Margaret Wang Thirty-something year-old software developer, runner, traveller, and aspiring feng-shui master with the occasional observation on everything else.

I wanted to give the kiddo a dollhouse for Christmas. She's always engaged in some sort of imaginative play, and she always plays with the dollhouse at our favorite toy store. So deciding on what to give her was a no-brainer. But if you know me, you know I can be very picky about, well, everything. I had scoured all corners of the Internet to find something within my budget (otherwise it would've been Plan Toys Eco house). I finally found it: a wooden dollhouse with some color, furniture (including a weight set and bench!), and doll. AND it was modular so you could "build" the house to whatever your tastes. All for $80. I was so excited, and I had over two months until Christmas! Then I screwed up. I didn't really know where I was going to store the thing without her seeing it, so I decided to hold off on buying it. When Mike said I could hide it in his workshop, I decided there was no rush and that I'd wait until cyber Monday, just to see if it would go on sale.

That morning, as I was drinking coffee, I went to online to buy it. Only the dollhouse didn't come up in the search results! After a slight panic, I remembered I had copied the link. Click. "Noooooo!" It was sold out. Ok, I thought, I'll just check if other places carry it. I had vaguely remembered other stores having it, but I couldn't remember their prices. After searching every store I could think of and entering about a thousand different wordings of essentially the same item, I couldn't find one for anywhere near the $80 tag. The next best price was nearly double, after accounting for shipping (first place had free shipping). At this point, I kicked myself. Hard. I wasn't sure what to do. To buy both house and furniture was going to blow our budget. The runner-up set no longer seemed suitable to me. I started to think that I would just scrap the idea altogether and get her something entirely different. After talking it over with Mike, I decided I'd just get her the furniture, and we'd make do with boxes or something. After all, she's still young enough that boxes are toys, too. And what good is house if your dolls have no place to sit or cook their food? At least this way, I could pick and choose the furniture sets.

After some time, I started thinking that maybe I could whip up a cardboard version. Just something a tad better than using a shoebox. Of course, then my brain said, "Nah, Miss Destructo will crush it in no time". In the end, I got some foam core board (like what they use for displays and presentations) from the dollar store, and, with scrapbook paper, pages from a catalogue, and wrapping paper, constructed a one-of-a-kind dollhouse. it may not be what I originally had in mind, but to her, it's perfect (Christmas was over a month ago, an she still plays with it). And in the end, that's all that really matters right?

Not quite step-by-step, but I documented the "construction" with photos.

Posted via email from Margaret Wang