Three for the Price of One

I hinted at the end my last post that I did a reckless thing. I jokingly told my daughters that Dad shouldn't leave me alone two days in a row. On Monday, without fail, he drives to the bigger city to have coffee with his friends at a small neighborhood coffee shop. Things didn't end well for him that day. He was parked at the pet store later, sitting in his big F-350 Bronze beauty of a pickup truck when some old guy backed into it, leaving an ugly dent. While he was running down the guy who drove off without even knowing that he had hit something, I was getting my nails done.




When the manicure was finished, I walked across the street to the town hall to pay my water bill and decided to cross back to take a little walk and peer into the windows of the three antique stores to see what was new. Jen's Antique store is the largest of the three, and for antiquers, it is a gem. I didn't think to take out my phone at the moment to take photos of the window display and I couldn't go in because the antique stores are closed on Mondays.

Tuesday I was left alone again while G went back to town to get estimates on fixing his bronze chariot. The store opened at 10 AM, so I drove down, anxious to make sure that my little finds were still there. I didn't have my phone with me the first time I visited, so I took this photo later. The other dollhouse had already been removed from its perch in the window.


There had been two dollhouses in the window. I was breathless. Jen had a tale to tell--of course, that is her job--to tell a good story to make a sale. Apparently she has had these two little houses for some time and decided to put them in the store windows to attract attention. They were created by a little old lady whose daughters are making her get rid of her houses so that they can send her to assisted living and she doesn't want to sell them. Jen encouraged me to make an but make offer because the greedy, mean daughters (my interpretation of Jen's description) would take almost anything. "Oh, by the way, you did see the toy store?" she asked. "And she has 11 more houses in her basement," Jen said as we headed to another room in the store.

She took me to the back of the store and brought another dollhouse down from a tall shelf where she had placed  it to keep children's hand off of it. And I was done.

I made an offer.

And hurried home to get boxes to pack up the contents.

At first, jen could not find the woman's card in her rolodex so that she see if she would accept my offer. Then she found it, and I had to wait for the lady to call her back. She had to check with her daughter to see if she would accept my offer. I was firm and wouldn't pay more--I hoped. . .

She accepted my offer at was half what the three houses were individually priced.

I have finally identified each house by doing a general search for dollhouses, finally finding all three.

The Fairfield, a Greenleaf half scale dollhouse: 1:24.

I do find the layout, especially the top floor is awkward. The fire places on the main and second floor limit the placement of furniture and restrict room design. Were I to build from from scratch, I think that I'd not do 4 fire places.

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At the same time, part of the charm of this little house is that two sides are open for better access.

The Fairfield is really cute house, but because it is half scale, I probably won't build one because I would have to establish a whole new stash of accessories. That's a lot of work-- and $$$

Westville by Greenleaf

This one was hard to track down because all of the ones that I found on Pinterest had a different roof line with a window where the front of the roof comes down to the balcony. There are two windows hiding behind the roof that are easily seen room-side. I suppose the house was redesigned to fix the oddly hidden windows. Still, it is charming little cottage. 

See the hidden windows in the bedroom on the left?

The Storybook by Greenleaf 

This house is a treasure: It's a toy store, filled with all sorts of vintage toys. Like Minnie, Pinochico, and Micky, barely an inch tall, and made of metal. I have searched eBay and Etsy to see if there are any more in the collection, and I didn't find any other little Disney figurines like these three. All of the lights work in this house, making it even more charming.

The little house is stuffed full of wonderful vintage toys, originals, one-of-a-kind, and some that are still in the online catalogs. 

I can only image the fun that the builder had collecting the inventory for the toy store.

The lady had a love for bears. I've been playing with the toy store and looking up toys. Some are still available in the online catalogs.

I have found that I cannot resit playing with the toy story, moving furniture, rearranging toys. It's just fun.

I sorted through the bears that came with the house and dug through my stash to come up with this furniture  and the hobby horse to add to the upstairs, trying to make it look more like a story display.

And who do we have here? Seems that word has spread that there is a toy story in the collection. Miss Strawberry Short Cake must have her eye on something.

And the little Pullip doll must have followed Strawberry upstairs.

The original builder must have been a Denver Broncos Fan.

As I was taking photos of the exterior, I discovered something very odd in the upstairs window.

Halloween Sales will soon start.

Three of the OOAK bears. So cute, but what evil lurks in the shadows?

Looks to be John Snow and Gray Worm. 

 And the really good news, all of these little houses are still available on the Green Leaf website. My guess is that these houses are at least twenty years old. My first house that I purchased from Jen, was made by the same lady. Here's the link to the Dura Craft Franklin Farmhouse. Only the lamp in the front window works. The nice thing is that carpeting in not glued down so perhaps I could find where the break in the electrical is.

 I have left the Franklin as it was when I bought it, admiring the builder's skill. It looks vintage, but these three houses after looking at others on Pinterest look old and tired. The carpeting has faded is and full of dust. I think I will replace the flooring in the toy store, and I'd like to brighten up the wall paper, but I have to think on that. I am thinking, too, that I might add some climbing vine to the exterior to give it some life and color. I really like this little house.

 In the other two houses, the furniture is dusty and the wallpaper faded. I am not sure just what I will do with them. I may even try selling the Fairfield on eBay.Or I may just add them to the village. My oldest daughter enjoys the houses and may even talk me out of one. That would be fine.

 I thought that I'd really enjoy the smaller half size, but after seeing newer ones with brighter paint and more creative design, I may either spruce up this one or sell it and build my own. Or not. I have plenty on my plate:  three unfinished house--the Bellingham needs the attic finished and the roof shingled and the Painted Lady has a ways to go and there is a second San Franciscan to build, plus Lily's house to start and finish. And I know for sure that my next new build will be log cabin.

Now, I need go rescue Grey Worm.