The Mega Dollhouse

It all started last summer while watching different American Girl Doll videos on youtube.  Lia and I were introduced to the world of ridiculously large, doll houses that were custom built to fit American Girl Dolls and their large furniture.  At first, we just oohed and ahhed at all of them never thinking in a million years that we would have one to call our own in a matter of months.  But after showing a few videos to Ron, he seriously began talking about building one himself and then we realized we had the perfect, empty spot on the landing at the top of our stairs for one to go.  So before we knew it, Ron and I started talking about what kind of dollhouse he should make.  And then I started my hunt of acquiring doll furniture to furnish all of the rooms.  Since I am the queen of buying a deal and it is a serious game of mine to never pay for a full-price item from AG, I set out on a hunt buying items off of Craig's List, ebay, the AG website, and from the one and only AG outlet in the world in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  It was quite the project, but I loved every minute of it and I even became friends with a hilarious and awesome store employee named Sue in the outlet store.  Although they technically aren't allowed to ship any items to customers, she hooked me up with seven, incredible, retired pieces of furniture at incredible bargain prices!
By the end of the summer, my shopping was complete, but we had to wait until Christmas Break when Ron finally had the time to build this mega dollhouse.  It ended up having nine rooms and being seven feet wide by six and a half feet tall.  Although it wasn't painted, Lia promptly moved into it by the end of break and immediately started playing in it.  However, it wasn't until Ron's Spring Break in April that he found the time to paint two coats of white primer.  After he went back to work, I painted all nine rooms during nap time which took me five days in a row.  I managed to use paint that we already had in the house from different rooms that we had already painted in our old house and current house.  I couldn't get over how cute all of these leftover paint colors looked inside of the dollhouse.  I then went to the fabric store and bought two different kinds of thick, furry fabric to use as carpets in the rooms and, voila, the dollhouse was finally done!  And although it has been finished since April, I finally got around to taking some pictures this past weekend to send to my friend Sue at the outlet store since she had requested I send some months ago.  I figured that I might as well post a few on the blog for our family history!  So here you go...Lia's (and one day Ella's) mega, American Girl dollhouse!

Lia and her friend, Bella, playing dolls in the dollhouse.  This is always a first choice whenever Lia has a friend over to play.

How the girls access the top floor whenever they want to play up there.

A close-up of my girl playing in the dining room.

The bedroom for Lia's historical doll, Caroline.  The bed comes from Caroline's collection, but the parlor desk and vanity come from Cecile's and Marie Grace's collection (and came from the outlet store).

The amazing loft bed for McKenna, Lia's first Girl of the Year from 2012.  This is the most amazing piece of furniture in the dollhouse and came from the outlet store 2 1/2 years after McKenna was retired.  How and why the outlet happen to have this bed is a bit of a mystery and one that Sue could not explain.  Three of these beds just happened to arrive at the outlet from the warehouse the day before I called Sue to ask about whether or not they still carried them from time to time.

Caroline and Grace eating at Caroline's table and chairs which were also purchased from the outlet store.