Happy Earth Day!!!

I am doing my best to save the planet by gathering all unwanted dollhouses into my living room so that they will be kept out of landfill sites and other garbage dumps.

A good way to justify my mini-mania, don't you think? The only problem is one more doll house and I won't fit into the living room any more.

Mary commented on the Stockbroker Tudor "Taking a leaf out of your book, I scoured the classifieds and a thrift shop website in hopes that I would land a handsome house as well. Alas, no new house yet." 

So, I thought I would respond with some secrets about my searches (although they aren't really secrets at all - just treasure hunts) .

I have had some good luck in finding wonderful doll houses. The first one I found was a hand made folk art house lovingly constructed for some lucky child in the 50s or 60s. It started the avalanche.



I will put up more pictures after the weekend (I have to take them first).

Then, quite by accident I found a new doll house at Goodwill on a half price day. It cost me $5.00. Later I saw it in the dollhouse store for $140.00 (assembled), so I knew I had lucked out. This is the house I spent over $200.00 to decorate. (When is a bargain not a bargain? When you wallpaper your doll house rather than add to your retirement fund.)

Since then I have been checking Craigslist and Kijiji regularly. The Stockbroker Tudor was listed on Craigslist. The seller was in my neighbourhood, only a few miles from my home. Obviously the house was meant for me.

The big yellow house was also a Craigslist find, although I had to go about 15 miles for that one. It is also a house from the 50s or 60s. The person I bought it from said it had belonged to her mother as a child, but could offer no other information on its history

I don't own a car, so picking up these houses is a matter of logistics. Do I rent a car, borrow one from a friend, use Autoshare? I have to take into consideration the added expense of obtaining the car when figuring out how much I can afford to pay for the house. Still I manage, even if I put a strain on my budget.

Both the Stockbroker Tudor and the Big Yellow house have been wired for lights. I haven't done an restoration on either of them, so as you can see from the picture the wiring is hanging around willy nilly. It doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the houses at all. Some day I will figure it all out.

One more Craigslist house is this newer slot and tab beauty. The lady I bought it from said that they had made it for their daughter, but she was now grown up and they were downsizing. It was very well made, and I was happy to add it to my collection. It is a bit messy in this picture because I have been storing furniture from other houses on the verandas. The maid and little girl didn't come with this house, but the wicker furniture did.