 For Christmas 1995, my children
gave me a dollhouse kit. This gift was inspired by my
daughter, Stephanie, who had dreamed with me for years
about building a dollhouse. She
did the research and finally found the perfect kit at a
shop in the Pocono Mountains
and convinced her siblings to purchase the kit for me for
Christmas that year.
Of course, it did not look like this that
Christmas morning. Although the walls were cut
and the holes for the windows were there, it was
basically flat pieces of wood that had to be
fit together, glued and nailed, sanded and painted. The
roof shingles had to be stained and
glued in place, one at a time! The addition on the left
and the dormers in the roof were
added later. Although the materials were included in the
kit, the porch had to be built from scratch.
The lazy susan turntable was built by Ed, my friend
Kelley's husband.
This is one of the dormers. I had to cut holes
in the roof to accommodate
the dormers, add all the trim and put shingles on the
dormer roof.
You can see the curtains for the attic room through the
window.
This is one of the upstairs windows. Although
the kit came with working windows,
I had to add all the trim and shutters and sand and paint
each piece.
Notice the tiny brass locks I glued on each window.
This weathervane on the peak of the gazebo
part of the porch was a great find
that fit perfectly with the period and style of the house
(about 1900).
I needed a place to hide the switches for the
electric lights in my house,
so I created this basement entry door on the front of my
house using balsa wood,
bricks and mortar. The bricks and mortar are real and
surround the entire
house. I added hinges and a door handle to my door so it
could be easily opened.
When the door is opened, it reveals the 8
switches that control the lights in each room.
One fun thing I found was this Croquet Set.
Although I have not finished the yard yet,
eventually there will be grass, flowers and bushes around
the outside of the house.
One of the great things about this gift from
my children is that it provides an endless opportunity
for on-going gift giving! This wagon was a gift that goes
perfectly with my imaginary family.
These hanging baskets of flowers surround the
entire porch. I purchased the baskets
and painted them white. I hot glued floral wire into the
baskets to create the shape of the
stems of the plants. Then I punched out tiny heart-shaped
leaves and tiny cross-shaped petals.
I folded each leaf and petal to give my flowers a more
3-dimensional look. I then glued
3-4 leaves together and glued a petal in the center. Then
each flower was glued to the
floral wire, filling in the spaces between the wires or
stems. Each basket took
8 hours to make and is truly unique. There are 10 baskets
surrounding the porch.
Oh look! The paper boy has been here!
One of my friends, Anne Kulina, collected
these tiny shells from the beach in
North Carolina and made this tiny wreath to hang on my
front door.
And here is a Christmas wreath to hang on my
door at Christmastime.
The little bottles next to the door were
originally bottles from an injectible medication.
I think I may paint them eventually to look like old
fashioned milk cans.
If you peek in the living room window, you can
see my goldfish sitting on a table.
On the gazebo portion of the porch, the table
is set with cool
glasses of lemonade for a lazy, summer afternoon!
On the porch swing, someone has left their
sunbonnet. I purchased the hats and some tiny,
dried flowers and ribbon. I found I really loved making
these hats. Look for them elsewhere!
And what Victorian home would be complete
without an American flag flying!
For the finial on the top of my flagpole, I
used a tiny gold bead.
My family sells apples from their apple tree.
On the back corner of the wrap around porch is
the baby's pram
for her naptime. Notice the windsock hanging from the
porch roof.
The Inside of the House
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