The Doll House

We recently finished a very large dollhouse that most likely came from a do it yourself kit from the 1940’s.

We were commissioned to rebuild it, and replace any missing wood parts.  This dollhouse has the ability to be hooked up with electricity, and had real carpet, and hardwood floors.

When the customer first dropped it off, I did not really know what I was getting into.  The dollhouse had hundreds of small pieces, and it was in very poor shape.  Many of the pieces were broken, and did not fit back properly.  She gave me a very long time to repair it, but I kept on putting it off for other items that would come into the shop. Maybe I should work on better habits?

Long story short, I was embarrassed at how long this took to repair.

I called the customer, and told them that I could not repair it in the time period they gave me, and gave them the option to take it back. They said that they could not find anyone else to work on it, and asked if it could be finished by March 5th.  At the time that was 2 months away.  I started to work on it slowly, but realized that I needed some help.

I decided to give my helper monkey (aka Caleb) his first well paid assignment.

He found the original instructions, and told me he needed a glue gun, lots of glue sticks, and a 1/8 inch chisel to get old glue out of all the cracks.

He worked on it non stop for about 2 weeks. Every day I would check the progress, and I was impressed with the detail he was putting into it.  He had to make parts on the band saw, and also got to use his dove tail saw he purchased. So he said he enjoyed that part. At times it would frustrate him, but he did not give up.

Finally after being the shops longest resident ever, the dollhouse was complete.

I finished it off by touching it up, filling a few damaged areas, and polished the hardwood floors, and wood areas. That was very minor compared to what my helper monkey did.

Don’t tell him, but I think he has a talent for woodworking, and this will not be his last assignment :).

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Below are the results, and the customer thanked me for the work.