welcome to the dollhouse!

as a little girl, i had a beautiful dollhouse and it was one of the best presents i ever received! i believe i got it for my birthday in the 2nd grade. maybe 3rd. it came as a kit from a toy store in the village that is no longer there. it has long since been torn down and rebuilt as an updated shopping area. but i have a lot of memories from that toy store... remember kooshes?? my friend cary and i and later when kenzie moved to town, we'd walk up to the village and play at the toy store and the 5&10 that were maybe a little less than a mile from my house (cary lived on the street behind me and kenzie lived on the same street just down at the other end of the block). there was a fat old lady that worked the cash register at the toy store and she was mean... she would stare at you like you were going to steal something... at least that's what i remember! anyways, that's the store my doll house came from. my daddy had the pleasure of putting together the dollhouse kit. and that was no small feat... lots of glue and pieces and railings and small parts i'm sure... but, i had the best dollhouse ever! my dad painted it a pretty pale blue with white trim. it was victorian in style and it was 2 stories with a wrap around porch on both levels. the windows and doors all opened and shut and you could open the front part of the house too.

when you turned the dollhouse around, there were more rooms: a living room and a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom and the roof could be opened to reveal two more rooms on a third floor. there was even a coppola which would lift up and reveal a secret room! it was so cool. my parents gave me a lot of the furniture for it, though to be honest it's hard to tell what they gave me and what my nana bought for me.

nana loved dolls. she used to help me cut out paper dolls, buy me barbie dolls, and other baby dolls like molly, the american girl with brown hair and glasses (which i also had as a little girl). but mostly i have fond memories of my nana and me going to the dollhouse shop in maine that unfortunately isn't there any more. but my nana would buy me all kinds of wonderful dollhouse things: furniture, people, and accessories like food for the kitchen or toys for the kids. i have a harp, a piano that plays music (as a music box), a tricycle, and way too many things to even begin to name! but, i also had fun things like a swing set, and a greenhouse and even a barn for the horses! as i grew older, although once beloved the dollhouse became too 'young' and it went to the attic where old toys and stuffed animals and other things went to live as they were outgrown. our house has a fantastic walk up attic... but it isn't air conditioned... and in the summer it gets to be 120 degrees and more up there. and thus, my poor once beautiful dollhouse has fallen in to disrepair and is in need of some tlc. and so, i've decided to restore it!

i've painted the two rooms on the left: the pink bedroom and the living room below it... the rest of the paint is the 'special' job i did in like the 4th grade that must now get fixed!

the dollhouse is out of the attic and now resides in the lake house. it has it's own nook in the upstairs office/play room. it's going to take a lot of work and time to restore this house and even longer since i'm not there that often! but, i am determined to paint, wallpaper, and reglue all of the railings back on. so far, i've painted the little girl's room and the living room. that's it. but, it's progress!

in the pictures you might notice the unfinished roof. that will remain forever unfinished.

when my nana was sick, she would come to houston all the time for her treatments. it seemed like at least once a month though i'm not sure it was that often. she had breast cancer and the best cancer hospital in the country happens to be 5 minutes from our house and so she would come here to get the very best treatment. it was her second round of breast cancer (her first battle was in the 70s) and this was the early 90s so about 20 years after she kicked cancer the first time, it came back. anyways, she would be here a lot and i loved having her here all the time! it was wonderful. i never really knew she was so sick... i mean i knew why she was here, but it didn't really register to me. she hid it so well. she was such an amazing woman... but i didn't mean to turn this in to a nana post. back then, my dollhouse resided in the family room which was also the guest room where my nana would stay. together we would work on it and play with it. the roof was one of her projects that she liked to do. i remember watching her use a ruler to draw the lines on the roof with the pencil and i remember watching her (and probably helping her) glue the shingles on the roof one by one. we were never able to finish the roof as she passed away in june 1993 before it could be finished. and to me, that was our project and since she is not here to help me finish it, i want it to stay that way. my mom understands... i'm not so sure many other people do... but i don't care. it might be silly, but it's my dollhouse. and the roof is not included on the restoration. and so, that is the story of my dollhouse... i'll post more pictures of my restoration project as i'm able to work on it!

the front of my very cool dollhouse: you can see missing balcony railings and how the coppola opened up!



some of the wallpaper i am going to use...

the poor stable is falling apart... but i have 4 horsies that will like it so much better once i restore it!

the greenhouse... not so shabby from the front...in a picture...ok maybe it is a little sad looking...

but it looks like a tornado blew through the poor greenhouse from the inside view! i must fix it... 20 years ago it had fake brightly colored flowers and floral boxes and benches and hanging plants... now... well... poor poor greenhouse needs some restoration!