CORNER BROOK — When a “special” little girl had been so good all year, Dennis Kennedy knew she deserved something great for Christmas.
The Corner Brook man said his little friend, four-year-old Abigail Sparkes, was one such a girl this past year. So, when the carpenter got the call from her mom Kelly Barnes, requesting a doll house for her daughter, he set to work on it.
About a month before Christmas, Kennedy said he really dedicated himself to building a one-of-a-kind doll house for Abigail. He spent hours here and there everyday at it, sometimes finding himself entrenched in this special project for hours and hours on end.
“It was a labour of love,” Kennedy said. “It really took on a life of its own.”
The wooden doll house is built to scale, 1:8 to the foot, is actually also a headboard for Abigail’s bed. The scale also had to consider the size of Barbie, Kennedy explained, so it could be a functional doll house. Each room comes complete with the appropriate furniture and appliances and is comprised of a bedroom on the top floor, a kitchen and living room on the first floor. There is also a separate piece that has such amenities as a washer and an iron. There are about 25 pieces of furniture.
He said the project was labour intensive, but not difficult work for him. He said there was no way of finding the right size wood required to build the pieces, which made things more involved.
“Every second I enjoyed it so much,” Kennedy said.
Abigail didn’t get to sleep in her own bed Christmas Eve night, to allow the doll house to be installed, but was pretty excited when she walked into her room Christmas morning.
The doll house was the only present she had asked for, according to her mom, and Abigail said it was almost exactly the doll house she was looking for. She had asked for one that went right to the roof.
“It’s not up to the roof,” she said.
When she got over the original shock, she quickly added a few of her Barbies to the living arrangements and has been pretty well playing with it ever since.
“There’s even a Christmas tree in my doll house,” Abigail said, after sizing up the house Christmas morning. Then she started jumping up and down on the bed out of excitement.
“There was also a sleigh,” Abigail said Saturday.
She enjoys cooking with her dolls in the kitchen the most.
Today is Abigail’s birthday, and she knows exactly what she wants. She asked her mom for more Barbies.
