Meet the Newest Members of My Growing Family

Happy new year! I hope you all had a great holiday season. Ours was lots of fun, but I think we were

all ready for school to start again today, kids included! Well, as I was hoping, I got some extra-special gifts for Christmas this year, and I thought you'd like to see!

 

 First I will introduce you to the sweet little Keystone house above. Several months ago, I saw this dollhouse on craigslist close to my mother's house (in N. Carolina)  for $40.  I let my mother know about it, and told her it would be a great Christmas present for me (hint, hint!). It has been in the back of my mind since then, and as you can see, she took the hint!

 

 It is in pretty decent condition. As you can tell, the door is in need of some work and the roof is a little warped, but those are minor details.

 

I was excited to see that this house has a built in fireplace...

 

…and kitchen cabinets. It is wired for lighting, and my husband thinks he may be able to make it workable again.  Overall, it's a really cute house, and I'm excited to start decorating!

 

 

As if the first house weren't enough, I was also lucky enough to receive this nice one made by Rich.  This one I actually knew about beforehand.  I saw it in an estate sale listing near my mother's house, and I asked her to check it out. It was only $15 (!!), so I told her to snatch it up!  She saved it until Christmas, so I was lucky enough to get them both on the same day!

 

 It's got a real simple interior, which is in good shape.

 

My favorite feature is the lift-up roof.  I'm not sure if this was factory, or an adjustment made by the previous owner, but it's very handy to have access from the front.  Since these photos, I've fabricated new acetate windows to fill in the empty holes.  Overall, another really cute house to add to my collection!

 

 

 And what a collection it's becoming! I did some rearranging, and was able to fit the two new houses into my shelf space perfectly! 

 

 Every time I get a new dollhouse, I think there is no room for any more.  But somehow, I always manage to be able to squeeze more in!

 

 Here's the view with all of the fronts facing out.  So much prettier this way, but hard to decorate!

 

As you can see, it was a very nice Christmas for me.   Thank goodness my mother is usually willing to corroborate with me to find these dollhouses – my chances are doubled when I have two geographic locations within which to search!

 

Now it's time to start decorating the insides – eBay, here I come!