Sometimes I do this. I play with my new purchases, placing them in some unfinished project. This is partly because I need to shrug off my inertia and get back to work on the current rescue. It’s also because my favorite part of any dollhouse project is decorating the rooms.

But I have a LOT to do on this house before it reaches that stage and that is my least favorite part of the process. If it was all decorating, I’d be happily immersed in that as we speak. Although, to be honest, decorating a dollhouse – if you want to do it with style, and I do – can be pricey. I can repurpose things, and will, but there are a few pieces that will require saving my pennies. I don’t dare think about all the money that went into my first dollhouse over the course of the 6 years I worked on it. But that’s the thing, if you take your time, it’s like collecting something. Every so often, you buy a piece. But you don’t buy a piece every day or even every week. I did the same thing with Don’s mini studio. It took a few years, including the actual building of it from a kit, and I bought the furnishings over time. It was also delayed at times by the death of my father and Scout; I just didn’t have the heart to work on it.

As you know, I’m very strict about scale. Even after all of the painstaking work I did on Hummingbird Cottage, there are a few pieces that aren’t quite to scale and I’ll most likely replace them in time. I know that other dollhouse lovers don’t care about that as much, and that’s fine, but I’m so visual that it really bothers me. I can’t help it.

I also don’t like what I call ‘clunky’ pieces. I guess that means too boxy, too unrealistic, too child-like, not defined enough. My dollhouses are adult dollhouses and since I don’t have grandchildren, I can get away with that!

Here, I’m testing out my other new rug purchase in the modern dollhouse. I sort of like it there.

Anyway, it’s all doable if I take my time. Building materials first, along with paint and shingles, and in the case of the rescue house, some sort of stone exterior that I will have to do by hand. There are several pieces of trim that are missing and I’ll have to replace them with parts of the kit that Barbara sent me. Then inside: floors, walls – wallpaper or paint or stucco? – trim, baseboards and after all of that is done, decorating. Rehabbing a dollhouse is much more complicated because you spend a lot of time trying to undo someone else’s choices and/or errors. I had to do a lot of that with Hummingbird Cottage and I expect I will have to do a fair amount of it with this project. I have already spent hours and hours melting old glue and removing it.

I have a picture in my head of how I want it to look, both outside and inside. We’ll see how that works out. The one thing I do know is that whatever picture I have in my mind at present will evolve as I start working on it once again.

As for the modern dollhouse, it’s just white walls and floors right now and I’m still not sure what, if anything, I will change. I’m thinking of adding a modern fireplace to one of the walls. But that’s all I’ve got at the moment.

Fall is here, winter is coming, and I’m ready to dig in.

Happy Monday.