Monday, April 18, 2011

Take Two

Blog Anniversary and Just LOOK What I Found!

It was just one year ago, Dear Readers, (give or take a day or two!) that I began this blog, and NEVER in my Wildest Dreams would I have imagined One Hundred and Fifty Six followers, nor could I have guessed the number of delightful mini-lovers I would "meet" here in blogland! It has been an adventure that FAR surpasses anything I imagined when I began. I am planning on making something for an Anniversary Giveaway..... but I have been so consumed by the Little Cottage project that I just completed, that I can't quite think WHAT I will make! So you will have to be patient with me while I get it figured out. I will be sure to let you know when I do!

Meanwhile, I have something I MUST show you!
Do you see the top picture? (I am sorry it is a bit too dark..... I was impatient and didn't take it with the lights on!) Doesn't this house Look FAMILIAR? No, it is NOT the Lovely Old Dollhouse with a new paint job! But doesn't it look ALMOST just like it? I really could not believe my eyes when I saw it at that Very Dangerous To The Pocketbook Miniatures Store that I go to...... It was just SO similar to The Lovely Old Dollhouse in SO many ways!
The very same day that I had shipped the Little Cottage to my Sister, I stopped by the Miniatures Store because I was feeling a little blue and needed to cheer myself up. I had NO intention of buying a Dollhouse. I ALREADY have Plenty of dollhouses I am building.... NONE of them finished..... But then I saw this house, and well, it was like a SISTER house to the Lovely Old Dollhouse!!!! And when the Old Gentleman said it would cost only $25.00, I was hooked! I HAD to have it.... no matter that I don't have room in my Little House for another sort of Large Dollhouse! So it came home with me. Yes, it is a fixer-upper.... but it has "good bones" like the Lovely Old Dollhouse........ They have almost exactly the same dimensions.... this new one being just an inch or two shorter and narrower.
Here is a picture of the Lovely Old Dollhouse before I had fixed the door or built the windows....

And here you can see the New Old Dollhouse for comparison .......
(I will have to figure out what to call it!)

You can see that the facade is charmingly irregular.... but I have seen houses with this sort of non symmetrical window and door arrangement in this part of the world. Sometimes in the Colonial Era it meant that the original house was smaller with the door in the center and then an addition was built on one end.... I really think it adds a lot of character! And this house also has dormer windows in the attic..... Do you even know how many times I have pondered adding dormers to the Lovely Old Dollhouse??? They are a slightly later style addition in the evolution of the Colonial Home design and were uncommon in the oldest houses.... at least in this part of New England!
Here you can see the inside of the house...... it is made from MDF rather than plywood..... but it is all in relatively good shape. The wall partitions are not inset with a dado, so they have all come loose and can be re-positioned as I see fit.....

Here is a closer view of the attic with the dormer windows (with acetate window panes) and the floors have a self adhesive wood grained shelf paper which badly needs to be removed.......
And the attic floor does not span the full width of the house and will need a section added.... but that should be very easy to do!

Here you can see inside the rooms in the downstairs.... old paper and acetate windows (some of which have fallen off).... this room is probably the kitchen....

This is the entry hall....... there are no stairs..... hmmmm, does this sound familiar???? And the only inner connecting door leads off this room to the front parlor.......

Which is already the SAME green that the Lovely Old Dollhouse parlor is painted!!!!

And upstairs is a blue room..... very similar blue to the hallway in the Lovely Old Dollhouse.... I think this room is currently supposed to be the bathroom.... the wall doesn't stay up properly....

And this room is probably the Master Bedroom.... the wall is positioned directly over the downstairs wall.... but I think a former owner had it moved over to create a much larger room.... the wallpaper extending into the hallway next door gives it away........ So, you can see, there is a great deal of POTENTIAL.... as well as a great deal of work ahead!.... But I just could NOT resist!

Oh, look..... someone is coming to look the house over.......

Did I tell you that Sally May's husband Chip is a building contractor and he renovates old houses for a living? He thinks this is one that Sally May should have a look at.......

Okay, so it is VERY dark and gloomy inside at night with no electricity....!!!!

But he really wants her to see this house.... he just has a feeling that it could be special..... with the right amount of work...... he has just the fixtures for the bathroom already in storage.......

