When I was a little girl, my Grandpa made me a very special keepsake gift...a handmade wooden dollhouse, complete with shingles cut from sandpaper. Well, just like a real house roof has to be replaced about every 20 years, evidently so does a dollhouse roof!
After our four moves, (ok, and 30 years of sun damage, dust, and wear-and-tear!) the dollhouse roof was about 10 years past its prime. The sandpaper shingles were curling up and literally falling off. My Dad and I have been wanting to replace them for several years now, but we've just never got around to it whenever he came to visit from out-of-state.
This weekend my parents were here and it was a cold, rainy weekend with not much to do. So, my Dad and I FINALLY started the dollhouse roof replacement project. My Dad's father was the one who originally built the dollhouse so it was a sentimental project for my Dad. My Dad is now a grandfather so it was touching for me to see him working on a project his father built at about the same age my Dad is now. It's like catching a glimpse of the past when you see someone fill the shoes of previous generations. Watching my Dad work on the dollhouse, I could easily envision my Grandpa building the same dollhouse wearing his flannel shirt and glasses... and I could almost smell the sweet aroma from the cherry pipe he always smoked.
Ok, enough nostalgia for one blog. So....after cutting the rows of sandpaper, my Dad stapled the rows of shingles while the dollhouse was on our workbench. But, he had to nail the top roof caps instead of stapling them, which required the dollhouse to be at a lower level so Dad could see to align the caps properly. At first, he just sat the dollhouse on the floor to do the nailing. But, his back quickly grew tired from bending over. So, my Mom suggested I bring out my adjustable height Lifetime Personal Table. Initially, I was hesitant because we had tried to use our Lifetime Personal Table as a workbench for my son a few months ago and discovered it didn't provide the most stable support for hammering. But, it did seem like the perfect height solution, so I figured we should give it a try. BINGO! We put the table at its lowest level (21") and it was the perfect height so Dad could easily nail on the top of the dollhouse without bending over. And, since he was only gently tapping tiny tacks into sandpaper rather than pounding long nails into hard wood, instability wasn't an issue at all.
So, the Lifetime Personal Table saved the day and my Dad saved my dollhouse roof... at least for the next 30 years! Thanks, Dad. :)