A New Car

Everyone is thrilled with the new car that was given to Wayfarers Inn.

The car is a Jim Beam Whiskey bottle kindly donated by my HLP (minus the whiskey). Behind the rear wheel you can see the cork, which doesn't stay in.

Mr. Philadelphia tells one of the unnamed dolls why he doesn't think women should drive.

Mr. Philadelphia is one of the few dolls who could drive (because his legs bend), if the doors would open, which they don't, and if they did all the whiskey would spill out, if there was any whiskey in it, which there isn't.

Another of the unnamed girls admires the car.

Since I had no idea how many dolls live at Wayfarers Inn, I decided to take a group picture and count them.

I think there are 30, but I kept losing count and I didn't count the two little girls.

Front center are Mary Rose, Goldie, and Geoffrey, who started it all.

Goldie, Geoffrey, Juliana, Gloriana, and Mary Rose at home in the library.

Juliana and Gloriana are wearing dresses taken from Madame Alexander's Happy Meal dolls. Now that I know they fit, we will be on the lookout for more of them. I just wish we could figure out how to get the hats/headpieces off those dolls. They are very firmly affixed to the doll heads.

Progress - I think

They say you have to break eggs to make an omelet, so I started tearing down the new Wayfarers Inn.

The shingled roof was the easiest to remove. It was really rotting away. So was the base, which came off easily.

My tools.

The back was the hardest. It didn't want to come off. I removed the rafters, which can be reused.

Gutted

The two floors lifted out easily and will be used as patterns for the new floors.

It doesn't look like much is left, but the front and two sides are the main parts of the house. HLP will cut new floors, including a new base. The inside will be sanded and painted. We'll figure out how to put the rafters back on. The shingles are in very bad repair and will have to be replaced. The house is currently stored under my porch.

Meanwhile, back at the old Wayfarers Inn, they have some new treasures.

"If only we could sit down, Geoffrey."

We found this lovely little rustic chair at one of the thrift stores.

"At last! A real toilet!" says Bonnie.

Another find was this toilet. The bathroom is almost complete.

What was originally intended to be a bedroom has ended up as a lumber room. There is a desk/cupboard that doesn't really fit anywhere else, a dressmaker form that bears no resemblance to any of these dolls' bodies, a metal thing that looks like it could be a gong, a pirate's chest, and another Avon clock. The clock was to have gone in the Grayson's new house but it's too tall.