Around the middle of September last year my husband and I bought a doll house for our niece from Hobby Lobby and decided to put it together for her for Christmas. We would paint it and wire it and stain the hardwood floors. It was going to be a magical bonding experience for the two of us, plus an heirloom piece for Isabella.

Only one of those was right.

What the &*^%@! was I thinking? In the first place, we’d never assembled a doll house from scratch, so planning to do it for a Christmas present in the middle of September when I am married to THE GREAT PROCRASTINATOR wasn’t very bright. When you add in the fact that we both like to be in charge, welll… You can see where this might be a problem. Also, I don’t know if any of the rest of you have ever tackled this sort of project, but good grief…hundreds of pieces. Literally. Nine pieces for each window. Gobs of fretwork that was hard to paint. Eight-hundred shingles that had to be individually stained and painstakingly adhered to the roof. Those of you familiar with roofing will understand what I mean when I say that the shingles around the gables had to be “cut in.” Hubby sliced his hand open with a box cutter doing that. Big fun. I don’t do blood. He even had to pull our kids’ teeth when they were loose. Oh, and did I mention that every single piece had to be primed before it could be painted? It did, and that was my job. But here are the results. Family members furnished the rooms for her, which made it even more special. And this one…

I got a little carried away when decorating. I shrunk down a picture of my niece and added it to the living room. Put a poster of Hannah Montana in the bedroom. Needless to say, she LOVED it. And that made it all worthwhile. And believe it or not, we’re going to do it again next year for our other niece.

What about you? Have you ever undertaken something like this? What were the results?