Grandpa's Dollhouse

My mom's dad was a career carpenter for years, and he used those skills to create beautiful pieces of art later in life. One of my favorite things that I own is a trunk he made for my American Girl Doll for my 9th birthday; Grandpa made and painted the trunk and pull out bed and Grandma sewed a whole line of Kirsten-appropriate clothing. It's really an incredible keepsake from both of them, and I love that I have it. When my grandfather died in January, I became even more thankful for the gift of that trunk that I'll be able to cherish while also sharing him with my children someday. He was the first grandparent we've lost, which made it that much more special and personal.

When I heard in May about an opportunity to acquire one of his beautiful dollhouses, I obviously jumped at the chance immediately. How could I not? Almost four months and one road trip to upstate New York with my mom later, the dollhouse is safely in its new home in Berryville.

I'll keep my words brief here and focus on just sharing the pictures since the craftsmanship and beauty speak for themselves, but I will say that it was so cool to go through each piece of this dollhouse with my grandmother and hear the stories of each detail. I know which pieces of furniture my Grandpa made from scratch and which ones they put together (piece of wood by piece of wood) by kits. I know where each piece of cloth came from that Grandma sewed and turned into curtains, rugs, and bedspreads. I know that the candles in the hallway were made by my cousin Eli and that the pink bear in the cradle came from my sister Courtney. All the pictures in the rooms are family members (mostly cousins but the teenage version of my mom is above the couch). It was such a cool experience going through it all with her, and I feel like I am a much better steward of this family heirloom because it.

(Sorry the picture of the window is slightly blurry.) Grandpa did all of the detail and woodworking himself from scratch. Meaning: the siding is made from individual pieces of wood, the shingles are individually cut from strips of wood, the shutters were assembled from individual strips of wood, and that chimney is wood that he routered and painted to look like stone. He was pretty great at the details.

 Here's the backside/inside of the house. The entire house sits on a large board that serves as the yard and fence/front porch, and then that board sits on a lazy Susan that allows you to turn it completely around. Here's the room by room breakdown.

Bedroom

Upstairs hallway

Master bedroom

Kitchen/dining room

Downstairs hallway/entryway

Living room

Incredible, right? The attention to detail just kills me. There's a mouse in the fireplace. There's a Bible on the table. The kitchen table has a full set of tiny dishes, which was not the most fun to reassemble. There's a toolbox, complete with tools, in the kitchen (which I love because it feels like a silent tribute to Grandpa). They wallpapered the walls with colonial Virginia paper. Can we take a moment to think about how terrible it would be to wallpaper a dollhouse? There's a grandfather clock in the living room that has a full weight system on the inside. Even though it's shut and you can't see it, they included that detail. Honestly, it's incredible.

I also want to point out that my grandparents did this - and several other dollhouses and similar projects - together. Wallpapering a life-size room is tedious and frustrating and has caused more than one married couple to consider murder; J.T. and I have fought (more than once, I'm embarrassed to say) over the right way to paint a room. To work together in such a frustratingly tiny workspace on such frustratingly tiny items would be enough to break many couples. But they did it, and they must have done a pretty great job because they chose to do it many more times. What an incredible picture of their relationship and the subtlest of tributes to what a lifelong marriage should be.

There's teenage Susie (mom) on the left

I can't even express how honored and blessed I feel to have this. It was truly a right place at the right time situation, and I know it could have been any of my other cousins who beat me to it. I promise I will take great care of it and treat it with the care and respect it deserves, and I'm truly excited to be able to share my grandparents' art and skill with my children someday.