Renovations

Recently, the Mommy decided that it was time to renovate - with spring finally around the corner, it was time for new colors, new wallpaper, new carpeting! For some reason, however, the Daddy quite unreasonably refused her suggested make-over of the entire apartment. So, she turned to the next best thing: 

A doll house Anneke had recently acquired from her loving aunt in blissful (willful?) ignorance of the kids' already overflowing toy stores. Anneke loved it immediately, but the Mommy was not quite sold on adding a bulky something with ghastly green floors and perplexing drawings on the walls as a permanent fixture to her living room...

So, the kids and the Mommy decided to pretty it up. Lautje was an especially enthusiastic helper who insisted on being included in all of the steps and who provided an endless stream of helpful, encouraging suggestions, supremely unconcerned with limitations such as gravity or feasibility ("and wouldn't it be great if we had a rooftop terrace with a porch swing and then there would be butterflies flying everywhere?????").

 

Anneke was equally enthusiastic in spirit though a little more fickle in her attention, easily distracted by such mundane things as food, trams, hot chocolate, flies, sunshine, rain, socks, the lack of socks, holes in socks, books, crayons... 

And finally, it was done. After a lot of sanding, painting, taping, glueing and general tinkering, the master bedroom now has a nice blue carpet...

 ...the children's bedroom incorporates Lautje's wish for butterflies (though in a slightly more realistic manner)...

 ...and the living room comes complete with an adorable view:

The kitchen however, remains problematic - barely finished, Lautje began demanding a dishwasher, a fridge, and a microwave. No ordinary table-and-chairs doll house kitchen for him, apparently...

Also, he requested bunk beds in the kid's room, a piano in the living room and a four-poster bed in the master bed room. Handmade, obviously.

So it would appear that the next stages of the process are already clearly mapped out - by him, if not by the Mommy, who is desperately trying to figure out how to "make" a piano... 

And the Mommy unexpectedly enjoyed the process so much she has already spotted her next project in the Opa and Oma's attic.... To which Lautje's reaction was: "And that one we can paint pink!!! And we can have a tram station in it so you can see the trams from your bed! And a bus stop in front of it! And airplanes can land on the roof! And..."