If you have been following my other blog,
http://dollyfever.blogspot.com/ you will know of our efforts to get this doll/birdhouse:
While we were waiting to get it, I found another house for the Graysons and decided this one would be perfect for a new Wayfarers Inn. It looks like a country farmhouse and because the windows are so big, the Wayfarers are a better size for it. So a few days ago, my Husband-Like Person and a friend went and got it. He said Johnie grabbed the $20 bill, scurried inside his house, saying "Good luck getting it out" as he slammed the door. You can't see in this picture but it was mounted on a pole sunk into concrete in the ground. HLP and his friend ended up sawing the pole off and lugging the house to Auntie Berman's yard.
So today I got the shop vac and cleaned it out.
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| Downstairs |
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| Upstairs - Before |
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| Upstairs - After |
The base and the floors were made of some kind of pressboard which was rotting away, so I easily removed that. The house itself is of some sort of sturdier, yet lightweight wood. It has real shingles on it, cut down from big shingles. Because I had never seen the far left side, I was pleased to find a fake chimney.
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| Now we know where the fireplace goes |
It has cunning little rafters upstairs.
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| That long stick isn't part of the rafters. I'm not sure where it goes. |
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| Cassie waves from the downstairs window. |
Cassie is the only Wayfarer who has seen the house so far. She was handy so I grabbed her. She can't wait to tell the others.
Now, all we have to do is hose it down, sand it down, repaint it, rebuild the upper dormer window, put in two new floors . . . I see a lot of sanding in my future. We were going to take the back off but now I'm not so sure. The windows are big enough to reach into, so maybe we'll just put the furnishings in through them. We'll get it all fixed up before we decide.
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| The back of the house. |
Meanwhile, I gave all my Costumed dolls to Mrs. Smith. She likes them in costume and gets upset when I remove their staples and redress them. These girls were all the newer 60s dolls and I hadn't bonded with them and things were getting crowded, so I didn't mind giving them to her. Then I found two more dolls at work:
The Mexican one is rather dreadful. Her arms are vinyl and her face and legs are painted a very unnatural pink and a large bit of paint has peeled off her nose. Her right arm has come out of its socket but I would have to take off her clothes to fix it. I'm guessing the rest of her body is some kind of plastic but it feels very brittle. Her feet are glued onto a small board.
The girl on the right is one of the older hard plastic dolls. Her hair is amazingly nice--no bald spots! I am going to destaplize her and make her new clothes. She will fit right in at Wayfarers Inn.
