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My Quandary

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Quick post. We’ve spent most of the morning measuring, talking, debating…about this:

I went to look for one more putz house at the Clinton Shops (where we were earlier this week) and when I walked in the door and saw Sydney’s booth (Fox Run Antiques) I saw this.

I was stunned and had to catch my breath. I then proceeded to spend over an hour there, taking pictures, texting my sister, talking to two of the guys who work there – basically trying to figure out if I could swing this in our small house. It’s big – 23 inches wide and 31″ long. It’s handmade. The sides come off in sections in order to see the rooms. Part of the roof lifts off. The front and back are permanent. I’m not even sure if it’s to scale – probably not.

But my heavens, look at it! I’ll never see anything like it again. Don thinks it’s folk art, and I agree. He’d like to display it permanently – as a piece of folk art – on the kitchen table. Remember, my first dollhouse sat on that table for months while I worked on it. There are a few other places we would stash it; my work table upstairs, a cabinet in the bedroom. But Don thinks it should be downstairs where we can see it.

He wants to buy it for me for Christmas.

We’re going to go to the shop so he can see it and so I can stick a piece of furniture in it to determine the scale. It might need smaller furniture. I have no idea.

So that’s where we are. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to that shop yesterday!

I’m in a quandary.

Happy Saturday.

 

Comments

  3. My goodness! That is a beauty. You can make your own furniture to fit. The gift that you can enjoy while you are decorating it and when you decide to change it in the future. I am sure the residents of the other houses will share until you get if finished.

    • We talked it out this morning, thinking about where we’d put it, measuring, etc. Then we went to the shop and Don fell in love with it. It’s here! Thanks, Lisa.

  6. Sounds to me like your are dangerously close to the “I can’t live without it” stage . It is fantastic and would be quite an addition to your home.

    • We got it this morning and it’s installed in a place of honor on the kitchen table. It looks so cool! Thanks, Anne

  8. That dollhouse! Oh my heart! My friend had a very large dollhouse. All she put in it were twinkle lights that came on at night. Just looked like someone was home in a rather dark room! It was stunning. Have fun…..

  10. I know I would regret not getting it, so I say get it and work out the details later. Merry Christmas to you!

    • We worked out the details this morning, as best we could, and we brought it home this afternoon. Thank you, Dori!

  11. I think it will be a beautiful Christmas gift from Don. Please get it. I like Don’s idea
    of displaying the house as Folk Art.

    P.S. My home is a bit smaller than yours, 896 square feet.

  12. It is almost too perfect Claudia. I think it’s a beautiful piece of folk art…Don is right. You can work out the details later on where to put it. (It’s not really much of a quandary, is it?) After all, you know you must have it! ;)

    • We worked it out, went to the shop so I could look at it again and put a piece of dollhouse furniture inside to see if it worked. It does. Don fell in love with it, I fell even more in love with it, and now it’s home. Thank you, Donna!

  13. It’s kinda late now, East Coast time that is. So, you bought it, right? Or Don bought it? Either way, you’re swooning over it in your house, right? How could you NOT buy this?

    • Don bought it. We love it. It’s on the kitchen table as I type this, and it’s going to live there. It’s FABULOUS!

  14. (01) it’s a beautiful dollhouse that truly is folk art.
    (02) you’ll find just the right spot for it and it will look great, be a reminder of happiness and love.
    (03) you love it.
    (04) the man you love and who loves you wants to buy it as a gift for you.

    i hope you’ve brought it home by now. :)

    kathy in iowa

  15. Hi,Claudia! Normally ,if I leave a comment , I do not read other comments first. Glad I did because I know that this sweet piece of folk art is now yours . As with Stella,she belongs in your cottage. So happy that you and Don believe in “carpe diem”. xo

  17. It’s so perfectly decorative and fits exact to your colour-line, Claudia. You don’t have to do with it anything, it is perfect as it is.
    To be honest I tried to enlarge the price-tag, when I saw the picture in the antique-shop. No, no, don’t tell me, I’m just silly curious.
    It’s so damn right you got it, I will enjoy the further pictures of it.
    Helga

    • We got 10% off and it was a good deal for this handmade beauty. Believe me, if it was in a NYC shop or an antique fair it would have been 5 times as much! Thank you, Helga.

      • I admit, I got a magnifying glass and looked at that tag, too (because I was going to weigh in on the decision!). It’s a steal! (Remember, ‘everything’ in SoCalif is more expensive than a lot of other places; it’s why on so many “worse places to live’, they’ll list Calif at the top because it’s just the general cost of living here as opposed to other states. L.A. or Santa Barbara or La Jolla or even SanFran would be like NYC. So, yes, I looked at that tag and cheered!) It was so meant for you to walk in and see this house, Claudia. I shoulda read all the comments before I left my own further in the thread because I see you DID buy it. Hooray! This is going to be SO much fun. Why-oh-why, when I go in an antique store or Goodwill, do I never see these kinds of things for sale? I just never hit it right!

  18. Wow!! That’s amazingly Claudia! Space is at a premium but it would be hard to pass that up. As you may remember, I had to give up my aunt’s piano due to space logistics and it was pretty heartbreaking. I sure hope you can work this out!! Here’s to a Christmas miracle. XO

  19. “and now it’s home”….. perfect!!!!

    Can’t wait to see pics. Glad the furniture fit, too!!

