:: dollshouse ::

When I came across Megan's amazing dollshouse renovation for her girls last year I was instantly inspired. Dollshouses can provide so many wonderful memories for little girls! I still remember mine, using a borrowed house from my cousin and adding in boxes, stools and chairs to make multi-levelled mansion for my collection of barbies. Seeing Megan's house also brought back dreams from long-ago: to renovate a dollshouse for my future children. Back then I wanted to be an architect or interior designer, and sketched many a floor-plan of my dream houses (including collecting pictures and catalogues from Home magazines and Homestores!). 

So, with this creative re-inspiration fresh on my mind, I set out looking on local online classifieds to see if I could find a dollshouse that was begging to be 'done up.' I knew I had plenty of time (years even!) on my side, as our girls had just turned one!

I actually found one straight away, a Lundby model for a wonderful price. The previous owner, not much younger than Eti and I, had many wonderful memories playing with it as a child but was ready to let it go to another. I convinced Eti that it would be a "great" future gift for the girls (he was a little reluctant, but eventually swayed by my enthusiasm!) and it soon became ours.

Well, earlier this year, we made the decision to move to New Zealand at the end of this year. We're also going to move beforehand, in a month, to live in a chalet beside Eti's parents until we make the big move. So lately we've been going through cupboards filled with stuff, sorting out what we want/need and what we don't. We plan to take as little as possible, avoiding the huge costs of moving internationally, so trying to whittle down what is important to us (really hard!). 

The dollshouse has been playing on the back of my mind. I know it's not necessary and we could probably find another one in a year or so in NZ. I was re-inspired recently when I saw this dollshouse renovation...and consequently felt a new pang of not wanting to let this one go. It has potential!!!

This morning I convinced myself that I would advertise it for sale, at a higher price than what we bought it for. If it sold, it would go, if it didn't...we'd figure out how to bring it with us. I found the bag of furniture and started setting it up in the house to take some photos for the advertisement. I had barely set up one room when I thought "I don't want to sell this!" and wondered if it might just fit into a couple of suitcases, surrounded by clothes :o) 

So it's sitting upstairs in our room, all set up...maybe it might make the journey with us afterall. It's just a dollshouse, but my interior decorating wheels are spinning overtime, and the thought of the memories that will be created...I mean, it even has electrical points in the walls for lights! Watch this space...