I had a sneaking suspicion, and proved myself right.  I knew, just *knew* that I had more up to date pictures on my cell phone of the Allison, Jr. dollhouse build.  After Kate snapchatted me updates of kitchen cabinet building last weekend I had to take a look... and ta da!

The MDF the housebody is made out of is notiously difficult to drill through.  Actually, we were using drill bits and a chisel for the first few holes, but then Dad found and sent a miniature router bit for the off-brand Dremel (bought at Harbor Freight) that miraculously hasn't crapped out on this project yet.  In about two sessions Kate and I got holes drilled, wiring soldered to outlets, and things glued in place.  The momentum kept Kate going throughout the week and she got the dining room started!  It looks like a place I'd love to eat in real life.  Which is I guess why people build dollhouses - to recreate real life, right?

Not pictured in the dining room progress above: installation of a dark wooden floor that is more in scale with the house.  Kate's decided to move on to a few other projects before going back to install baseboard and crown moulding, so no completed pictures of the dining room... yet. :)  However, thanks to some Christmas presents she HAS decided to go with the (more expensive and labor intensive) custom kitchen cabinetry.  The cabinets come unassembled and unfinished, including needing to drop in a separate metal kitchen sink into the wooden cabinet box.  This is a level of detail even I didn't attempt with my dollhouse but it will look FANTASTIC when finished.  

To be perfectly fair, the kitchen space is quite oddly shaped, so even if we had bought a kitchen kit some customization was always in the works. For right now I think the two of us have moved on to Renaissance dresses, so as has been the case several times over the last few years, the dollhouse is once again on pause.
​~Rachel

So... about dollhouses.  Because we can't have just one project going on at one time!

Once upon a time many years ago, I was daydreaming with my mother in law in a Hobby Lobby about the dollhouses they had displayed in one corner.  Lo and behold both she and I had loved dollhouses since childhood.  Combine that with her tradition of lavish Christmas presents, and guess what I got for Christmas that year?  A dollhouse!  It has it's own gallery here, but I convinced my sister to try making one of her own.

Well... that's not entirely true.  We're making it together but all the design choices are hers and it is currently in her basement workshop.  We started at least two years ago, but dollhouses take a long time.  Especially when you only work on them a few weeks out of the year.  Also, we weren't very good at taking pictures to document the progress.  BUT, what we do have so far deserves it's own blog entry, so here goes!

We've made much more progress since this last picture, including actually finishing out the dining room, and laying out a "fieldstone" floor in the conservatory.  And shingling the roof.  But, like I said: TERRIBLE at taking progress pictures of this one. 

Do I think it will be done in time for the county fair this year?  Possibly.  But don't hold your breath. We're having fun in the mean time! (And as I remind my husband, this is still cheaper than building a full size one. ;) )

~Rachel