Millie's Doll House

My grandpa worked on this house for years and when he decided to make Arizona his permanent place, decided to hand down the house to me. It has sat in our garage for a few years waiting to be finished. Millie has the best imagination ever and loves to play dolls and barbies and princesses, so I thought her third birthday would be a great time to finish this bad boy. 

The main parts I needed to finish by her birthday were:

• Completing the stairs and railing
• Adding a wall on the second floor
• Framing around the doors
• The flooring on the second and third level
• The roof of the tower
• Paint  

Here is the condition it was in.

The railing,stairs, and wall were actually easy to complete and install. However, if you ever decide to build a doll house, I would recommend you not installing the stairs until after you have painted or wallpapered and installed the flooring. It was a wee bit hard getting that paper in behind the stairs.

The main floor already had teeny tiny hard would put in. Good job grandpa! I however copped out and went for a laminate. I bought five pieces of hardwood laminate tiles at Home Depot for 99 cents a piece. Chris and my dad made templates with paper, taped the tiles together with painters tape, traced the template onto the tiles, scored the tiles, and placed them in. It wasn't as easy as I made it sound. It took them about three hours of combined time to complete. 

While they were busy doing that, I was busy over at the scroll saw all week cutting pieces of shingles at different angles to apply to the tower roof. About half way through the saw blade broke. My dad was out of town for a couple days and I needed help to fix it. I moved on to painting. 

I initially wanted to go bold with the color. But after looking at the house I just didn't think turquoise or coral was going to look right. So I went for green, my go to color. And after purchasing it, I decided it was just about the same color of green on Millie's wall in her old room. Awwwe. It made me feel all sentimental about the old house and really, really happy that I chose it. Like her room was living on. Ha, I'm a weirdo, I know.

The painting was tedious. After the kids were in bed, I headed out to the garage for a paint party that lasted about four days total. Around those windows was difficult. Yikies, I get the chills even thinking about painting those. And they aren't perfect, but I gotta let it go. 

The last part I did was the wallpaper. The plain white walls were not doing anything for me. So I headed to Michael's for some scrapbook paper. And as always I walk away realizing that I have complete grandma style. Clothes, fabric, apparently scrapbook paper, I am all grandma. I like to describe my style as modern grandma. I think it goes with the house great. The paper in the upstairs is a little more modern and downstairs is more old lady. 

I put the paper on the wall I was covering, scored it with my fingernail or scraper, took it out and cut it with scissors, and adjusted where I needed too. The upstairs was a little difficult lining up with all those diamonds and lines, but I got it close enough. At least that's what I need to keep telling myself. Once the paper was ready, I modge podged the top and place it in. I worked my way down scraping all the bubbles out as best I could.

Here are my results:

For Mills birthday I assigned anyone who wanted to, a room in her house. I went with Playmobil. And this stuff is so much fun! There is a whole bag of little things like tooth brushes, cans of fish, teeny toys, that will be tucked away until she is older. For now she can use the bigger stuff and a few small things. Thanks for everyone who helped and bought things for this house. I am going to add drapes and maybe more paper along the walls eventually, but for now it is all hers to play away with!

Another DYI for this week!

Like a crazy person, I am trying to post every day this busy week. I have no clue why. One of my resolutions next year is to blog a little more, so I guess I am getting a head start. Have a feeling I'm gonna need it.

I was wanting a wreath to go on a wall in our living room in the center of some garland I had hung. I initially wanted this white feather wreath from West Elm, but when I went to the store in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving it was waaaay to small. It's on sale now, so I may get a couple to hang on the tree next year. All of the local craft stores only had the cheap looking white feathers, like for boas. So I thought the bright green moss would look awesome against our brown wall. (Still have never posted the new living room. I should probably do that.)

To make a long story short I made this wreath the night I got super sick with food poisening. So this does not hang anywhere inside the house or I get wicked flashbacks. Getting the mail I have to hold my breath, it was just. so. bad. I rearranged some other wreaths in and around the house and it now hangs fabulously on the front door.

I made it for around twelve bucks. Not too bad. 

Christmas gift for pennies? Yes, please!

Gifts for the girls this year came straight to me from the creative people in the world of Pinterest and Etsy. No surprise there. And because I am a tight wad and like to think I am crafty, I whipped up my own little hand warmers (don't hate me for craft plagiarism). Sadly not as purty, but I love them all the same. The best part of all thooouugh is the fact that they were so in expensive. Not sure exactly how much these babies cost me, but here is an estimate: rice from my pantry- free, paper from my stack of card stock- free, twine- free, felt on sale at JoAnn's- two bucks for a yard of each color. I love how they turned out and they are something they can definitely use this frigid, I wish it weren't so damn cold, winter. Thirty seconds in the microwave and shaazam!, warm pockets. Merry Christmas my besties! 

Multi-Purpose Room: Part One

Playroom, office, laundry station, craft room, and library is what it actually is. And it is the smallest room in our house, go figure? In our decision to live larger in a smaller home, this was my first undertaking. Quite frankly because it is the easiest, and more importantly, least expensive room to update.

I should first emphasis we are de-beiging our house. Keeping some creams. Cream good. Beige bad. Light good. Dark, fake brick wall, bad. So very, very bad.

Along with most Americans we are a family on a budget. Budget = paint. And since I am an expert HGTV watcher, Genevieve Gorder authorized me to let you all know that the best way to update any room is paint. I wouldn't necessarily say I am updating though, more like hiding. Unfortunately there may not be enough paint at my local store to make this wall JUST GO AWAY.

After I put so much GD lacquer on the thing (guess that movie phrase!), I painted the old shelves with some left over gray paint used in our family room. So far the cost of this update...a whopping zero bucks! A trip to JoAnn's with my coupons, Walmart, a couple of boxes bought from Ikea, a few things I already had, and I have officially organized our crafting and art supplies. There are still a few things in the mix, but you will see where I am going.....

These photos are luh-hame I know. Hopefully soon I will have photos up of new lighting options for our basement. The total cost currently for this room's face lift is around thirty-five bucks. Not too bad for storage merchandise, eh?

I have a few ideas on how to update and/or do away with those lovely early 90's door fronts on the cabinetry. I have always wanted to use chalkboard paint, but never had a place to do it. And because these doors could either stay or go without really any blows to my bank account, I may try it. Fabric curtains reminiscent of those under old farmhouse sinks are also an option floating around my head. Any opinions appreciated. More updates on this room and the living room to come next week!