Dollhouses

Warning! This blog may be boring to some people.

Last November, our Church held their annual craft fair which I was very excited about. They didn't have one the year before because of the virus so I had plenty of things to sell.  I had gone crazy making small baskets. I was charging $1 each for these baskets and they sold like hotcakes. One person said I wasn't charging enough and paid $1.50 for the 20 she bought!

I also got hooked on building doll houses from kits.  This all started when I built the Brookfield by Dura-Craft, which had pretty good wood and very easy to understand instructions.  My sister gave it to me to build and I decided this is a fun thing for me to do.  When completed, I gave it back to my sister to have at her house for her granddaughter.

 I found a not-too-expensive dollhouse kit at Hobby Lobby, The Orchid.  While building this house, I realized the wood was not the best. It was very hard to punch out the pieces without some issue and sanding didn't make  the edges smooth.  The shingles took forever because they were so thin. I could only put one row on at a time and tape the row down so the edges didn't curl up. I also found the instructions to be very difficult to understand. They used real house construction terms and other language that seemed foreign to me. I finally finished it after several months. 

Cheap, thin, shingles.

I couldn't believe the difference in quality of the two houses.  I thought if I continue to build, I want to build the better quality Dura Craft houses.  An internet search found this company was no longer in business. Sad. I then discovered that people were selling Dura-Craft on ebay and the kits were considered vintage.  I decided to buy the "Ashley" because it wasn't as expensive as all of the others. Once again, easy to read instructions, better wood, and a working door! I finished this one right before the craft fair.

People loved the houses at the fair but, they didn't sell.  Now I needed Molly's help with Facebook Marketplace, since I don't use Facebook. They did sell for close to what I was asking for. I am not sure if people realize how much they would pay for a completed house at Hobby Lobby or another store like that.  They should look and then they will see what a bargain mine are.

Every time I work on a house I think about the one I built in 1995 for Molly.   I was visiting my parents and Mom wanted to go to Menards. They had a dollhouse kit on an end cap and I told Mom I always wanted to build one. Mom bought it for me and I remember it being pretty expensive.

I took it home to Georgia and told Mike about it. When I opened the box and we saw millions of pieces, Mike said I would never get that done.  Good thing he said that because I then had to prove a point, that I could build it. I didn't know what I was doing but I did it.

Here is Mike holding the Alpine bought in 1995.  When I showed him this photo he asked if we really had all that stuff on our piano? Yes, was my answer.

 I didn't think to paint the house. I just put it together. It was so detailed with working windows and doors. It even has brick for the fireplace, chimney, and foundation. I would look at the house when I worked on these newer ones and would ask myself how in the heck did I do that?

                                        

I couldn't believe my eyes when browsing ebay one day. There it was, the dollhouse I built in 1995, the Alpine, and  it was a Dura Craft!!. It was still in it's original box, never opened. What fun to try to build it again but this time paint it. It was expensive and the shipping was outrageous but, I really wanted to try it again. So I bought it.

I  have accumulated four houses I need to build. Right now I am working an a Real Good Toys brand which is different from any other kit I have worked on. Mostly MDF and so far seems pretty easy. This one already has a home when it's completed.  Two will go on Facebook Marketplace when done. The Alpine may stay in the family.