All I want for Christmas is a doll house

I hope Santa brought all of you what you wanted for Christmas. I must have been a very good girl this year because I found an incredible doll house under my Christmas tree.

A local shop that specializes in mid-century modern items had been advertising this doll house on craigslist for several months. I was interested, but controlled myself and stayed away from the shop ... until my sweetheart and I drove by a few weeks ago and there, prominently displayed in the window was the house.

"Oh, look! It's in the window! Turn around. I need to see it!" My sweetheart, who is a kind and amiable person, turned the car around and pulled up in front of the shop. I explained to him that I had seen the doll house on craigslist, but felt that the shop owner was asking too much and I had no room for it anyway. I thought that was the end of it, but when it came time to exchange gifts there it was. I was genuinely surprised, very excited and very touched. No one had ever given me a dollhouse before. I felt like a kid at Christmas. LOL.

The house is an A-Frame, mid-century modern, and is beautifully handmade. The tall chimney, the paths to the two outside doors and the floor of the balcony are made of a 1960's floor tile that resembles field stone. At some point in my past I lived with this tile. I think it was in the house my family lived in when I was in high school. It does look like fieldstone if one hasn't lived with it as floor tile. I think it is quite effective.

The house has a large raised living room with soaring ceilings and a full height fireplace. The huge A-Frame window and lovely front deck look over the ocean, I am sure - although here in Toronto I guess it looks over Lake Ontario. Or maybe it is in the mountains and has a spectacular view of snow topped peaks.

There is a staircase on each side of the fireplace. One leads down to the kitchen and the other leads down to a large family/dining room. A second large, full height fireplace is in that room.

The kitchen and bathroom are to the left of this room (left, if one is facing the fireplace), and two bedrooms are at the back. The bedrooms are below another large A-Frame window at the back of the house.

The kitchen stair has a burgundy carpet on it, and there is evidence of the same carpet in the living room - gone now. Perhaps the whole house was carpeted, it's hard to tell. It seems that wallpaper has been torn off the bathroom walls. Despite this and a few other places where wood or trim is missing the house is in fantastic condition.

There are roof pieces that attach with dowels. Both pieces are there for the living room section, but there is only one for the back section.

The house looks rather like a barn with the roof on. See the picture below.

The house is surrounded by a large lawn, made of that astro turf stuff people put on their patios back then.

The house has the numbers 862 over the front door. I wonder if it was based on a real house.

My Sweetie included the tractor with the house. I guess he knew that the doll family wouldn't want to cut that big lawn with a push mower.

This picture shows the house from the kitchen side with the roof on. The first picture of this blog is from the family room side with the roof off.

I had a lot of fun deciding how to furnish this house. That is coming up in my next blog.

Hugs,

Susan