YOB: #18. Build Something Together

By Beth

I am a big fan of creating things. I always have some sort of project going. OK, I'll be honest, I usually have 2-4 projects going at one time. These can range from doing a challenging puzzle (1000+ pieces, with cats in the house who like to play guess where I hid the piece your looking for), to painting/re-painting rooms in the house, to rearranging furniture (I do this once every six months or so, I don't like to be in a furniture rut). Over the past several years I have found new projects in miniatures. It is one of my favorite hobbies and I only wish I could do it and get paid for it.

My love of miniatures actually started long before I ever built my first dollhouse. I had wanted a dollhouse for a long time when I was a kid and one Christmas my parents delivered. But it was in a box, it had to be put together. For a while I insisted that I was going to do it but after six months or so of it sitting in the basement untouched, I gave in and let my dad build it. I wasn't too great with power tools at that point in my life.

Dad built the house and I loved it. Unfortunately, that's where the happiness stops with that house. I never furnished it and not long after it was built, my relationship with my dad started going downhill. My parents divorced and I took the unfurnished house to my new home with my mom in Langhorne. I didn't talk to my dad for the next 10 years. At one point in those 10 years, when I was cleaning out the garage, I came across the dollhouse. It needed some work since it had sat for years but I was too angry with my dad to want the house. I wanted to take a baseball bat to it but then figured I'd have to clean up the mess, so I put it out for the garbage men to take. They never got the chance. Within hours of me putting the house on the curb, someone had taken it. I hope wherever it is now, it's making someone happy.

It was the day I received a Hobby Builder's Supply catalog in the mail that my love of miniatures was rekindled. I don't know how I got on the mailing list, but I'm glad I did. I built my daughter her first dollhouse for Christmas when she was seven. It was addicting. I've built two more full houses since, one bigger one for my daughter and I to furnish together and a Christmas themed house. I am working on another house now for my oldest niece. It will be her sixth birthday present in October. But even though they are miniatures, they take up a lot of room. I've discovered the joys of room boxes now and have created some cute things for friends and entered one contest (I didn't win but I had fun making the entry). I have a list of projects in room boxes I'd like to try. All I need is time and money!

When Lara and I decided to build something together we wanted it to be something we both could enjoy, would be relatively simple and didn't need to be transferred between her house and mine for shared custody. We opted to build something for Lara's mom, who I am told also likes miniatures. We couldn't build a full size house but I found one that can hang on a wall. It was perfect.

When Lara came up for the ridiculously exciting fireworks, we got to work. For once, I knew more about what we were doing than Lara. I was in charge. I was the boss! I tried telling her that she needed to do the miniature dance which includes hopping on one foot while gluing the pieces together, but Lara's too smart for me. She wouldn't even talk to the project, making it feel better about being manhandled like it was. I always do that. Makes the project happier.

The actual building of the house was rather uneventful. We used Elmer's glue and painter's tape as well as large books to keep the pieces together while the glue dried. I have a very sophisticated system in place to make sure my houses/room boxes come out level. Harry Potter books.

The house went together quickly, it's not that big. But we didn't finish it. The rooms are painted and we know what we want to put in them but health and money issues have kept us from going to Fingertip Fantasies together to buy the things we still need. The important thing is that it was STARTED in the Year of the Birthday, even if it wasn't finished. Hopefully we'll finish it by the end of this year and Lara's mom will love it. Unless Stretch destroys it that is.

Comments

[Lara]

Stretch is nothing like Toby. He'll probably leave it alone ;)