Summertime comes around and Mimi and Papa come to visit! Carolina who has been extremely into all the American Girl Doll stuff this year had a project in store for Papa who loves working with wood…

Day 1 – The Planning

So 1st things first they came up with a plan, playing architects they sketched out what the custom house should look like, how many rooms it needed, etc.

Next they clean the Gameroom out and Papa measured the wall to continue the master plan.

Day 2 – Shopping for Supplies

A couple trips to Lowes and Home depot gathers all the materials needed: wood, paint, glue, nails, flooring, trims, balcony…

A few hours later they come back and our garage is no longer such, it has now became the work room!

Day 3 – Assembly

Most of the prep work, cutting and putting together was done, but now we need extra hands to actually do the assembly, so Papi steps in to help Papa get the pieces up together and Carolina can’t bear her excitement.

I contribute by painting the balcony that will go in the patio so it has enough time to dry for when they decide to put it all together

Day 4 – Painting

So this is where my contribution comes along, I help paint! We used the extra paint we had from Carolina’s bedroom as well as her bathroom.

We have to let everything dry, so we have to make an extra trip to Lowes to get moldings for the finishing touches, extra flooring for the kitchen and for the bedrooms…

Then we had to take a break because between Hip Hop dress rehearsals, last days of school, performances and a trip to Yellowstone, the project was placed on pause…

DYI part 2

Second coats of painting, putting all the flooring down on all floors, waiting for it to dry, applying all the wood molding and painting them white, waiting for it all to dry… A couple days later my garage was back to being a garage and not a workshop and we brought the heavy and sturdy beautiful American Doll house inside!

Immediately the 1st person to like it was the cat! When Carolina came home she wanted to play with it immediately, but we needed to figure out how we were going to haul it up the stairs and into the gameroom.

Bringing it to it’s permanent location

Heavy sucker coming up the stairs!!! Papa and Papi are on a mission!

Finishing Touches

Once it is up, we get to do the finishing touches… so we head out this time to Hobby Lobby, to buy paper that looks like water because my Dad is going to build a pool! My Mom and I in the meantime are on the search for some greenery so we can make some some trees and plant life for the patio, we also go to Toys R Us to pick up some doll furniture to have a fireplace for the Living Room.

So Living room furniture put together and placed in living room. Papa and Papi put the stone wall up on the outside of the house. Papa builds the pool. Marco makes the grass for the patio. Mimi builds the trees for the Patio… Team work and we are on a mission to bring it all together and give Carolina the surprise of the century for when she comes back from her weekend away…

Ta-da ready for Carolina to see the surprise!!

Carolina comes home to find this!

Carolina gives it the final touches and this is what the house looks like NOW!

Needless to say she has spent every day building things for the house, and decorating and playing and playing… Best family project ever.