Traveling, Moving, and THREE More Dollhouses

What a crazy couple of weeks I've had!

First, we moved the kiddo to a new apartment in College Station. The really neat thing about this complex is that all of the apartments are stand-alone houses, and each house comes with parking spaces for each of the residents. Score! She no longer has to deal with downstairs neighbors, their marijuana smoke seeping into her place, or parking a block away.

Baby is happy. Momma is happy.


Here's a snapshot of her super-cute bed, complete with tapestry hanging above. Larry found the nightstand on Craigslist, and spent a few weeks sanding it down, and then painting it with homemade chalk paint. We splurged on some Anthropologie knobs to finish it off, and it really looks great.

Once we got her settled into her new place, we headed over to the Austin area to visit Larry's parents. We had a nice time visiting with them, but it was a little bittersweet. They are late 80s, and have decided to pack up and get rid of things, and then move into Larry's sister's house.

Which brings me to house addition #9.

Back in the 80s, Sara bought a Dura-Craft FH500 kit. It's the farmhouse version that was released about the same time as Whitebrush Manor's kit. Harrison tried putting it together, but just wasn't into it. As a result, he'd glued a few pieces together wrong, got frustrated, and boxed the whole thing back up and stuck it in the storage shed.

I spent a few days undoing what he'd done, and sanding pieces with extra adhesive so they'd fit smoothly back together again. I asked Sara what she thought about me taking it home to work on and bring it back, and she liked the idea. Only thing was, she told me to take it home, build it, and keep it.

This made me so sad! She's had the kit for +/- 30 years, and now, because of their circumstances, will never be able to "play" with it.

As much as I wanted to have Whitebrush Manor finished this year, I've decided to put it on hold. I'm going to build her farmhouse and will hopefully have it finished enough to be able to take it down on our next trip to Austin so she can finally see it put together.

Here's what we have so far.

Lots and lots of little bitty pieces.

I asked Sara what color she'd thought about painting it, and she told me a funny wives' tale. Apparently, back in the day people used to paint country houses because it was supposed to protect the house from being struck by lightening. Ha!

Yellow it is:

This sample is one shade lighter than Autumn's nightstand, and it's very similar in color to Post-It Notes, though prettier. I think I'm going to do a crackle finish like Brae did on the Haunted Heritage. It'll be primed white (with stain-blocker due to mold and water spots that accumulated on the siding over the years of storage) and then will have the crackle finished yellow over that. I think it'll be really neat!

And, speaking of Brae's Haunted Heritage, since I saw what she did with the Heritage kit I had to have one for myself. I found one new in the box on eBay with a reasonable buy it now price, so I snatched it up.

It officially makes dollhouse #10! When will the madness end??!

I don't want to copy her ideas and the house hasn't started speaking to me yet, so I don't know what it will wind up being.

That's okay, though. I certainly have enough to keep me busy in the meantime, because while I was typing this post I realized I never introduced you to kit #8. Ahem.

Hello, my name is Cheverly... and I  may have a *slight* dollhouse addiction. Even I am beginning to realize how ridiculous this is becoming.

BUT, I just couldn't pass it up! I found it on Craigslist (I have since banned myself from trolling either Craigslist or eBay--seriously), and have always loved this kit. The mansard roof is awesome, I have a soft spot for Dura-Craft houses anyway, and I love New Orleans. This house positively screams Garden District, and so it will be my Louisiana inspired build.

Err... eventually.