DOLLHOUSE FOR A NIECE AND ONE FOR FRIENDS DAUGHTER

Some years ago we built a dollhouse for a niece in Virginia. It was basically the same design as my first dollhouse kit, but this time Tom made the house and I got to decorate it. Then we carted it to Virginia in a crate on a used trailer. All went well on the drive even though it took two days to drive from Miami. I have included the picture of the dining room because I wanted to show the light fixture. At the time, Tom was making many of the ceiling lights for me. They were nice and I do wonder how I let him give up on that talent!! I am also adding a couple of pictures of a Greenleaf Willowcrest that was built for the daughter of friends. I love that house and hope it will one day be back in the Greenleaf dollhouse kit line.

GRANDDAUGHTER #4 GETS A SPECIAL HOUSE

As I mentioned earlier, the youngest granddaughter got a second hand house...much like hand-me-down clothes perhaps? When it was time to build her special house we decided to do a house that was built to look like the house the family had lived in for quite a few years. I don't remember who decided to build the dollhouse as a replica of their real house, but that is what we did and we were all happy with the result.....although the brickwork was not all as perfect as it should have been. The family no longer lives in that house so the dollhouse keeps up the old memories of the years they lived there. There is also a picture of Hannah the cat who must check out all mini projects to see that they meet her high standards. The dollhouse rooms are not the same as the real house, but what we were striving for was a house that looked like the real one and I think we succeeded.

FIRST GRANDSON GETS A CABIN

When GD #3 was getting her new dollhouse, we decided that our first grandson, the middle child in the Orlando family, should have a house of some sort lest he feel left out. We chose a log cabin for him and took it to Orlando at the same time as GD #3's house. The cabin was nice, but our grandson was not into forts or houses for play camping so after a couple of years, that cabin came back to us.

THE THIRD GRANDDAUGHTER'S HOUSE

Our third granddaughter lives in Orlando and we took quite a while to plan her dollhouse. She was the child who had one of the McKinley dollhouses that I wrote of earlier. That house went to her younger sister when the third granddaughter got her very own, special dollhouse. I should explain why there was so much planning before her house was built. Tom did the building of the house and per my request, added a wrap around porch, but we also wanted a gazebo built into the corner of that porch. We had seen a house with the porch and gazebo while driving up Route 29 from Charlotte, NC to Charlottesville, VA. We actually stopped to take a picture of that house the next time we made that drive up Route 29 and then Tom finished the dollhouse for granddaughter # 3. I should say that the central part of the house was a kit. Then Tom added the wrap-around porch with gazebo and the kitchen addition. That dollhouse now waits on a high shelf in the garage for the next young girl to play with it. Undoubtedly there will be a need for a bit of remodeling when that house is brought out for play once again. Now for a few pictures of GD #3's house.

DOLLHOUSES FOR GRANDCHILDREN

Our first two grandchildren were girls and were just a bit over a year apart. Tom built their dollhouse which was given to them when the girls were still pretty young. Later when they were older and able to appreciate the house more, we redid it completely. Here are some pictures of that first house, after the remodeling.