the Swedish blue paint and white hearts.

It is so darling. I will add some flowers to the window boxes too.

The masking tape (or painters tape) comes in handy for helping things stay in place while the glue dries.  In the meantime, I am still losing weight on my diet, today marks 18 pounds lighter since Thanksgiving!  That is just totally amazing, and it has not been all that hard.  The hardest part was deciding to do it, and not giving up.  And I do cheat, I am human after all.  But try not to cheat for the first two or three weeks.  Now I can have a grilled cheese sandwich, or a slice of pizza and then the next day I just go back to low carb rules.  Hope you can get in the mindset and "just do it" if you have been thinking about it, or your weight has been making you unhappy with yourself, like it was for me.  I will return with the finished dollhouse soon, I hope!