He can imagine just how they would look.......

And the bedroom with the wall moved over.... would make a great room.......

He wants to make sure Sally May can see what he sees in the old place..........

She can imagine their furniture fitting very nicely......... it would be so nice to get their stuff out of storage and have their own house........

And the kitchen..... with TWO lovely big windows

And the pink wallpaper is okay for now.....
until they can get it all fixed up that is.......

Pink is Sally May's FAVORITE color........!!!
She can see the kitchen sink under the sunny window.....

"I think you're right, honey..... we should buy this house.....
if you don't think it'll be too much work....?"

"Too much work?" he scoffs.....
"Nah.... it'll be a piece of cake, Sweetheart.... You'll See!"

New blog year..... new old dollhouse to fix up.........
This Must be Take Two!

19 comments:

  1. That is a great dollhouse. And the price was very good! Have fun!
    Caroline

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  2. What a great deal and find! Lucky Chip is a building contractor, I see this house back to her glory in no time at all.

    Happy one year Anniversary!

    Victoria ❤

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  3. What an amazing price for what is going to be a wonderful little house when you work your magic on it!!!! I look forward to year 2!!

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  4. Congrats Betsy! Both for one year of blogging and for this great find!:) Can't wait to see what you'll do with this house!:)

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  5. O you lucky lucky lucky girl! Of course, you must bring it home. And you bought it for a song!

    You know I love your lovely old house and if I was the one who had found it, I would have wrestled you for the house. Even if it means I may have to sleep with the house since I too have absolutely no space for it now, I must and I will :). Maybe I will just cut my bed in half but yes, I too will bring it home, in a hearbeat!

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  6. By the way, congratz on your anniversary , dearie and I hope your blues are chased away already :).

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  7. Of course you had to have it. And so do Chip & Sally Mae; and will there be a bedroom for their little girl? And can she have a playroom in the attic? What's her name, by the way? I, too, hope you're feeling better - Keep 'em coming!
    Love,
    Mom

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  8. Congratulations on your blog-aversary and all your followers AND on finding such a great little house. I'll be following with interest your "This Old House" makeover on it.

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  9. Thank you Caroline! I think this will be fun!

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  10. Hi Victoria! I WISH it was going to take no time..... at the rate I go it will probably be a LONG time! LOL! My projects start out "Simple..." and get complicated as they go! But I think it will be fun ... so maybe I'm glad it will take some time!

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  11. Thanks, Patty! I'm looking forward to year 2 also! I couldn't believe how "right" the price was..... even though I thought I didn't need another house...LOL! I have my work cut out for me!

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  12. Thank you, Ewa! I can't wait to see what I do with this house, too! LOL! I have no idea what direction it will take... but that is part of the adventure! I hope you don't mind waiting while I figure it out! :)

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  13. Dear Sans! If you had found this house with me... I would have let you win it because I am already lucky enough to have the Lovely Old Dollhouse! I would love to see what You would do with this house.... as it is, I am going to have to feel my way along and let it speak to me, because I have no idea what direction to go! Well.... that is not Quite true because I have a couple of ideas.... but they are still VERY basic.... like "make real windows"!!! So you can see, I have a long way to go.... but I will be thinking "what would Sans! do?"

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  14. Hi Mom! I'm glad you agree that I had to have it! It is very charming how similar and yet different the houses are. Yes, of course there will be a room for the little girl whose name is Annabelle..... but I will have to decide whether I take over the blue room that is the bathroom... or use part of the parent's room... moving the wall over and adding another wall.... details, details!! It will be fun!

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  15. Thank you, Irene! I will be following it with interest as well!!! HMM.... maybe I need to develop a mini-TV show angle to this... what an idea! Stay tuned!

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  16. love this post~ thanks for sharing the photos!

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  17. Congratulations on getting a new lovely old dollhouse, and what a bargain it was! I'm sure Sally May and Chip (and you?) will have a lot of fun (and hard work) decorating it and I believe the old lovely old Dollhouse is glad to have found her long lost sister :-)

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  18. Hi Helene! It was so unexpected to find this house... but the Familiar feel to it made me just HAVE to buy it! Now, of course, I have MORE than enough to keep me busy.... we'll see how quickly I decide to work on this one!

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