I managed to get this house built in 9 weeks, and I got it done in time for Elizabeth's birthday. I took some afternoons off from work to finish it. We managed to keep the dollhouse a surprise the whole time. Elizabeth's parents and brother knew about it, but everyone kept quiet about it.

After the house was done, we had to make sure it would fit in the car so we could deliver it to Elizabeth in Boise, 300 miles away. The trunk of our car was too small, but we were able to get the house into the backseat of the two-door car without damaging anything.

When we arrived in Boise, the next challenge was to get the dollhouse moved into Elizabeth's real house without Elizabeth seeing it. We managed to keep it hidden until the day of Elizabeth's birthday party. My sister and I can be sneaky when we want to be. :-)

All of my work was well worth it. I cannot adequately describe the expression of surprise and joy on Elizabeth's face when she saw her dollhouse for the first time. Her cousin, Megan, was just as excited as Elizabeth was. Megan exclaimed, "It is made of wood! Not plastic!" Since I had not provided furniture for most of the rooms, Megan ran to get some of Elizabeth's Fisher Price plastic dollhouse furniture, and the two girls filled the dollhouse rooms.

One other gift I gave to Elizabeth is a resin dog, which is a boxer, like her real dog. [Falco passed away recently. :-( ] In the picture to the right, Tigger is kissing "Mini Falco".