  20. If I gave up my kitchen table for a dollhouse-oh my! I have to cook every day and my kitchen is so tiny. My husband of 50 years would kick me to the curb. As a small child, I used to dream of a dollhouse like that. Your Don is fantastic and so thoughtful. It is a blessing that he indulges your “quandaries.” May you both enjoy your new home and have a Merry Christmas.

    • Our kitchen has very little counter space and my husband cooks every day. But we usually eat our dinner on trays in the den. And there’s enough room on the table to eat breakfast or lunch. Don is pretty cool, I have to say, and he’s the one who suggested the table. Thanks, Nancy.

  21. I told my friend about your lovely gift. How many dollhouses do you own now? We would love for you to indulge our Christmas fantasy-A Dollhouse Holiday home tour. Thank you.

    • I now own 6 dollhouses. And one in a kit that I’ve yet to finish. One of my dollhouses is really Don’s, as it was a present for him.
      Thanks, Nancy. I have shown some pictures of the dollhouses decorated for Christmas. Did you see them?

      • I want to see the Target loft again. Because I bought it too and have never done anything with it yet. But I really like it! I flip back & forth between mid-century modern or vintage 50s, to Victorian, etc. My Christmas village is largely Victorian.

        • I haven’t done anything to the loft and may not. In fact, I might donate it. Right now it’s in a corner of my bedroom.

          • Well, shucks. But the new folk-art house is ‘out of the box’ and is begging for you to furnish it now! Nothing can compare to it, although I love all your houses and Caroline’s is of course a first love; it’s so complete and perfect.

            • I take this pretty seriously in that it’s a piece of folk art handmade by someone. Just like the white house I found last year, I want to protect its integrity but still make it my own, and that takes some careful planning. I cleaned a lot of the inside today, it’s really dirty. I’ll do some more tomorrow. While doing that, I’ve begun to think of this maker’s legacy and how to incorporate it into my ideas.

  24. I think I almost just cried a little when I saw this doll house; as I write, I do have shiver bumps on my arms. I kept saying to myself, “OMG, it has a side porch; OMG, look at that round window.” The windows are INCREDIBLE. And that certain sections lift off so you can work on it? I AM EXCITED FOR YOU; THIS IS YOUR HOUSE, CLAUDIA; ACCEPT THE CHRISTMAS GIFT. I am newer to doll houses than you, but I’ve never seen a house like this either. What a fabulous find! You cannot pass this up. I guess I’m emotional today in general but, again, I’ve got little tears in my eyes right now! Maybe this is one house you won’t have exactly to scale but, personally, I think that’s okay. I have a small artificial Xmas tree which I’ve had since my first apartment when I was about 21 years old when I couldn’t afford much of anything, and it has every hodgepodge of ornament, nothing matches, yet the tree is more dear to me with its decorations than any tree I’ll ever have. It’s a misfit; and it’s wonderful. You can do a lot of things with this house; it will use all your creativity. For instance, when you decorate it indeed for Christmas, if you have a wee doll house tree which isn’t quite to scale, maybe the doll house inhabitants use it instead for a tabletop tree; that sort of thing. You are putting me in doll house Heaven again with your houses, Claudia. This has to be a loving project for you, all the houses, in 2020, pretty please! You’re so good at it!

    • Thank you, Vicki. It’s very funky and definitely a piece of folk art. But I think I can make it work on some level. Then there’s the modern dollhouse. And the rescued from the dump dollhouse! So much to do! xoxo

  26. No quandary! You have a Christmas Santa in Don, just waiting to give you the extra-perfect extra holiday gift! You say “Yes, thank you! I would love it very much and love you even more!” and then wait to see it Christmas morning!

    It’s a stunner!

  27. It’s a lucky house, that it found you.

    “There ARE no accidents.” (I think that’s attributed to Deepak Chopra of whom I know little; I’ve just heard that quote often. I’d thought it was Freud, though.)

    Reminds me of a time we found a kitten in the plants around the house when we lived in a new subdivision. People were too frequently dumping dogs and cats, I guess with the thought that with all the new homeowners moving in, somebody would take the animals. We scooped up the kitty and immediately got him to the vet. Another veterinarian happened to be visiting on a rotation (a specialty vet) and basically said, “Give me that baby; I’ll take him.” Luckiest cat but he deserved it, poor little guy; he’d been living on cockroaches, or so they told us later. Just like your new doll house, a serendipitous, beautiful adoption.

    • I don’t know how my comment got separated from the other thread when we were ‘talking’ and I know it’s time to move on to new posts. But I was really struck by what you said: “I take this pretty seriously in that it’s a piece of folk art handmade by someone…I want to protect its integrity…I’ve begun to think of this maker’s legacy and how to incorporate it into my ideas.” It does indeed I’m sure take a lot of research and thought; because you care. I try to imagine what this would mean to the person who made it, if only they could know it’s ended up in your loving hands. If it’s as old as you’re calculating…and, wow, even maybe 1940s…are all the people dead now? It reminds me of the movie “Sideways” when the female character is talking about a bottle of wine (the life of a bottle of wine), thinking of what the people were doing when they made it all the years before, and did it rain. You can see the time and love someone put it into the doll house. Who was the little girl whose house it was modeled after? It makes you wonder, too, why did it get moved along; how is it that it was lost? What is its story? But now it has a new story.

      • For example: Should I paint the interior walls? They’re a mustard color. I’m not sure. Should I paint the floors? I’ve already remobed the curtains because they were so brittle, they fell apart.

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